MILITARY COP

Just before dusk after one long and sultry day, I was called to the home of a local man who was being threatened by his angry neighbors.

When my squad of soldiers and I arrived, instead of charging in and breaking up the impending riot, we stood back for a few minutes and listened to what was happening.

The young man, his pretty wife, and their young son was standing in front of his shop surrounded by several score men and young boys who were yelling and screaming.

"I don't know where your son has learned these filthy lies!" one man screamed, waving a dirty fist in the air, "but, if you don't stop him from spreading them we will report you to the authorities."

"What are you talking about?" the young man answered, "what lies?"

"Your boy told mine that the laws of Moses were incorrect," another man yelled! "He said that an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth as handed down in sacred scripture is false. Instead, if a man slaps us on one cheek that we should turn to him the other as well."

"He told my son that we were all hypocrites because we did charitable deeds in the synagogues," the first man blurted out. "He said we only gave offerings to the poor so we would look good in the eyes of others."

"Yeah!" yelled another man. "Has your son been listening to those crazy idiots who run around in the desert eating honey and locusts, wearing camel hair robes and pretending to be prophets? He told my son that it was OK to hang out with prostitutes, lepers and tax collectors. What kind of liar are you raising?"

The young man glanced at his wife then at the smiling face of his young son. "Have you been telling these things to your friends?" he asked his son. The young boy shook his head in a positive reply.

"We told you," another man blurted. "Your son even said that when we pray, because we use repetitions in our prayers, that we are heathens. If you continue to let your son spread these blasphemous lies you will be brought up before the judges."

"The judges will not be kind to you," an elderly man solemnly stated. "Your son has been talking against them. He said the scribes and Pharisees were hypocrites who were rotten to the core. Whoever is teaching these seditious lies to your son had better be named before the blame falls on you."

"There stands the authorities," a man said, pointing to my squad of soldiers and me. "What say you?" he continued, "should this man and his son be brought before the Pharisees and charged with treason and spreading seditious lies?"

"I am not one to judge," I replied. "Besides, I see nothing wrong in what the boy says. He has simply been telling his friends that it is wrong to fight and hurt one another. I have also seen how most of you pretend to be generous in front of each other but secretly treat people in need as if they were unclean.

As for your prayers, they all sound repetitious to me as if you were babbling to a stone wall. Alas, for hanging out with tax collectors, several of my best friends are tax collectors."

"Is it not treason to call the Pharisees hypocrites?" the old man insisted. "Is it not your duty to protect the authorities against false lies and slander?"

"You and I both know that many of the Pharisees pretend to be pious and sanctimonious but they take from the poor to keep their treasure boxes full and their wealth and greed in all things is well known," I replied. "In my book that makes them hypocrites. I suggest you break up this mob and return to your homes before I have to arrest you."

As I ordered my men to break up the angry crowd, the young boy turned and headed towards the hills.

"Where is your son heading?" I curiously asked the young carpenter.

"My son Jesus said he must be about his father's business," the carpenter replied.

I didn't say anything but the man's answer seemed to be - a bit strange.