Be Redeemed! Encounters with Jesus- The Adulteress.

As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. Ps.103:12

This week’s study promises to be a difficult one. It’s from the 8^th chapter of John and speaks to us about how to handle our sin and the sin in others from God’s perspective. It’s ten power punching verses that tell not just a story of an encounter one woman had with Jesus, but that bi-standers had, and that an angry mob had as well. All of them had to deal with Jesus at one of those most defining moments when it seemed to them it would make or break His ministry, but as we will see, it actually made or broke those in the encounter.

Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them. John 8:2

Jesus is in Jerusalem at this point, having been at the Mount of Olives, he enters the temple and the people come to hear him. Notice it doesn’t say a few gathered. This is not just some sidewalk preacher. Jesus is teaching, early, very early, and they are there, to hear Him, and to witness His testimony about Himself. It says that all the people came, so this was a crowd of people who arrived for this morning service, not just a few who Hollywood would have us believe showed up. Please get that image out of your head. It also says that He sat down. This style is the way it was done in the tradition of the synagogue. The teacher sat and the students stood to listen. It kept the students attentive, I’m sure. All these people surrounding this carpenter from Nazareth to hear Him expound on the scriptures. That had to be a real slap in the face to the religious order of the temple. What were they to do?

Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act.”

 John 8:3-4

We’ve seen this portrayed as them gathering stones already, and as the religious leaders ready to stone her right there, but in all actuality it wouldn’t have happened there. She would have been taken outside the city and stoned in the rubbish heap, where she would have been left to rot. There would have been no burial. The stones were the only burial she would have received. Remember this occurred at the temple. The woman was brought there to be judged, to have her sentencing, not to be put on trial. The trial was over. She’d been found guilty. There was no doubt she’d done the crime. She was an adulterer.

I’ve heard some people ask, “Where was the man?” Well, maybe he ran faster. Maybe he was already dead on that garbage heap. Maybe her husband killed him, but took her to the temple to get the matter heard so he could save face. The point is it doesn’t matter. She was guilty, and nothing could undo what she had done. This woman stood condemned for her sin. She could say nothing. There was no justification for what she had done. Kids, Mama didn’t come home last night.

  ^“Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.” John 8:5-6

The law does clearly state that she would be put to death, Exodus 20:10, and so it was their right to do so, yet they had not done it. It’s interesting that while these religious leaders had the ability and the right to take this woman from the city and put her away without all the fanfare, they decided to use her to make a spectacle of the entire matter. Obviously this was not just a test, but a trap. They had the crowd. They had the temple. They had the home field advantage. All they needed was for Him to stand in opposition to what was well known in their society, to demonstrate to everyone that He was there as a rebel and an insurrectionist, and they had Him where they needed Him so they could rid themselves of Him. They could have two bodies on that rubbish pile. The woman knew she was facing death, but Jesus’ response was to do nothing but turn a deaf ear to their ruse. He knew their hearts. He knew their intentions. He knew the lack of compassion they were showing to not just this woman, but to her family, and to all others involved. Imagine the shame they were bringing to her children. In their rash actions to bring Jesus to shame they had not considered the shame they were bringing to those were collateral damage of her sin.

Many times in life that happens to us and to others we know. Sometimes we are the accusers, or the collateral damage, or, worst of all, the one who’s sin cause the issues. It’s a hard course to navigate no matter where we fall in the equation. It’s just awkward and there’s no way to get out of without getting some dirt on us. So how do we deal with it? How do we deal with sin?

So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”  And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. John 8:7-8

They continue to ask Him, continuing to pester Him so that he could not continue to teach. So he raises up. He lets everyone know that the lesson is over, the teacher is about to leave the room, so whatever is about to be said is His final word on the matter. Take notes. This will be on the test. He tells them they’re all sinners, and none of them has a right to be casting aspersions on this one woman. He knows them. Some have said that what He wrote on the ground was their names. Some have said was their sins. I don’t think it’s the point. I think the point is where He wrote it. He wrote it on the ground, where it would be sure to be erased. It would be easily erased by a drag of anyone’s foot. It wasn’t permanent. There’s no church record, no relic of the writing of Jesus on the ground, because it is erased. Someone walked over it, or the wind came and picked the dust up over it, but it was gone. That’s the point of sin when it comes Jesus. Jesus and sin…don’t coexist in the same place.

  Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

What convicted the people who were so quick to condemn? They weren’t guilty of that sin. Sin doesn’t have varying degrees, or does it. Imagine that you’re in a dark room, and you don’t know where the light switch is. You’re brought into it blindfolded. Then you are told to remove the blindfold, but the room is pitch black and you don’t know where the door is. How do you find the switch? Normally we would go into a room and reach to the side of wall opposite the hinges and flip the switch, but if we have no point of reference we can be standing two feet from the switch, or twenty feet from it, and we don’t know where it is. It’s terrifying to think of what can be in that room that could be between us and the light. If we could just get our eyes to adjust just a little, just perceive a little light, then we have a chance at finding the brighter light. Without light, of any kind, we’re sunk. Imagine if you thought you had the blindfold off only to find out you had another one on all along.  

