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?”
