The Fellow, The Man, and Fellow Man
By Frank "Buzz" Trexler
for The Knoxville (TN) Journal, Oct. 3, 1988
While they didn’t exactly walk by him, the people protesting "The Last
Temptation of Christ" at the old Westown Theater were oblivious to the man standing
50 yards away on Kingston Pike.
But one fellow, who was on his way to buy a birthday present, noticed him. As a
Christian, he was struck both by the crowd and the sign carried by the man: It was a
variation of the many "Will work for food" signs he had seen in the past.
At an intersection, the man turned in the opposite direction and drove on to complete his
errand. He couldn’t get his mind off of the hungry man while in the store. It made him
uncomfortable.
Upon leaving, the fellow thought, "I could go home the back way and avoid the
man" -- but he couldn’t. Something kept pulling him back to the man, and the
crowd.
He drove to the mall parking lot, past the protesters and past the point adjacent to
the hungry man.
The fellow walked back toward where the man stood. Closer now, he saw the man had a few
days’ growth of beard and two or three small bags beside him.
A red sports car had pulled up and the driver, a woman, was talking to the man. She
left as the fellow approached and another car drove up. This driver, also a woman, handed
the man a grocery bag with fruit and other foodstuffs.
The fellow walked over to the man and learned he was from Nashville, on his way to North
Carolina where he hoped to "just make a new start." He, like many others, had
slept under an interstate bridge the night before. The man said he was 34 years old.
"What I really need right now is a place to clean up," the man said, seeming
somewhat embarrassed by his appearance.
The fellow asked, "What about one of the missions?"
The man said while the missions are run by "good people," sometimes ruffians
are encountered and on one occasion he even had his shoes stolen.
The fellow said he was hesitant to take the man home, having had a trying situation
develop when he attempted to help out a stranger a couple of years before. Neither could
he really afford to get the man a motel room for the night. Still, he felt there must be
something he could do. Then, an idea came to him and the fellow looked back toward the
group of protesting Christians.
The fellow told the man he would talk to his wife about helping the man out and left,
walking toward the theater. The fellow thought if he and some of the protesters pooled
some money, maybe enough could be raised to get the man a room for the night.
Near the theater, the fellow spoke to a reporter he knew and made his way to the
preacher whose picture had run in the newspaper a day or two before. No one other than the
reporter knew the fellow, but surely this preacher could help in taking up a collection.
"I’m here to preach," the preacher said in rejecting the fellow’s
idea.
He tried to persuade the preacher that it would be a "good witness" to others
that Christians did more than protest against moral outrages, but the preacher stood his
ground. He was there to preach.
The fellow explained that he, too, despised the movie and had even signed a petition,
distributed petitions and made phone calls. "You know, people say we do too much of
this and not enough of this," the fellow said, pointing first to the crowd of
protesters then to the hungry man. "I agree with you about the movie, but why
can’t we do both?"
"I understand your feeling, but I’m sorry. I’m here to preach," the
preacher said.
The fellow left, discouraged. All of the ridicule he encountered at work about Christians
having their priorities messed up was right before him, in the flesh.
The fellow walked back to where the man stood. The man looked at the fellow.
"Come on," the fellow said, going down to the street and picking up the
man’s bags.
""Where’re we going?"
"I’m going to get you a room," the fellow said.
While they walked, the fellow said, "Now, I’m not going to preach at you, but
I feel I’ve earned the right to say something. You know, you don’t have to live
this way ..." The fellow went on to describe how he himself overcame about 15 years
of drug and alcohol abuse by accepting Jesus Christ as his Savior.
Now, if this account of the fellow and the man sounds familiar, it could be you’ve
read a similar story -- it’s known as The Parable of the Good Samaritan
(Luke 10:25-37).
The fellow has to wonder if the preacher read it, too.
The Rev. Frank "Buzz" Trexler is managing editor at The
Daily Times and pastor of Green Meadow United Methodist Church,
wwwthemeadow.org. You can e-mail him at PastorBuzz@nxs.net.
|
