Once upon a time there was a king of a small kingdom, who before he was crowned had been a sailor. One day there arrived in his kingdom a wicked sorcerer, who wanted to destroy his kingdom.
The sorcerer told the king that a deadly plague had been sweeping across the world, and that soon it would arrive in his land, and only the sorcerer’s potion could protect the people.
The king agreed to let the sorcerer use the royal apothecary to make the potion, and he passed a decree that everyone in his kingdom should drink the potion so that the kingdom could be protected. And the royal herald went out and told the law and said that the potion was “safe and effective.”
Now the chief guard of the palace was a very religious man, dedicated to his job and righteous. He believed it was his task to coerce everyone in the kingdom to follow the new law, and he began with the palace guards, and he made them all drink the potion.
Every one of them drank it, and if any of the guards didn’t, he was expelled from the palace and his honours and his uniform were stripped from him and his name was cursed publicly by the palace herald and everyone treated him like a leper, as though he had never existed.
Then they forced everyone in the land to drink the wicked sorcerer’s potion. Every one of them drank it, even the little children and the infants, and if anyone refused to drink of the potion, that person was banned from polite society and treated like a leper and an outcast.
And everyone gossiped about the ones who refused to drink the potion, and they cursed them, and they were expelled from their professions and banned from their places of work and had to be shut in their houses, away from everybody, and the people in the kingdom reviled them and they said they would bring the sickness to the others when it came, which was ridiculous of course, for the potion was supposed to protect them from the plague.
Soon after drinking the potion, however, the people in the land began to get sick. The women had miscarriages and the men fell down in the middle of their work and died, and the children suffered pains in the chest and their eyes rolled around in their heads and they collapsed, and people simply dropped dead while they were walking or while they were sleeping, and those who didn’t die were debilitated and their bodies were damaged and they could no longer walk or run or work or play or in many cases do anything at all; they were completely debilitated. This happened to many of the people who drank the potion; but it happened to none of those who refused it.
And the people of the kingdom sent representatives to the king to ask for help and aid in their suffering, but the king shut the door of his palace in their faces and set guards on the door so that nobody could bother him.
Now in this kingdom, there was a peculiar law that set in place the chair of the chief governor.
The chief governor in this land had but one task to do: if the king was seen to be harming the people and not acting in their best interest, the governor could force the king to resign or even order him to be removed, and then the chief governor would be able to choose another heir to be king in his place.
Now it so happens that the chief governor had expressed doubts to the king about the sorcerer’s potion, but the king had not listened. The chief governor had resigned in protest, for he was too cowardly to act to order the king removed.
Wanting a friend to sit in the chief governor’s seat, to protect him, the king called the chief guard in and made him the new chief governor.
But the people of the kingdom, suffering so, and seeing their friends and their family members sick and dying and ill and affected, sent representatives to the chief governor’s castle (for in this kingdom even the chief governor had his castle), to stand on the other side of the wall and stare at the chief governor’s castle as a silent protest, remembering all those who had died and pleading with him with their eyes to act justly and remove the king, who was still under the influence of the sorcerer.
But the sorcerer whispered in the ear of the king, “Is this right? These representatives who stand day and night outside the chief governor’s castle are undermining your leadership.” And the king went and saw the chief governor and said, “How are going?” The chief governor said, “Not well. Every day these people stand outside my house, staring across the wall at me with their huge, huge eyes, and their eyes haunt me, and their silence disturbs me.”
So the king sent the palace guard over, and the chief governor made his complaint to them. The palace guard arrested those people for stalking the chief governor, and as they were arrested one of them said, “You think the king is the greatest in the land, and you think you are even greater. But there is a higher power, the King in heaven sees all that is happening and He will do justice, even if you don’t.”
But they took them to the magistrate who ordered the representatives of the people to stay away from from the chief governor’s palace, or be thrown into the dungeon.
And the wicked sorcerer rejoiced, for he knew while he still held the king’s ear he could work towards the downfall of the kingdom.
But the new chief governor could not forget the people who had been standing outside his wall. Though they were no longer standing there, his conscience felt their eyes, searing into his soul, as though they were all still standing there, even more so, now that they were not.
And he got no rest by day or by night.
And one night he had a dream, that he had ordered Jesus Christ to be arrested, and taken to court, and his soul was stricken with dismay, for he was very religious.
This is what you have done, Governor Chris Dawson. Consider Jesus Christ, whom you have just had arrested.