Short Story: An Appointment with the King

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

An Appointment with the King

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works?  Can faith save you?  If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?  So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

James 2:14-17 (NRSV)

God, I hear You calling out to me

In the voices of the least of these

Calling me to reach beyond my world

To the beautiful stranger

From "Beautiful Stranger" by Rebecca St. James

One day, three men were summoned to the king's palace.  Two of them served at the city's holy shrine.  One was a priest who presided over worship, and the other was a teacher who taught the ways of God to the people.  The third man was from a tribe of outcasts who, for the past three centuries, had been denied citizenship in the kingdom and had been forbidden entry to the shrine.  The priest and the teacher kept their distance from him as they walked to the palace.

Upon entering the palace, the three men were escorted to the throne room, where they knelt before the king.  The king instructed the priest and the teacher to stand to his left, and he instructed the third man to stand to his right, by himself.

The king turned to the outcast at his right and said, "I would like to extend an invitation to you to serve on my royal court.  You and your family will live among the nobility, and you will serve as my advisor as I work to reconcile my people and yours."

"I am honored by your invitation, my liege," the man said, "but I do not understand why you have asked me, of all people, to serve on your court."

"I have chosen you, because one day, when I was bleeding to death by the side of a dangerous road, you saved my life," the king replied.

"When did I ever see you bleeding to death?" the man asked.

The king replied, "Not long ago, I set out in disguise to visit a neighboring kingdom.  Just outside the city, a robber attacked me, beat me savagely, and left me there to die.  The man you found at the side of the road that day was I, the king.  It mattered not to you how my people had treated your people.  When you saw me, you stopped; you treated my wounds; and you put me up at a safe place where I could heal.  Because of your acts of kindness, I know that you have the courage and the character to serve as my advisor."

"You two, on the other hand," the king said, turning to the already perplexed men at his left, "have neither courage nor character.  You two, left me there to die."

"Sire," the priest spoke up, "when did we ever see you dying?"

"Do you take me for a fool, priest?" the king asked.  "You were traveling on the same road that day, and, when you saw me, you immediately moved to the other side, pretending that you never noticed me.  You, teacher, did the same when you passed by moments later.  What you did not know was that the man you left dying was I, the king."

The two men fell to the floor and prostrated themselves before the king.  The priest said, "My lord, surely you know the rules of the holy shrine.  If we had come into contact with blood, we would not have been able to return to our duties.  If only we had known that you were the one at the side of the road, we would have sent someone -"

"Silence!" the king interrupted.  "It should not have mattered to you who was at the side of the road.  You, priest, represent our people to God, and you represent God to our people.  And you, teacher, impart the ways of God to our people.  You two should know better than anybody that God regards all people equally, be they peasants or kings, and that God values mercy and kindness over ritual or purity.  The man at my right has shown that he is a better teacher in these matters than either of you.  Had I died, you two would be no less responsible for my death than my attacker.  You will not return to your duties at the shrine this day, for a prison cell awaits you."

"Guards!" the king shouted.  "Escort these two to their new home, and shackle them beside the man who attacked me."

---

As you read the preceding story, something about it probably seemed familiar to you.  It actually contains elements from the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats¹ and the Parable of the Good Samaritan,² with the second chapter of the Epistle of James sprinkled in for good measure.  I recently read the two parables within a few days of each other, and, having heard a very interesting sermon on the latter,³ I considered connections between them.  What if, in the former parable, the Son of Man meant it literally when He said, "Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me"?  What if He was the very same person who was beaten, robbed, and left for dead in the latter parable?

In a 1988 interview with Time magazine, Mother Teresa said, "The dying, the cripple, the mental[ly ill], the unwanted, the unloved - they are Jesus in disguise."⁴  What if we thought of every person as "Jesus in disguise"?  What if we treated even the "least of these" as the greatest of these?


Notes:

1. Matthew 25:31-46
2. Luke 10:25-37
3. Rimes McElveen.  "Lord, Have Mercy."  Travelers Rest United Methodist Church, 07/15/2019.
4. Edward Desmond.  "Candid 1988 Mother Teresa Interview Reveals Her Thoughts on Reason for Her Success."  National Catholic Register, 09/06/2016.

The illustration of the castle is believed to be public domain.

Short Story: Who Is My Neighbor?

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Who Is My Neighbor?

A legal expert stood up to test Jesus.  "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to gain eternal life?"

Jesus replied, "What is written in the Law?  How do you interpret it?"

He responded, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself."

Jesus said to him, "You have answered correctly.  Do this and you will live."

But the legal expert wanted to prove that he was right, so he said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

Luke 10:25-29 (CEB)

You stumbled in and bumped your head
If not for me then you'd be dead
I picked you up and put you back on solid ground

From "Kryptonite" by 3 Doors Down

Many of the teachings of Jesus are so familiar to us that we do not always realize how offensive they were in His cultural context.  This short, fictional story is my humble attempt to make the Parable of the Good Samaritan¹ as offensive to myself as I imagine it was to its original audience.

I apologize for any medical inaccuracies.

---

I had driven downtown just before sunrise.  I had to get to work early that day, and I had promised my pastor that I would drop off some paperwork at our denomination's local office on the way.  I wore a lot of hats at my church.  At one point, I even thought about going into the ministry, but lately I had only been going through the motions.  A lot of things had been weighing on me in the last few years, and my spiritual life just didn't seem to be what it used to be.

