The Christian who Loved too Little

John Christian raced out of the house, slamming the door behind him. He was going to be late for his prayer meeting.  The bang of the door caught the attention of Brick Rexford who was parked in the neighbour’s driveway. Brick was in the back seat with Maria, the pretty young daughter of John’s neighbour. Brick didn’t even bother disentangling his hands from the young beauty. He was a local bad boy, and there were rumours that he was already pimping a number of local girls.

John remembered when Maria had been a sweet, innocent ten year old girl. He sighed grimly; he certainly didn’t like what seemed to be happening to her now.  His eyes locked briefly with Brick, he scowled angrily at him.  Brick insolently returned his gaze with an air of thinly veiled contempt.

He was worried about Maria, but what could he do about it? He thought that maybe he would share it as a prayer request.

Reaching his destination downtown John parked the car and began walking to the place of prayer.  He was about to walk past the Kettlestone Hotel when he abruptly stopped in amazement.  Workmen were buzzing around the building.  Then John saw the new sign.  No longer, “Kettlestone Hotel”; the new neon red signage boldly announced, “Kettlestone Passion Palace,” Then John Christian remembered:  prostitution was no longer illegal in Canada—some judge, somewhere, had decided that licensed brothels would increase the safety of the sex workers.  From what John could see the place would soon be open.

But John’s inspection of the property was interrupted by the approach of a clean shaven young man sporting hair, so long, that it was resting on his shoulders. His long white robe caught John’s attention too.  This must be one of those new cultists who had come into the city just a short time ago. You could always recognize them by their strange clothing, and unusual haircuts. But for John the far more worrying aspect of this cult was its strange and false views of Jesus. He regarded them as a danger to anybody who was seeking truth.  

The young man with the clipboard came straight to the point. Pointing to the Passion Palace he said, “I hope the sight of that joint makes you as sick as it makes me. I’m hoping that you will help me and my friends put an end to this monstrosity.  We’re worried about the young people in this city. We frankly don’t want any one of them to end up being enslaved in the flesh trade. We think we can stop this.  So, we’re gathering signatures from as many local people as we can, then we plan to present these names to our city government.  Sir, will you please take a stand for the good of this community.  Will you please sign this petition?”

John Christian was momentarily tempted. He certainly didn’t want a brothel in town.  But then he recalled the times he had been told that Christians should not get involved in politics.  Some had said, “Politics is just too dirty.”  Others had  warned, “If we get involved in politics it will just distract us from what we should be doing—winning people to Jesus.”

“I’m sorry,” John said, “I don’t believe I should get involved, and I’m already late for my prayer meeting.”

Just two weeks later John read in the local paper that licensing had been denied for the proposed brothel.  It turned out that members of the cult had turned the tide by collecting thousands of names in their petition drive to shut it down.

The closure turned out well, too, for Maria.   The young beauty was heartbroken when Brick dumped her.  She didn’t know that his true interest was purely financial—his plan was to set her up in the brothel under his control. But that option was lost.  In the end Maria got over him, went on to study medicine and became a doctor.

Reading the newspaper account John felt a twinge of pride that he had not signed the petition—he had escaped the temptation of political involvement. He never knew of course, that Maria had been delivered from a sordid life of prostitution by the action of a few cultists whom he despised.

But on the coming day of judgement John would learn all these facts. And on that day he would also hear Jesus asking him, “Who was the true neighbour to the young woman who fell into the hands of the rapacious pimp?”