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Mar 20, 2024 06:00am

Lessons from Parking Lots and Miracles

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If you’ve ever had to park on a college campus… this one is for you.

At most campuses, parking attendants carry a little handheld device to issue tickets to those breaking the law. I get it. There are laws for a reason. I want those who are disabled to have the closest spots. I want people to park inside the lines so it doesn’t ding my car when someone gets out next to me. I want to make sure visitor spots are for visitors.

But…

Sometimes, let’s just be honest, it’s a little ridiculous. I feel like they are just hiding behind a car, waiting for the next person to pull in and get their tire too close to the white line.

There was a time when a new parking lot was added at Arkansas State, but it had to start with gravel. Trying to figure out the parking there, let alone the rules, was horrendous. There were no actual defined spaces, yet you could get a ticket if you weren’t in one. It would drive you insane.

One year, I took a group to the campus for a tour during the summer. We had a large cooler and supplies to unload, so we tried to find the space closest to our building. Right across the street, there were a few spaces where you could parallel park, and one just happened to be open. There was no handicapped paint or sign, nothing to indicate it was faculty or paid parking, just open. We had a little mini-celebration at finding such a great spot.

When the tour was over that afternoon, and we went to my car to load up, a little white piece of paper was tucked under my windshield wiper.

A ticket.

For what?

It read that I parked in a faculty spot.

Shocked, I walked around the car, double-checking to ensure I didn’t miss something, but there was no sign. I snapped a picture for proof. I pulled out of the spot and snapped another photo of the space itself, but again, there were no markings of any kind.

This was a Friday afternoon, and I knew there would be no one in the office, and I would call Monday morning. Apparently, the only people working were the parking attendants.

Monday rolled around, and I called the office to get this crazy ticket squared away.

“It’s a faculty parking spot.”

I explained how no signs or paint indicated that and even had pictures to prove it. And this is what she said to me:

“Well, we’re updating some of the spots, but the sign hasn’t been posted yet. But it’s marked online on the campus map. You should have checked that before you parked there.”

I can’t even begin to tell you how frustrated I was. She was adamant that she was right and that I would have to pay the fine. She didn’t care about what we were doing there, that I had brought 20 potential students to that campus, or that she was wrong. So, after much back and forth, I asked to speak to the Director.

In the end, I did not pay the ridiculous fine.

John 5:1-15

After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.
3 In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.
4 For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.
5 And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.
6 When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?
7 The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.
8 Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.
9 And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.
10 The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed.
11 He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk.
12 Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk?
13 And he that was healed wist not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place.
14 Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
15 The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole.”

How amazing was that?! This man, lame for 38 years, desperate for help, was healed immediately by Jesus! I cannot imagine all that he endured as he lay by that pool day after day, hoping for someone to help him into the water.

There were four things Jesus did for this man: Jesus saw him, called to him, healed him, and commanded him. This miraculous healing was evident for all to see. Anyone who had ever been to that gate would have seen this man for the last 38 years. They knew him and his disability.

But there was only one thing the Pharisees saw: him carrying a mat on the Sabbath.

These religious leaders constantly roamed, seeking out people who could break the law. They remind me of those campus attendants with those handheld devices. But see, carrying a mat wasn’t against the law. But the Pharisees had added things to God’s law, more like traditions, rules of their own. In their mind, carrying a mat was work; therefore, it was unlawful on the Sabbath. They could pick apart any little thing and call it unlawful. While their focus was on this “horrible crime,” they missed the miracle right before their eyes.

Which led them to miss Jesus altogether.

Will others miss Jesus because of us, too? What are we demonstrating to them – a love for Jesus or tradition? Do we extend forgiveness or guilt and shame?

Still today, Jesus does for every man what He did for that beggar: Jesus sees us, calls us, offers to heal us, and then commands us.

Will we celebrate when someone is healed by Jesus, or will we pick them apart and search for their imperfections? I promise I’m talking to me, too.