v. versus vs.

Today I sat in a courtroom for about two hours, waiting for my turn. I was slightly sorry not to have brought something to read (my last appearance took about 45 seconds total, so I didn't think I would need anything), but it was an intriguing session of people-watching.

I noticed how quickly and easily we slip into "us v. them" mentalities, even when that feeling is only communicated by eye contact in a courtroom. Some "us v. them"s I saw were

- lawyers v. clients
- criminals v. non-criminals
- in police custody v. free
- insane v. sane
- drunk v. sober (there may be a crossover here with the sanity one)
- comfortable v. nervous

The lawyers give each other glances that separate them from the non-lawyers, the sane from the insane, and on and on.

But they're all jumbled up so that the lawyers and criminals can be united in bewilderment at the strange gestures and mutterings of an insane lawyer (seriously, I observed this guy for two hours, most of it at VERY close range; he was having some kind of mental lapse).

But a criminal who was united with the lawyer in bewilderment about the insane guy is on the other side of a chasm a minute later when he's called up by the judge and the courtroom is once again segregated into the ministers of justice and the violators of the law.

On the way home I was trying to place Jesus in the courtroom. Has He been the advocate? Has He been the accused? Has He borne the shame of our drunkenness? The reproach of insanity? The loneliness of the incarcerated?

Lots to think about . . .