The accusers had one of those “I give” moments. They realized they had no light unless they stop trying to condemn someone else, because they still had blindfolds on all along. One by one they realized their eyes weren’t going to adjust to God’s perspective unless they asked for help. They’d been the collateral damage. They’d felt the hurt of sin. They’d been the one to cause the hurt. They’d been the one who either had to tell the kids someone wasn’t coming home, or been the one the kids thought weren’t coming home again. They’d been there, so they knew they were not going to be first, and since no one else was going to be first…well, breakfast was waiting, or there was work to be done. Jesus was done teaching anyway. They might as well go on home, or do whatever they’d planned for the day.

 When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” John 8:10

Jesus looks up, but not in surprise. He knows He has cleared the arena. He is left with the woman. She stands there, waiting for her moment to be led away. Maybe she still expects to be dragged out and suffer an agonizing death. She does not realize that she has been pardoned in the eyes of her accusers. Then Jesus speaks to her drawing her out of the nightmare. He turns on the light in the dark room she is in, taking the blindfold off her, releasing her from the blackness of sin. All she sees there is Jesus. There are no more accusers. There is no more guilt, no more shame, only Jesus.

She said, “No one, Lord.”

And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” John 8:11

Being brought into the light she can clearly see that while what she did was wrong, and it had its consequences, she doesn’t have to live with them. Jesus has stood in the gap for her. He rescued her. She might not have understood how it happened, but she knows that this Man is worthy of being called Lord. He is worthy of great honor. She owes Him her life, and she is now under his submission. In those three words, “No one, Lord”, she is giving Him what is due Him. It’s as if He is asking her, “Who has entrapped you, owns you, and now has the power over you to keep you enslaved, and condemns you to death?” She looks to Him, the one who has freed her, and says, “No one, Lord.” Can you hear the joy in her voice? Can you feel the release of her spirit?

        Jesus then gives her a command. She is to go, go where? Where does it matter? Go and sin no more. He’s telling her this is not the freedom to go back to doing the same thing again. It’s not that He’s okay with her ‘choice’. Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” Matt.5:17 He came to complete the contract that we have no ability to meet the terms of on our own. That doesn’t mean we are at liberty to burn the contract. God still wants us to live at peace with each other, and the law provides us with instructions on how to do that. There are reasons for all the rules God provides us, and it usually has to do with collateral damage. In the case of adultery, it hurts! It hurts a lot of people. It destroys families. No one can argue that point. It’s never a good thing. This woman knew it. It almost cost her the very breath of life. She got to go home that night. I am sure there was a lot of healing left to do in her life. I’m sure she had to find courage she didn’t think she had. But, she had something no one could ever take away from her. She had the memory that when everyone else stood opposed to her, Jesus stood with her until there were none left standing against her.

“Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool. Isaiah1:18

Be Forgiven!- Encounters with Jesus- Peace is found through Forgiveness for Two Contrasting Sinners.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

In our next examination of encounters with Jesus we will see His position with two very different types of people. Many times when people look at this section of scripture they naturally see the woman at the center, but overlook the one Jesus was speaking with, Simon the Pharisee, the host of the dinner party. It might very well have been his divine appointment all along. We will look at them both as a study in contrasting character.

Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. Luke 7:36

This Pharisee’s name was Simon. He had invited Jesus over for dinner, and for what purpose we don’t know, but we do know it wasn’t par for the course that Jesus wasn’t invited into the homes of the religious leaders. From what we know about them from the gospels they were not card toting members of His fan club. Yet this Pharisee invited him into his home, probably to get to know what Jesus was all about. Maybe he wanted to talk shop with him, talk about the scriptures, and maybe he wanted to trap Him. But he was still the host that had Jesus come for a dinner.

The job of the Pharisee was to administer the religious law for the people. They were to interpret how to restore the nation of Israel to God, yet they’d turned it into an exclusive club making it difficult for all but themselves to get back in with the Creator. Despite this, Jesus went where He was invited, because he’d been asked. Jesus goes where He is asked to go. He helps us to sort out our motives once He is there, which is what he was about to do with Simon.

 And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. Luke 7:37-38

This woman, a known sinner in the town, arrives at Simon’s house for the purpose of seeing Jesus, and she’s let in. She has brought with her a gift of great cost, an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, which she pours out on Jesus feet. She is so overcome with emotion when she sees Him that she cannot stop crying. Her tears fall along his feet where she is kneeling, and she notices that she is staining the Lord’s feet, so with nothing around to clean them she uses her hair to wipe them so she can anoint them as she’s come to do, which is to give Jesus a gift.

The uniqueness of this woman lies in the fact that she came to Him not to get, but to give. She also was not sick physically. She had not come to Him seeking a cure for her body. She came to give to Him, from what she had.

Have you ever thought about what you would do if you came face to face with Jesus? Many of us would be much like this woman, just crying at his feet, unable to speak, so overcome with emotion because we know what He has done for us. Yet she does this before He has taken on her sin, so something had caused this encounter with Jesus to be a preordained appointment from heaven. Her life before this moment had caused her to be notorious in their community. Still, she knew her way to the Pharisee’s house. I’m not implying there was any misbehavior on Simon’s part, just that perhaps she’d been there before looking for forgiveness, for mercy, and for some way back to God as a member of the nation of Israel, as was her right, but had not received it, not from Simon.

Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.” Luke 7:39

Here we see Simon’s heart revealed. His attitude and motive are both laid bare. First, toward Jesus, we see that Simon invited him over to see if Jesus were a prophet. He wanted to entertain a holy man, to be able to boast that he’d once had the prophet of Israel in his home. Jesus didn’t fill that expectation when he let the woman touch Him. Simon’s attitude toward the woman showed that he had a hard heart toward people who were not in his element. She was not to be seated as his table. She was a sinner. Even though it was his position in the community to bring her back to God, he would not even associate with her. He mumbles to himself, yet Jesus knows his heart and hears his words.

                And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”

So he said, “Teacher, say it.”

 “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.  And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?”

 Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.”

And He said to him, “You have rightly judged.” Luke 7:40-43

Jesus calls Simon to the mat but does it gently. He tells him the story of the creditor, the one who is owed a debt. He points out that both debtors owe something to this graceful man, but one owns twice as much as the other. The point is that it really is irrelevant to either one of them how much the other owes. What matters is that a debt is owed, and it cannot be paid. So what does the creditor do? He forgives the debt. Does it matter if it was for a hundred denarii, or for fifty? A denarius was a day’s wage. Basically, the debt was enough to cause a term of short term slavery. Does it matter if a man works for fifty days to pay back the debt or a hundred days? If a man’s family will not eat for fifty days, or for a hundred days, his children will still starve all the same. Still, knowing that one would have to go through it twice as long as someone else would make it that much more of a gift.   It’s not hard to know who would love the man more. The one who was given more.

Jesus tells Simon he has judged rightly. In doing so Jesus reminds this Pharisee that he is supposed to be a judge of the law, but not just to condemn. A judge, by definition, is an administrator of the law, not one to condemn another person. A judge is supposed to be more a referee, and call the infractions in order to keep the players in the game and the everything moving along. The judges of Israel were there to solve disputes so that the community could remain at peace, and everyone got along and remained united. Simon wasn’t interested in making sure everyone remained united. His attitude reveals it was okay with Simon if some were left out of God’s plan for Israel.

                Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in.  You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil.  Therefore, I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.” Luke 7:44-

Jesus draws Simon’s attention to what this woman has done, to the person she is, not to the sinner she is. What she has done for God, and what Simon has missed, is what Jesus has taken into His heart. Jesus also reminds Simon’s that just maybe there are things that Simon needs to be forgiven for, that he is not perfect, and like the woman at Jesus feet, Simon also needs to be forgiven. Simon also needs to be cleansed of his sins. He also needs to confess, and to have the courage that this woman did and risk being known to have sinned, and be one of those in need of forgiveness. Simon says nothing. Perhaps he is silent because he feels the conviction of knowing he is one who has sinned greatly.

 Then He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” Luke 7:48

Jesus turns his attention back to the woman. He lets her know that finally, after all this time, she has come to the home of the Pharisee, and received what she had wanted for so long. She was the one whose debt was forgiven. She was the one who had loved much because she was forgiven much. The amazing thing about this is that Jesus had yet to pay for her sin upon the cross, yet He still had the power to forgive her sins.

This event points us to the very nature of sin. It is not that sin is just a series of wrong turns. It’s that every wrong turn takes us further from the Father who loves us so much that only He can reach through those wrongs to bring us out of them. We, like Simon, don’t see our sin because we see the sins in others. But this woman knew her sin, and Jesus forgave her. He set her free from that which held her captive. She loved much because He loved her enough to see her through the reputation she held. Jesus saw the woman, not the sinner.

                And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” Luke 7:49

Who can forgive an offense but the One who is offended. All sin separates us from God. So if God forgives those sins that separates us from Him hasn’t He then brought us back into fellowship with Him to have what we had lost? It is an amazing love from an amazing God. Who is this who even forgives sins? It is our God! Our Savior! Our King!

 Then He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.” Luke 7:50

Peace is exactly what the woman had come to Simon’s house to receive, and now she had it, with the forgiveness she’d been seeking for so long. For her this was a new beginning. She could start all over.  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Cor. 5:17 The awesome thing about being a new creation in Christ is that we are always new, not ever to be old. Every moment we are made sparkly, shiny, brand spanking new before God. The woman at Jesus feet, immortalized for all us to learn from, is new continually before her Creator. She is not the woman known to be a sinner because a new person doesn’t have a reputation. She doesn’t have a history. She doesn’t have secrets. She doesn’t have skeletons in the closets, because she is new! That’s what Jesus’ forgiveness meant to her. That’s what His forgiveness means to us as well.

Jesus loves us and wants us to accept His forgiveness. He has paid the price for us to be reconciled to the Father and to have fellowship with God. He wants us to have the peace the woman had. Yet we sometimes live as Simon, judging not just others, but ourselves, and not through the lens of God’s intention of being made new, but hanging on to what has been our own reputation. It’s time to accept this forgiveness and be at peace.

 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John 14:27

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