Trespass

Brethren, when thou goest down alone to the self-checkout, where there is none to serve thee but the machine only, consider the law that is in it.

For thou takest thine item, and passest it over the glass, and it is weighed; and thou settest it down in the place appointed. But if thou set down aught that was not looked for, or set it down too soon, or too heavy, or too light, straightway the light goeth red above thine head, and a voice crieth out over all the hall, saying, There is an unexpected item in the bagging area. And every eye is turned toward thee.

Now the machine seeth all, and forgetteth nothing, and is no respecter of persons. It knoweth the weight of every thing to the weight of a single grain, and it compareth what thou hast set down against what it looked for, and where these two agree not, it accuseth thee. Not in anger. Not in mercy. Only in the flat certainty of the scales.

For by the works of the scanner shall no flesh be justified; for by the scanner is the knowledge of the trespass, but not the taking away thereof. The law weigheth thee, and findeth thee wanting by the weight of a feather, and stoppeth thee where thou standest, and can do no more. It revealeth the fault; it cannot forgive it. The red light is the whole of its righteousness: it showeth thee thy trespass, and holdeth thee fast in it, and hath no power under heaven to set thee free.

And thou standest condemned before the glass, thine item yet in thy hand, the queue lengthening behind thee, the light flashing upon thy face, and there is nothing in thy strength to do. Thou canst not justify thyself. Thou canst not silence the voice, nor make the light go green, nor pass on to the door. The machine will not hear thy pleading, for it knoweth not pleading; it knoweth only the weight, and the weight is wrong, and so thou art kept.

But lift up thine eyes, for there cometh one bearing a key upon a cord about the neck: the attendant, the one set over the many machines, who walketh up and down the hall for this very hour. And she draweth near unto thy shame, and she is not troubled by it, having seen it a thousand times; and she toucheth the screen with the authority given unto her, and entereth the word that thou thyself canst not enter. And the light goeth green. And the voice is silenced. And thy trespass is taken away, and thou art free to gather thy goods and go.

For it was never by thine own weighing that thou couldest be justified, but by the key of the one appointed, who cometh to the flashing light and standeth in thy place and looseth thee with a touch. Wherefore be not high-minded before the machine, neither boast in the works of the bagging area; for the machine justifieth no one, and it will find thee out in the least of thy items, and thou shalt stand condemned in the midst of the hall, under the red and crying light, until the one with the key draws near.

It may be so. It may not.