Sunday Reflection, March 25: Throw your stones away and parking tickets, too

Scripture Readings
Isaiah 43: 16-21
Psalm 126
Philippians 3: 8-14
John 8:1-11

A couple of months ago, I received a parking ticket. It was a very cold winter’s night and I was leaving work after a long day. On my windshield I found a white envelope bordered with bright orange ink. I knew instantly it was a ticket and why I had received it. A few months prior I had purchased a new car and had to transfer my city sticker. I still had the receipt for the city sticker taped to my windshield—the real one never came in the mail. I transferred the sticker at a Currency Exchange and they informed me that they would mail the sticker to me. Being fairly new to Chicago, I didn’t know what to do when it didn’t arrive. When I received the $120 ticket, I knew then that I should have followed up earlier. I found out that I needed to go back to the Currency Exchange. When they informed me that they had my sticker all along, I was furious. They also told me that it wasn’t their practice to mail stickers. Although I knew I should have checked back sooner, I still felt wronged because I was misinformed.

This week I contested that parking ticket. After proving to the hearing officer that I did actually pay for a sticker, he showed mercy and found me not liable. This hearing officer could have easily found me liable and made me pay $120. I knew that it was my responsibility to follow up sooner, but I also felt like the penalty was out of line. Paying a $120 fine for a sticker that I actually purchased but never received was just not fair.

The Gospel reading for this Sunday reminds us that God’s justice is merciful. The scribes and Pharisees bring a woman caught in the act of adultery to Jesus and ask him what should be done with her. It was law in those days to stone a woman to death for committing such an act. Jesus, fully aware that he was being tested, said, ‘“Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”’ No one did condemn her to death that day. The punishment was far more unjust and immoral than the actual crime.

Jesus’ question to the religious leaders directly challenged how justice was to be done and societal order righted. This Gospel reading perfectly illustrates how justice is meant to be merciful, not vengeful. People are to take responsibility for their actions, but such wrongful acts done by one do not give others the license to be over zealous in their punishment. In this Gospel passage from John, Jesus essentially cautions us not to overdo the penalty and calls us to recognize our own sin. Merciful justice means to restore the dignity of all the people involved, the victim and the perpetrator, not to unleash the anger and hostility found in our hearts and in our society against one criminal or a group of people.

In this week’s episode of Speaking the Faith on NPR, Krista Tippett interviews Charles Villa-Vicencio, former director of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. He and his colleagues have been committed to restructuring the South African society in a way that is constructive and beneficial for its continued development and lasting peace. As Tippett writes in her weekly newsletter, the form and process for collective, community justice practiced by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is new to a world used to trials and punishment, “…the dominant working model we had of collective political reckoning was the post-World War II, Nuremberg-type process: of trial, calculation of misdeeds and costs, high-profile punishment, and retribution for crimes.” Instead the Truth and Reconciliation Commission uses a model commonly described as restorative justice, where the victims can speak to their pain and humiliation and perpetrators struggle with their reasons for inflicting pain and take responsibility for their actions. The ultimate goal is to build a foundation of trust, so the two parties can reconcile at some level. Undoubtedly more difficult and challenging than a regular trial process, its purpose is to restore the human dignity of all involved in the conflict, just as Christ challenged the religious leaders of his day to do.

When restorative justice is done, a sense of relief and peace transcends our lives. While the hearing officer stated aloud that I was not liable for the fine, I immediately experienced relief. I called my family and friends to celebrate as soon as I left the building. I felt just as the Psalmist wrote, “The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.”

JoEllen Windau