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 8th
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
No comments:
Post a Comment