Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long;
Matthew 23:5 (NIV)
Wide Straps, Long Tassels
The laundromat out by the highway never closes, and there are about four hours in the middle of a weekday when nobody’s in it. He’s worked out which four, and he comes on the days he doesn’t have to be anywhere after. The tremor in his right hand is twenty years old and he’s built the week around it the way a family builds around a piano nobody plays.
He counts his quarters at home, eleven dollars’ worth, because feeding a bill into the change machine in front of people takes him three tries and the third one is the bad one. Four washers at once along the back wall, all four going, and he’s out in fifty-five minutes. He doesn’t use the folding tables. Folding is where it shows, so he carries the wet clothes home in the basket and hangs them in a kitchen nobody walks into.
Eleven dollars in quarters is more than the wash costs. Four machines buy him one trip instead of an hour in a plastic chair with the door opening. He drives past two closer places to get here. He’s been paying that price so long it doesn’t register with him as a price.
Phylacteries and tassels were ordinary equipment, commanded in the Law and worn in that time by people who weren’t being accused of anything. “Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long.” Jesus puts his finger on the size. Width and length carry across a marketplace, and they make them that way for people to see. He goes on to the places of honor at banquets and the greetings in the marketplaces, and both of those work only with somebody watching. A wide strap in an empty room is just a strap.
He’s at the back wall with three loads in the basket and eleven minutes on the fourth when the door bangs and a woman comes in pushing a hamper with a folding chair balanced on it and a radio going. She takes the middle of the floor, sets the chair across the aisle, and turns the radio up a notch. Four minutes ago this was an empty building. He’s holding a sock in each hand, and the far wall is behind him and she’s between him and the door.
A Prayer to Remember
You looked at the width of a strap, Lord Jesus, and said what it was for, and I’m glad the charge was that exact. Thank you for reading sizes. Thank you that you say plainly what a thing is done for, so nobody has to stand on a sidewalk guessing at anybody else’s heart.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
