Who among you is not an idiot?

How many of us have done something truly idiotic?  I got my hand up.  If your hand is not raised, my eyebrows are.  How many of us suffered public humiliation as a result?  Often it goes hand in hand.  How many of us have broken the law?  If we've ever gone beyond the speed limit, we have.  Most of the time we don't get caught.  We tell ourselves we're hurting no one.  If we're driving over 45 mph in a road construction zone, we just might be putting other lives at risk or putting what we have to do above a law that is concerned with the safety of others. 

In truth we aren't any different from this woman:





The sign reads "Only an idiot would drive on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus."

 

 

Shena Hardin, 32, of Cleveland, as part of her punishment, was ordered to hold this sign for one hour today and tomorrow at a downtown intersection. Her license was suspended for 30 days and she had to pay $250 in court costs.
 

I'm not saying she shouldn't be punished or have to suffer consequences. I'm surprised jail time and volunteer service to the students she endangered wasn't included, as well as a hefty fine. But public shame and humiliation? I thought we left that behind with the Puritans and being put in the stocks or the pillory.

You know what Jesus would have done...he would be standing with her, same color skin, holding her hand and the sign with her so no one could tell which of them was the public idiot. You don't think so?

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"Early in the morning [Jesus] came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them.³ The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them,⁴they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery.⁵ Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”⁶ They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.⁷ When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”⁸ And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground.⁹ When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.¹⁰ Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”¹¹ She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again." (John 8: 1-11)

The Bible lists three modes of execution: stoning, burning and hanging. All three were carried out publicly, stoning carried out by the entire populace. The point of a public punishment is shame and humiliation, not only for the one being executed but also for one's family and tribe. Like capital punishment of our time it was seen as a deterrent to future crime, something we now know is not true.

How many of us were shamed by our parents and teachers, humiliated by friends when we behaved like an idiot? Did it encourage us not to repeat such behavior? How did it make us feel?   Shame does nothing but cripple a person.  Guilt is one thing; shame is another.  It's important that we know the difference.  Feeling less-than does nothing to enhance our self-worth. Ten to one this woman does not know her own worth.

Any of us who say "I am not like her, I would never do anything like that" just threw a stone her way. And if we think that the color of her skin had nothing to do with her sentence, remember the election we just went through.  One day it won't matter if we're 'Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free'.  For now, it's time we all owned up to our own brand of idiocy, whatever it may be.