A (Troubling) Parable

by on October 13, 2011

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A Parable
by Lee C. Camp
From his book Who Is My Enemy?

A king went out to conquer, amassing great wealth and power. There came to him a people who asserted that some other was king, whom they called “Lord of Lords.” The king replied: you may freely worship this one you call “lord,” you may freely build your buildings and write your books and seek your converts to this one you call “lord.” But I shall rule the marketplace, and the army, and the public square. He shall be your personal “lord,” while I am your public king. I shall make the laws, and you shall obey them. I shall tell you what enemies to kill, and you shall kill them. I shall give you a marketplace, and you shall seek to maximize your profits and keep all your profits, even at the expense of the poor, or the widow, or the stranger, and thence you shall pay taxes with which we shall wage war against all who threaten your freedom to worship your personal “lord.”

And the people replied: We shall gladly do as you say, O king. Indeed, we shall obey your laws. And we shall seek great profit and keep all for ourselves. And we will kill your enemies, for you, O king, have allowed us to pray to our personal lord in our houses of worship, in the privacy of our closets. Even more, O king, because you have allowed us to worship thus, we will denounce all those who do not exalt you, and we will proclaim that you have granted us the right to worship, and we shall profess that any who do not obey your laws or maximize profit or kill your enemies are no servants of the private Lord of Lords. We will hang your standard in our halls of worship, we will honor those who fight your wars, and we will celebrate those who heedlessly maximize profit. Oh, grant us such liberty as this, O king!

The king was pleased, and his new subjects served him well and were happy and satisfied.

(The artwork is a 13th century fresco of Pope Sylvester I and Emperor Constantine.)

  • Godawngo

    I may need some explaining as to how this is troubling…as a modern day allegory, we can say that the founders of the US allowed freedom of religion, but stated that the government would rule the marketplace, the army and the public square.

    Christ said that we should “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.” It was a clear separation of church and state. Correct me if I am wrong, but Christ never stated that the church should be the political head of state.

  • Drmarlowe

    It’s troubling because of the concept that a man can’t serve two different masters; he’ll eventually come to love one and despise the other.  When a Christian begins to die to the world and become a new being with the spirit that raised the Messiah from the dead now living in them, that person starts living a very different and transformed life.  The new life is no longer private and involves interactions with other members of the Body of Christ.  The question that Jesus asked was “whose image is on that money?” (“Caesar”) “then give it Caesar”.  Well, whose image is on you?

  • Clyde Schremp

    But what happens, and has happened, is that we kill in the name of our king, when our King said to love our enemies, feed them, do not repay evil for evil.  We elevate the desires of our king above those of our King.  We do not take care of the alien, poor, widow, or orphan as our King told us, but say it is their fault; we pass judgement, and hound the king to do it for us.