Illegally Parked

As a courier driver I am sometimes faced with quite impossible challenges.  A recent example was an urgent mid-afternoon delivery to a shopping precinct, where access is normally permitted only before 10.00 a.m. or after 7.30 p.m.  On such occasions, the only solution is to drive as close as possible, park on yellow lines where there are no kerb markings, and hope that a notice in my windscreen will remind any passing traffic warden of the difference between ‘parked’ and ‘loading’.

Such experiences are surprisingly common.  Sometimes they’re met by an understanding official who realises the dilemma and ignores the offence; sometimes by a ‘jobsworth’ who sees no further than that a vehicle is illegally parked and that he must issue a parking ticket.

One day, I had to deliver a heavy parcel to a building site that was on the far side of a public car park.  I sought advice from the attendant about the best way to get there.  The only way, he said, was to drive through the car park and, yes, that would be quite all right.  I went back to the van and entered the car park.  Having completed my delivery, I made my way to the exit, where I expected the attendant to press a button to lift the barrier for me.  I waited … but nothing happened.  I tooted … still nothing.  I tooted again, and the attendant beckoned me over to his kiosk.

‘He’s going to make me pay a parking fee,’ I thought, angrily. ‘He was the one who said it would be all right to drive straight in.  He didn’t mention a charge!’  Prepared to argue the point, I walked over.  The attendant explained, quite amiably, that he was unable to operate the barrier remotely from the kiosk, but that I would need a ticket to put in the machine.  He gave me a visitors’ pass, the barrier opened as I inserted it, and I was quickly on my way.

As I left, I thought of the parallel between parking and sin.  We all sin; we can’t help it (Romans 3:23).  And just as there is a fixed penalty for parking in the wrong place, so there is a fixed penalty for sin.  St. Paul spelled it out, ‘The wages of sin is death.’ (Romans 6:23).  That penalty has to be paid, in the same way that the machine had to have a ticket to operate the barrier so that I could drive away.  Our release from sin – the only way we can avoid the death penalty – is to accept a gift.  In this case it’s not a tangible gift like the visitors’ pass, but the gift of Jesus’ death on the Cross.  And it has to be accepted as a gift.  It’s not a right, nor something we can earn, or pay for.  That’s where the car park illustration falls down, because we can buy a car park ticket.  When it comes to sin, we have to humble ourselves sufficiently to accept the gift of Jesus’ life, freely given (John 10:17-18; I John 3:16).  It’s the ‘Get out of Jail Free’ card on the Monopoly board of eternity.

Happy motoring – and parking – this summer.