Reprebus was a big man. He was a strong and very capable warrior at the service of the king of Canaan. He had no relation to or even understanding of the Christian faith and it wasn’t expected of him that he would have any interest in it if he was told of it. He was good at what he did–the bidding of those he served–and nearly all of the people must have known he lived a fairly comfortable life. But Reprebus had a strong desire to devote his life to something or someone greater than the ruler he served. He thought on his predicament for some time until he finally decided to seek out the greatest ruler in the world and become a servant to this great ruler. With his great strength and determination he knew that he could become a powerful and influential servant of any ruler and knew that serving the greatest of rulers meant that he would become the greatest of the ruler’s men.So, he left the king of Canaan and sought out the ruler most widely regarded as a king above all other kings and pledged his allegiance to this man.
Reprebus’ life was fairly comfortable in service to this new king–his new master–but it would not remain that way. One day while he was guarding his new king he happened to overhear the king in conversation with another man. The other man spoke of someone he called “the devil” and in response Reprebus’ king made a gesture of crossing in the air as if to ward off the presence of this “devil.” Reprebus knew what this meant that the man he served hoped to ward off another who was spoken of in hushed tones: it meant that there was somebody that even this great king feared. So, Reprebus committed himself to finding this one known as “the devil” so that he might serve him. What he found, though, was a band of marauding bandits led by a man who claimed to be the same devil that Reprebus was pursuing. Reprebus fell in with the bandits and became a man to be feared on the highways and byways of the Roman empire. He hurt many people in service to the devil that even the great king had feared but witnessed another disturbing turn of events when the devil he served balked at trampling upon a cross that had been left beside a road. Instead, the devil veered widely around it and demonstrated his own fear.Again, Reprebus knew that this meant there was another who was greater and so he went looking for someone who could tell him the meaning of this cross.
What Reprebus found out was that the cross was a symbol of the Lord of the Christians: Jesus Christ. He sought out a local teacher who could tell him how to follow Jesus since he had learned from the Christians that Jesus had died, been raised from the dead, and ascended again into the heavens. The teacher was a hermit who, when Reprebus asked him how he might follow Jesus, taught Reprebus to fast and pray and seek the will of God. Reprebus didn’t know how and was unaccustomed to such physical and spiritual disciplines. So, instead, the hermit found another discipline for Reprebus to practice. Noting Reprebus’ great strength and stature he told him to go down to the raging river nearby where people routinely lost their lives trying to cross it. When he got there, his job was to help people cross safely. With a walking stick in hand, Christopher began carrying people across the river to safety. He was thanked profusely but he always insisted that it was his calling to be there and that he would not accept but the most meager and necessary of gifts. He was, after all, serving the King of all Kings and could find no reason to want anything else.
One day, after helping many travelers cross the river a little boy came to the bank of the river and looked across it to the other side. Reprebus had helped children cross before and it was always an easy task because of their small size. When the boy asked to be carried over, Reprebus gladly obliged and picked up the child to put him on his shoulders. As he started to take a step he suddenly felt as if the child was the heaviest burden he had ever carried. He nearly stumbled but instead he took one slow and plodding step. He understood himself to be serving God almighty through helping people across the river and so he was unwilling to refuse assistance to anybody. So, he took another laborious and difficult step across the river with the boy on his shoulders. “Even if the boy was made of pure lead he couldn’t be this heavy,” reasoned Reprebus to himself. When he finally, after quite some time, let the boy down to the ground on the other side he was exhausted. Drinking deeply from the river he exclaimed to the boy: “That was far harder than I ever imagined…it was like carrying the whole world upon my shoulders.”
The boy responded, simply, “You had on your shoulders not only the whole world but him who made it. I am Christ your king, whom you are serving by this work.” Having said this, the boy vanished from before Reprebus’ eyes. From then on he took another name: Christopher. After all, Christopher means “Christ bearer.” Having been confirmed in his faith, Christopher traveled to the city of Lycia to comfort two other Christians who suffered under heavy burdens: two who were being martyred. By showing up and visiting them, though, he was targeted for interrogation himself.Soon, he was arrested and accused of being a Christian. This was a charge he could not and did not deny. The ruler of the city hoped to woo him to his side by offering him money, power, and women if he would deny his faith and become the king’s servant. What the king didn’t know, though, was that Christopher had finally found something worth believing and would not be convinced to accept anything less. He converted the two beautiful women the king sent to seduce him as he had converted many of those whom he had helped to cross the river when they found out why he was exercising such charity at risk to his own life. For the offense of refusing a lesser king’s request and for converting the two women he was put to death and made a martyr.
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Joshua Hearne 