[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are a reflection on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://www.myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]
Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
You can picture the scene, right? It’s the Sabbath, and it’s also the day after one of the major Jewish festivals, so Jerusalem is packed and Jesus is teaching in the temple to a massive crowd. Suddenly, the Pharisees and the religious leaders break through the crowd right in the middle of Jesus’ teaching and they toss a woman before Jesus, a woman who has just been caught in adultery. The Pharisees want to know: Jesus, under Moses’ Law the woman ought to be stoned to death. What do you say?
Jesus surveyed the crowd for a minute, and then he bent down to write with his finger in the sand. On the Sabbath it was forbidden to write with a tool in a way that would permanently alter the writing surface, but it was permissible to write in the sand with a finger; Jesus is always so clever. What does he write?
Does he write the law from the book of Deuteronomy?
Does he ask where the man is who ought to suffer the same fate?
Does he write, “stone her” or “save her” or some other command for the crowd to follow?
What he says to the crowd is this: “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And then he returns to his writing in the sand.
One by one the crowd dissipates, until only Jesus and the woman are left. And then Jesus utters those famous words that walk the line between grace and truth perfectly: “Then neither do I condemn you. Go not and leave your life of sin.”
This is a word that we today are desperate to hear. This morning I attended a Christian Educator’s Convention where Rev. Mary Hulst, chaplain of Calvin College, was the keynote speaker and a sectional speaker. At her sectional she spoke about the three lives that people often live—the public life, the private life, and then the secret life. We like to think that Jesus can see the public and the private lives, but we hope that he can’t actually see the secret life. This is where people do the things that the really believe might be beyond redemption in Christ: the pornography, the affair, the second affair, the embezzlement, that one time that you did that thing you desperately wish you could take back. But Jesus does see it all, and he speaks his perfect grace and truth into out lives. He sees our sins, does not condemn us, and instructs us to go and sin no more.
It’s interesting to note that John does not finish the story. There’s no “10 years later” interview with the woman, nor is there any follow up with the religious leaders who accused the woman or anyone else from the crowd. This is intentional. John leaves space for us to become the woman in the story. We spend so much of our lives worrying about the sins and public shaming of others. Forget about the woman or the religious leaders or anyone else. We’re always trying to change someone else. It’s time for us to change our own lives first.
[Kristin vanEyk lives in Kentwood, MI where she attends Encounter Church with her husband Dirk, and two kids, Lily and Colin. Kristin teaches high school English and otherwise passes the time reading, writing, running, and enjoying all that Michigan's West Coast has to offer.]
Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
John
8:10-11
You can picture the scene, right? It’s the Sabbath, and it’s also the day after one of the major Jewish festivals, so Jerusalem is packed and Jesus is teaching in the temple to a massive crowd. Suddenly, the Pharisees and the religious leaders break through the crowd right in the middle of Jesus’ teaching and they toss a woman before Jesus, a woman who has just been caught in adultery. The Pharisees want to know: Jesus, under Moses’ Law the woman ought to be stoned to death. What do you say?
Jesus surveyed the crowd for a minute, and then he bent down to write with his finger in the sand. On the Sabbath it was forbidden to write with a tool in a way that would permanently alter the writing surface, but it was permissible to write in the sand with a finger; Jesus is always so clever. What does he write?
Does he write the law from the book of Deuteronomy?
Does he ask where the man is who ought to suffer the same fate?
Does he write, “stone her” or “save her” or some other command for the crowd to follow?
What he says to the crowd is this: “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And then he returns to his writing in the sand.
One by one the crowd dissipates, until only Jesus and the woman are left. And then Jesus utters those famous words that walk the line between grace and truth perfectly: “Then neither do I condemn you. Go not and leave your life of sin.”
This is a word that we today are desperate to hear. This morning I attended a Christian Educator’s Convention where Rev. Mary Hulst, chaplain of Calvin College, was the keynote speaker and a sectional speaker. At her sectional she spoke about the three lives that people often live—the public life, the private life, and then the secret life. We like to think that Jesus can see the public and the private lives, but we hope that he can’t actually see the secret life. This is where people do the things that the really believe might be beyond redemption in Christ: the pornography, the affair, the second affair, the embezzlement, that one time that you did that thing you desperately wish you could take back. But Jesus does see it all, and he speaks his perfect grace and truth into out lives. He sees our sins, does not condemn us, and instructs us to go and sin no more.
It’s interesting to note that John does not finish the story. There’s no “10 years later” interview with the woman, nor is there any follow up with the religious leaders who accused the woman or anyone else from the crowd. This is intentional. John leaves space for us to become the woman in the story. We spend so much of our lives worrying about the sins and public shaming of others. Forget about the woman or the religious leaders or anyone else. We’re always trying to change someone else. It’s time for us to change our own lives first.
[Kristin vanEyk lives in Kentwood, MI where she attends Encounter Church with her husband Dirk, and two kids, Lily and Colin. Kristin teaches high school English and otherwise passes the time reading, writing, running, and enjoying all that Michigan's West Coast has to offer.]
No comments:
Post a Comment