Stealing Bikes, Instant Justice

Question: When it is alright to laugh when someone falls off a bike?

Answer: When they’ve stolen it.  

I’ve fallen off a bicycle, and it’s no laughing matter: sore limbs, grazed skin, gravel buried in the wound. Yet getting one’s comeuppance is both beautifully just and wonderfully funny. Joey Salads, American YouTube supremo, leaves bicycles in parks and streets in his hidden camera’s gaze, waiting for opportunists to come and help themselves. As they furtively look around, they jump on and peddle like mad. The bike’s erstwhile owner appears on the scene asking them to return the bike, pleas which they casually ignore. Until then, its protagonists will continue to timble and fall. 

 

Unfortunately for them, the bike has been attached to a tree or lamppost via a long, discreet rope. This jerks the bike to a standstill. Sometimes handle bars have been designed to fall off, other times they act as a painful reminder of the perils of sin when the thief’s crotch collides with the head tube.

 

The pictures are crude stills taken from @JoeySalads’ video. Off he went! But he didn‘t get far. 

That has to hurt. Down he goes.

 

Most sin is not filmed and it would seldom make good viewing. The lesson here is that ugly crime is always followed by a terrifyingly beautiful retribution. It may not be swift, but it will be sure. Each sinner will appear before justice’s bar, that divine sentence might be pronounced. This is a terrifying prospect, but not for the Christian. His or her sin has already been paid, the account has been settled by Christ on the cross. Sin remains as ugly as ever, but its conclusion will bring righteous satisfaction to the whole of creation.