The Parable of the Ball and the Fence

One day while teaching, Josh was asked, ”Teacher, when should a judge bow to the opinion of the majority, and when should a judge protect a long-held but out-of-vogue, and even unpopular, personal view?”

Josh spoke thus:

Two teams of young players needed an arbiter.

“If the ball goes over the fence, it’s a score,” the captain of one team said.

“If the ball goes over the fence, it has to go over without touching the fence to be a score,” the captain of the other team said.

The game was deadlocked at three scores apiece before the ball went over the fence.

“That’s not the rule,” the captain of the first team said, “The rule is just that the ball has to go over the fence.”

“But it hit the fence,” the captain of the second team said, “Hitting the fence isn’t over the fence.”

“You’re making that up,” the captain of the first team said, “That was never the rule before.  The rule has always been that if it goes over the fence, it’s a score.”

Both teams had decided that the game was nearly over, and that since the score was tied, the next score by either team would end the game.  The final team to score would win the game.  So it was very important to determine whether or not the first team had just scored when the ball went over the fence.

“What are we going to call it if the ball went over the fence but it’s not a score?” the captain of the first team asked.

“We could call it a tie,” the captain of the second team said.

“We could keep playing,” the captain of the first team said.

“We can’t keep playing,” the second team said, “The ball went over the fence.”

“See?” the captain of the first team said, “You admit that it went over the fence.”

“I admit it went over the fence,” the captain of the second team said, “I don’t admit that it’s a score.”

But the ball did go over the fence, so the two teams did need the arbiter.

The question, though, that most needed to be asked of the arbiter was bigger than the question of whether the first team had just scored or had just not scored.  The arbiter’s decision would not just determine this match’s outcome.  The arbiter’s decision would determine the future of the game itself.

The captain of the first team, which team had sent the ball over the fence, had the responsibility of asking this most determinative question.

The captain asked the arbiter, “Mister, can we have our ball back?”