Quaint small town restaurant.-- Photo by Judy Beth Morris from Unplash
A Modern Retelling of "The Unforgiving Servant"
Megan Thompson was struggling. She had not paid her student loans in months. Nasty letters coming in, text messages, and phone calls. All want her to pay up. Her credit had more red flags than a bad Tinder date.
But Megan's life was turned upside down in a single phone call.
Her $120,000 student loan — the one she'd been dragging like an anchor since college — had just been forgiven under a new federal program. Gone. Wiped clean. She dropped the phone, screamed, then posted three celebratory selfies with captions like: "Debt-free, baby!!! #blessed #studentloanforgiveness."
You've got to love small towns. By dinner, half of Cedar Falls knew about it.
The next morning, Megan was at Joe's Diner sipping an oat milk latte when she spotted her friend Tiffany at the counter. Tiffany owed her $200 from a girls' trip to Nashville — hotel, gas, and that round of overpriced margaritas. Megan marched over, tapped Tiffany on the shoulder, and announced loud enough for the whole diner to hear:
"So… about that $200. When are you paying me back?"
Tiffany blinked. "Meg, I told you I'd Venmo you Friday. I'm waiting on my paycheck."
Megan snorted. "Friday? You've been saying Friday for three Fridays! If you don't pay me today, I'll drag you to small claims court so fast Judge Judy would blush."
Silence. Then a fry cook muttered, "Didn't she just get six figures forgiven yesterday?"
The entire diner turned.
Mrs. Parker from the hair salon shook her head. "Lord, have mercy, girl. The ink's not dry on your forgiveness, and you're out here acting like the repo man."
Somebody's kid at a booth whispered, "Isn't that being a two-faced phony?"
And then — the worst — a teenager livestreamed the whole thing on TikTok with the caption: "When your debt gets forgiven but you still want that $200 #Overdue." Within hours, Cedar Falls had itself a viral sensation.
By Sunday, Megan's name was being roasted everywhere — in church pews, in the diner, in the local market, and on the Cedar Falls Facebook, even in the high school marching band's group chat. Nobody cared about her hashtags anymore.
The hashtag trending now was not #blessed or #studentloanforgiveness— it was #Overdue #hypocrite.
The sleepy little town of Cedar Falls did something beautiful. They quietly raised, through simple donations, about $2,000 for Tiffany.
Based on Matthew 18:21-35
Synopsis:
In the parable of the unforgiving servant, Jesus tells of a man who has an enormous debt erased — but then refuses to forgive someone who owes him just a little. The point? God's grace toward us is massive, and we're called to extend that same mercy to others. Hypocrisy happens when we gladly accept forgiveness but refuse to pass it on.
Tap to read the actual bible passage:
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