Up the Pole

The other day I was reminded – by a post at the side of the road – that this summer would have seen my ruby wedding!  The story is a simple one, but it also leads on to a Biblical link as well.

I’d been working late; although it was a main road there was no other traffic.  I was driving in thick fog.  At one point I was following a white line alongside the car ... but on its left hand side!  With a feeling of panic I realised I was going down the wrong side of the road, and started a correcting drift to my left.  Suddenly, crash!  The car came to an abrupt halt, and my near-side headlamp went out.  When I looked at the damage, I found that the lamp had taken the impact from a metal post that was now leaning at about 45 degrees away from the car.  At its far end was a sign saying ‘lay by’.  I had not only been on the wrong side of the road, but had been driving down a lay-by on the far side!

That incident must have taken place over forty years ago, because I sold that car soon after getting engaged.  What brought it to mind was the observation of some roadside posts coated with reflective paint – silver on one side and red on the other – and I thought how useful these are compared to the one I’d hit all those years ago.  If that one had been painted thus, I should have seen it, even in fog!  At the time, these thoughts offered a convenient illustration to the sermon I was (half-) listening to on my mp3-player.  The preacher’s text was Romans chapter 7, where Paul speaks of sin having no power were it not for the law, and asks rhetorically whether the law is sin (vv.7-8.) 

The next day I heard the story of Jim Thorpe, which provided another illustration for the same point.  Jim was a Native American who won gold medals for both the pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 Olympic Games.  When, early in 1913, it was revealed that, in 1909-10 he had received payment (although only a few dollars) for playing baseball, his medals were taken from him.  In his letter of apology he pointed out that he “did not know all about such things.”  It wasn’t just that he was unaware of the rule about professionals taking part in the Games; he didn’t know that there were rules!

Whether painted or not, the roadside posts are there to mark the edge of the carriageway.  They don’t protect the carriageway from the invasion of the vegetation on the other side of that edge, nor from the cars that drive on it.  Whether known or not, the Olympic rules are there, not to protect the reputation of Games, but to define each competitor’s rights and entitlements.  In the same way, God’s Law isn’t there to protect Him – He has no need of protection!  It’s there to show us the limits beyond which our behaviour is unacceptable to Him.  If there’s any need for protection, it’s for us, against the wrath of God should we cross that boundary!

At the end of the previous chapter, Paul explained that “The wages of sin (one translation calls it the ‘pay-off’ of sin, because the original Greek word refers to the payment that would be made to a soldier at the end of his time of service; here it’s the end-result of our sin) is death, but,” he went on to explain the very Good News that is the basis of our Christian Faith, “the gift of God is eternal life in (or as a result of the sacrifice of) Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 6:23.)