The Parable of a Hero and a Zero
(A new twist on an old story)
Joshua and Jacob were twin brothers. Identical to such an extreme their own parents and spouses had trouble telling them apart. Native to Canada they loathed the deep freeze of the northern winters with its numbing cold and relentless winds. One winter they both had enough and decided to go down to Mexico for a long soak in the sun. They fell in love with the place. Between the warm temps and the beautiful sunny beaches they couldn’t bear the thought of going back to that horrible deep freeze. They both decided to find jobs there to stay as long as they could. Joshua was not afraid to work. He quickly found employment with a local carpenter crew. Jacob on the other hand was a bit prone to looking for an easier gig even if it might be a little on the shady side. The job he fell into, shady was an understatement. He got hooked up with a drug cartel as a night watchman in a warehouse where large quantities of drugs were stored. Although he knew this job wasn’t condoned by either God or man, the money was good and the work was too easy. Being alone at times with vast amounts of narcotics his frequent sampling of the merchandise soon led to an insatiable habit. He began to love the high more than anything. His affection for the drugs became more and more intense until it was almost a form of worship. One day he received a call from his parents to see how he was doing. After he hung up he thought about how upset they would be if they knew what he was into. “Oh well,” he said, “What they don’t know won’t hurt them.” Soon there was talk of the warehouse location being moved to another city many miles away. This worried Jacob. He was afraid he might lose his job and worse, his endless supply. He knew that he had better take a good supply home with him before it slipped through his fingers. He wanted it bad. The next day was his day off. Another employee who also had a habit of skimming the merchandise would be working. Jacob knew he could entice this fellow into consuming enough to put him in a stupor, and then he could walk out with as much as he wanted without anyone suspecting him. He went in the next day while he was supposed to be off and everything went exactly as planned. He had some superior quality stuff he had been saving for a special occasion that closed his friend’s eyes like a trap. Stealing all he could carry was a piece of cake until later that day when his boss and a couple of large thugs showed up at his house. “Jacob,” he said, we know what you’re up to.” Jacob panicked. “Oh, my God”, he thought to himself. He had been having an affair with his boss’s wife and figured he had been found out. “What are you talking about?” he said lying through his teeth. “We had video cameras installed in the warehouse and we saw the load of our property you took from the building,” his boss said. “I’ve been here all day,” Jacob swore, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” They plugged the tape into his TV set and showed him. He was terrified at this point and extremely desperate. “That must be my brother Joshua,” Jacob blurted out, “I’ve been here all day.” “How about if we search your apartment,” his boss said. “Go ahead, you won’t find anything here” Jacob said relieved that it was not there. Suddenly his relief turned to horror as he remembered leaving it hidden in Joshua’s truck that he had borrowed. Sure enough after they had turned Jacob’s house upside down they searched Joshua’s house, then his truck and found what they were looking for. They were mad and quite vicious. They beat Joshua with a bullwhip, spit on him, hit him with a stick and their fists until you could hardly recognize him as a human being. They decided to hang him to finish him off. One of them said, “Lets string him up by his hands, hanging by the neck will be too quick. So that’s what they did. As Joshua was hanging there he put two and two together and figured out what was going on and that the brother he loved had betrayed him. He died a few hours later probably of a broken heart. Later on when Jacob learned what had happened, he realized that he was fully to blame for the death of his brother. He felt terrible about the horrible act he had committed. But this story has two very different possible endings. Just as in every life, we come to forks in the road on our journey and so a great decision was put before Jacob.
Road to the Left
Jacob is afraid to confess that it was him on tape and besides it would be too late to make a difference anyway. They would just kill him too. Keep your mouth shut, don’t make waves, nothing can change the situation, besides that he has a monster of a habit that must be fed. He swears things will be different one of these days, even though it seems his brother died for nothing.
Road to the Right
The death of Joshua utterly shakes the very foundation of Jacobs’s soul to its core. He realizes that an evil desire has snowballed from something seemingly small to something bad, on to worse, until it has finally culminated into the death of one he loved so dearly. He moves out of the country and away from all the evil that has permeated his life. Once back home he takes care of his parents and Joshua’s wife and children. He also lives a life devoted to helping others as he realizes by the death of his brother and the Grace of God he has been spared the fate that his brother suffered undeservedly.
Does this story sound familiar? See anybody in there you recognize? Jacob (the deceiver) would be compared to me. If you read the story carefully you will notice that Jacob broke every single one of the Ten Commandments. I might not have gone quite that far, but the Bible says, “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” James 2:10
The Greek word for Joshua is Jesus. Unlike Batman, Superman, Paul Bunyan or Popeye, He was a living, breathing human being who actually walked the face of the earth. The only difference from us is that His physical father was God Himself. Holy, perfect, absolutely not guilty of breaking any of God’s laws, his death on the cross has pardoned me from my crimes against God and man. He, being brought back to life by the power of God, is my hope for the future. By far my greatest Hero!
Have you been to that fork in the road? If not, which way do you think you will choose? If you have chosen the right path does it appear that way to others? Do people go to Hell for crimes against God and man, or for rejection of the Son of God who is the pardon for mankind? If you do reject this gift, I guess as far as your life is concerned, Jesus Christ died for nothing. Do you really want to face God Almighty one day on those terms? Think about it – but not too long. When the ship is sinking and it’s time to man the lifeboats, indecision becomes decision.
The Hero
The Lord Lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God my Savior.
Psalm 18:46
The Zero
If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing he deceives himself.
Galatians 6:3
The Lord has made His Salvation known and revealed His righteousness to the nations.
Psalm 98:2