(Based on 2 Corinthians 3:1-18)
There was this priest in Texas. He thought highly of himself, because he believed he had been given authority from God to listen to people's confessions and then tell them what they needed to do in order to receive forgiveness. One day, a teenage boy came to the confessional booth. He had accidentally slipped up, rummaging around his dad's room. He came across a stack of pornographic magazines. He was curious, so he looked and became enthralled by all the photos he was seeing.
Since he had grown up in the church, listening to this priest tell the congregation the things they were allowed and not allowed to do, he knew that something must be done about his grave mistake. So, after a few weeks of mulling around in his head trying to get over the shame of what he had done, he stumbled into the confessional booth.
He said, "Father, I committed a horrible act three weeks ago."
"Keep going, I'm listening."
"I came across some porno mags and decided to take a look," the boy said.
"How long did you look?" the priest asked.
"Long enough to be affected by them. I've been masturbating ever since," the boy replied.
"Okay son. Here's what you need to do. Every morning, get on your knees and say ten Hail Mary's and ten Our Fathers. Once you do this, your sins will be forgiven. If you don't do this, you will be in danger of the fires of hell."
The boy walked away with a moment of hope, followed by an ever-worsening desire to keep masturbating. He couldn't escape the images that had been planted in his mind. For years and years, he couldn't escape the images. Eventually, he took the priest's words to heart, and he created his own hell. He believed what the priest told him, and began living his life in a way that inevitably started looking hellish. In essence, he took the priest's words and learned to condemn himself. He no longer needed to go to the confessional booth because he knew what the priest would tell him. He became his own priest, and using the law he had been given and the knowledge he had of the ten commandments and all the other laws he had heard about from the Bible, he became his own accuser.
The boy turned into a man, and the man was a priest. He had gone to seminary to learn more about how to be a priest, and how to know the law better. He wanted to have a deep understanding of the law, the same laws he had been taught as a child. He wanted to be the one sitting behind the veil inside the confessional booth, just like his priest had been for him.
After years of seminary training and a degree in divinity, he took over as head priest at the same church he had grown up in. One day, he had an appointment meet with a teenage boy. The priest already knew what he was going to say even though he didn't know what the boy would say. The teenage boy sat down, and the priest said, "Hi my son. How can I help you today?"
The teenage boy replied, "I've been watching you. You seem to know what to say before we even give our confessions."
The priest was baffled. How could this teenage boy so lacking in knowledge, know this?
The boy continued, "I want you to know your sins are forgiven. They were forgiven before you were ever born. You have been free to live with a clear conscience, yet you were given a law to follow. That law told you what to do and what not to do. Every time you broke the law, the guilt and shame became deeper and deeper."
The priest listened intently because he was astonished by what the boy was saying. The priest, groping for a handkerchief in the darkness, felt all the years of feeling helpless and shameful ripping his heart apart. He couldn't speak because he was so ravaged by his own blindness. But, he continued listening.
The boy continued, "Father, you have done nothing wrong. You mistakenly bound yourself to a law that you couldn't get away from. You still live under that law, and you don't have to. You are free to live as you once did before you came to this confessional booth so many years ago. The only thing that came from that old set of rules was death and condemnation. Let go of it. Walk away and experience the free life."
The priest was speechless. Here he was, appointed to listen to the confessions of a teenage boy, but instead was being told something he had never heard before about himself - that he was actually a good person, that he was loved by God, and that he no longer had to wear the vestiges of the law that he had been given and had been giving to others.
The boy could sense the priest was crying, so he walked out of the confessional over to the other side of the veil. He opened the door to the priest's side and held out his hand. The priest stumbled to get up and hold the boy's hand, and for the first time since he was a kid, felt as if a whole pile of debris had been swept away from his heart. He felt renewed. He felt as if he would walk out of the building a free man. He couldn't believe it. His heart raced as thoughts of this new life bumbled through his head. He felt like he could do whatever he wanted, because he knew in his heart there was nothing holding him back anymore. He had hope. He no longer felt bound to the words of his childhood priest, and the laws of the scriptures. He walked away from the church that day with a new lease on life, and began sharing with everyone what he had experienced in the confessional booth that day.
He never saw that boy again, but the impact that teenage confessor had on him couldn't be repaid. Because of what that boy told him that day, he walked away a free man, and went on to tell everyone exactly what that boy had told him.
The realization of freedom from rules and regulations and realization that new life was already here began as a mustard seed, but eventually spread to the whole community. People were waking up every day to the reality of a God who had forgiven them long ago, before they were even born. The townspeople started speaking a new language of freedom, forgiveness, and joy, even though every one of them had done at least one thing in their lives that was considered unforgivable and "endangering to the eternal soul."
New life began erupting everywhere this priest went, because he was simply carrying the message the boy had given him. He was simply carrying the message that had set himself free. Something that had once seemed so complex was now simplified to a message that everyone could understand: We have been forgiven by a God who loves us unconditionally! Throw out the rulebook and live!
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