I slid a large manila envelope through the mail slot and turned around to head back to my car.  I suddenly realized that, standing before me, was a man in a ski mask.  He deftly pulled out a knife, and, before I could react, he stabbed me in the gut.  In pain and in shock, I fell down and curled up into the fetal position.  The man in the ski mask went through my pockets, taking my wallet, my keys, and my cell phone.  I listened helplessly as he drove off in my car with all my personal effects.

When I finally came to my senses, I tried to get up off the ground, but I was in too much pain.  I noticed that a row of bushes stood between myself and the road, and I realized that nobody would be able to see me where I was.  I looked at my hands, which had been clutching my abdomen, and saw that they were covered with blood.  Nobody was scheduled to be at the office for several hours, so I knew I had to get to a place where somebody could see me.  I used all the strength I had within me to drag myself across the cold rough concrete to the church next door.  By the time I reached the side door, I had no strength left.  All I could do was to hope that somebody saw me there.

What felt like an eternity passed.  "Tony, what happened?!" a man's voice asked.  I looked up, and relief washed over me as I saw Pastor Aaron.  Pastor Aaron was the campus minister who led the religious group I attended when I was in college.  He influenced me greatly in my life: in fact, he was one of the reasons I once considered going into the ministry.

Unable to get any words out, I uttered a faint groan.

"That's tough," he replied.  "I have to get to an important clergy meeting.  I really hope you get the help you need."  He walked through the side door into the church.

I could not believe my ears.  Was his meeting really so important that he had to leave me bleeding beside the church?  Was it so damn important that he couldn't even risk being late by calling an ambulance for me?

Another lifetime passed.  I looked up and saw Rachel, a dear friend from my church.  When I was a child, Rachel taught me in Sunday school, and we have been close ever since.  "Oh my goodness!" she said.  "What happened?!"

I mustered up enough strength to barely squeak out, "Help me!"

"I'm so sorry," she replied.  "I have to get ready for my ladies' Bible study group - I'm leading today.  I hope everything turns out alright."  Rachel walked into the church, doing nothing to help me, just as Pastor Aaron had done.

I remembered the Sunday morning decades ago when Rachel taught me about Jesus' Parable of the Good Samaritan.  I remembered how she taught me that Christians go out of their way to help people in need.  The irony of it all wasn't lost on me: now I was the man dying on the side of the road, and she was one of the religious leaders who did nothing to help him.  If this is the work of the Church, I thought to myself, then I'm done with it all.  Of course, at the rate things were going, I would probably never have another chance to set foot inside a church.

I began to wonder if I could really trust my senses.  If I had less blood to carry oxygen to my brain, it only made sense that I might be hallucinating.  Surely nobody would just leave me here to die, I thought.  When I looked up again, I had no doubt that I was hallucinating, for I thought I saw Dara.  Dara had once been a pastor, but now there was no way she would ever show her face at a church.

At one time, I looked up to Dara.  When I met her several years ago, I thought I had met a kindred spirit.  She was very supportive of me as I was exploring a future in the ministry.  She even let me speak at her church a few times.  Everything changed between us a few years later, when she showed her true colors.  I came to the realization that she was nothing but a lying, manipulative hypocrite.  She got into legal trouble; she ended up resigning from the pastorate; and her marriage fell apart.  The last time I saw her, I told her in explicit detail what I thought of her.  I said things to her I didn't think I would ever say to another human being, but I was just so angry with her.

Now, in some sense, Dara was there to look down her nose at me before I died.  I looked up again and saw that she was gone.  I closed my eyes and waited to see what lies beyond this earthly existence.  Suddenly I felt myself being moved.  I noticed the sensation of warm denim against my cheek, and I realized that I was now lying on someone's lap.  I felt a hand caress my head.  "I just called 911," a voice above me said.  "An ambulance is on the way.  Just hang on!"  The voice definitely belonged to Dara, but she sounded as if she was far away.


The next thing I remembered is waking beneath bright florescent lights.  I felt tubes blowing air into my nostrils.  As my eyes began to focus, I realized that I was in an intensive care unit of a hospital.  I looked to my side saw more tubes attached to my arm.  I looked over the rail of my hospital bed and saw Dara staring back at me.  She looked tired and pale.  I noticed a large bandage wrapped around her arm at the elbow.

Seeing that I was awake and stable, Dara went home.  A nurse then came in and told me what a good friend I had in her.  He told me that not only had Dara ridden to the hospital with me and stayed with me until I awoke, she had given me two units of blood because I was in desperate need of a transfusion.

I later learned that I really was hallucinating after I was stabbed.  After I was discharged from the hospital, I confronted both Pastor Aaron and Rachel and asked them why they would not help me.  It turns out that neither of them were anywhere near the downtown church that day.  In fact, Pastor Aaron was out of town that week, attending a conference.  What wasn't a hallucination was Dara.  If she had not been passing by the church that day, I would surely be a goner.

I saw Christ that day, not in the people in whom I would normally expect to see Him, but in the person in whom I least wanted to see Him.  This "Good Samaritan," whose blood now flows within my veins, was there for me in my time of need, even after I had been so unkind to her in the past.  At one time, I never wanted to see her again, but now I owe my life to her.  We do not get to choose the people with whom we cross paths in this life, and it is not up to us - Thanks be to God! - to decide who belongs in the vast Kingdom of God and who does not.


Notes:

1. For the Parable of the Prodigal Son, see Luke 10:30-37.  See also James 2:14-17.

The photograph of the roadside curb was taken by Michelle Arseneault, and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.