A Prisoner for Christ

It is a quiet afternoon at Whit's End, and Whit is using the slow hours to make repairs on the Imagination Station. His work is interrupted when Nicholas Adamsworth comes flying through the door and tries to hide, insisting that Eugene is going to kill him. Once Whit calms him down, the truth comes out. Nicholas and Eugene share a computer theory course at the college, and the big project this semester was to design a program of their own. Eugene has worked very hard on his, and Nicholas, poking around out of curiosity, has wrecked it. Rather than face Eugene, Nicholas begs to stay. Whit agrees, then puts him to work: since Nicholas has read the New Testament several times, he is just the person to test the newest program installed in the Imagination Station.

Nicholas pushes the red button and lands in the middle of a crowded street in ancient Rome. He barely has time to admire the scenery before a stranger grabs him and shouts at him to run. A chariot thunders after them, driven by a man named Flavius, and the two fugitives duck into a doorway until it passes. The stranger introduces himself as Onesimus, and he explains the chase. Flavius is a slave catcher. Onesimus belongs to a man named Philemon of Colossae, and he ran away many months ago, traveling a thousand miles to Rome. He also admits, when Nicholas presses him, that he stole from his master to pay for the journey. He stole, he says, in order to be free.

Flavius spots them again, and the chase resumes in earnest. Onesimus takes a horse, over Nicholas's protests, and the two of them go careening through a street market, scattering carts and shoppers, before jumping a wagon parked in the road. Flavius does not make the jump, but neither do Nicholas and Onesimus land well. They end up in the Fountain of Octavian, and Onesimus badly hurts his ankle. A man calls to them from an alley, offering help, and leads them down through a grate into the sewers, where no slave catcher would think to look. Their rescuer is Epaphras, and he turns out to be from Colossae himself. He knows exactly who Onesimus is.

Onesimus demands sanctuary, a right under Roman law that lets a slave in danger seek protection at a temple or, if none is near, at a private home. Epaphras cannot grant it, because the house where he is staying belongs to someone else. He takes them there anyway. Nicholas notices a guard posted out front and assumes the neighborhood is rough, but Onesimus corrects him: the guard is not there to keep people out. He is there to keep the owner in, because the man who lives in this house is under arrest. Then the owner appears, welcomes them in the name of Jesus Christ, and gives his name as Paul. Nicholas can hardly speak. He is standing in front of the Apostle Paul.

Flavius has followed them, and he pounds on the door demanding entry. Paul tells Epaphras to open it. Flavius arrests Paul on the charge of harboring runaway slaves, and though he concedes that Onesimus's claim of sanctuary is his lawful right, there are other charges to answer: the ruined goods in the marketplace and the damage to the fountain. Paul asks for a list of the losses and offers to pay them all. Flavius objects that the debts are not his, but Paul points out that Onesimus has no money and that hauling him to prison will not repay anyone. Flavius accepts the payment and leaves. Stunned, Onesimus asks why anyone would do such a thing. Paul answers that he has been shown great love and mercy in his own life, and that he believes in passing it on. Someone once paid a debt Paul owed, a debt so great he could never have repaid it if he worked for eternity. When Onesimus asks who this man is, Paul tells him the name is Jesus.

The Imagination Station jumps ahead. Nicholas finds himself in Paul's house again, weeks later, surrounded by strangers. Epaphras greets him warmly and explains what has changed. Onesimus has become a believer, and the man whose name means useful, who was so very useless when he first arrived, has become a real help to Paul. The crowd has gathered because Onesimus wishes to be baptized in front of good witnesses before he leaves. Nicholas is alarmed to learn where he is going. Onesimus is returning to Philemon.

Nicholas hurries in to argue, but Onesimus has made up his mind. What he did was dreadfully wrong, and even though he has received the Lord's forgiveness, he is still living a lie, and the weight of it will not lift until he tries to set his mistake right. He tells Nicholas there is no need to worry, for two reasons. Paul has written a wonderful letter to his master pleading his case, and Philemon loves and respects Paul. And whatever happens, the Lord God is with him. Nicholas stays for the baptism, and Paul sends Onesimus out to walk in newness of life.

Back at Whit's End, Nicholas asks what became of Onesimus. No one knows for certain, Whit tells him, but most scholars believe Philemon freed him after reading Paul's letter. Some believe he went on to become the bishop of Ephesus, and that he was the one who gathered and published Paul's letters, which is a reason we have the New Testament today. And none of it, Whit adds, would have happened if Onesimus had not gone back. Nicholas knows exactly what Whit is getting at. He agrees to face Eugene, wishing only that there were some way to smooth things over. Whit asks for the notepad in his pocket, and takes a cue from the Apostle Paul. Dear Eugene, he begins.