Faith and Fellowship: God Calls You Where You Are In Life
In the story of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11) we read a story about an unfair situation. In short, Jesus is walking through a town and suddenly some of the ruling elders of the town come dragging this woman out and claiming she had been caught sleeping with a man who wasn’t her husband. Now, of course they don’t have the man that was sleeping with her, but that is sort of besides the point at this time.
These men come up to Jesus as a rabbi, or teacher, and they start in on him about what his judgment would be. These elders know that the Old Testament says those who are caught in adultery must be stoned to death (notice the male adultery isn’t there) and one way or another these elders are trying to trip Jesus up.
Jesus, knowing what is going on sees through their game. He simply leans down and starts writing something in the dirt. When the elders push him harder, Jesus looks up and says one of the most powerful statements in any language, “Let he who is without sin throw the first stone.” Now, think about those words. Jesus is not saying judgments can’t happen, he is saying that judgment must start with one’s own self first. You need to get your heart and your house straight before you go on going after others. In the modern day, all sides of all arguments would do well to listen to these words.
After he says this Jesus bends back down and starts writing again. Jesus knew they were trying to start mess with him, that’s why the man wasn’t there. It was a trick to get Jesus, not to bring any justice. If Jesus had condemned her, he would have been breaking the law by punishing one guilty party and not the other. Had Jesus let her go he would have been allowing a guilty party to escape justice. He was stuck in a no-win situation with these elders because they were just out to get Jesus.
As Jesus words sank in with the crowd, they started realizing not only had they not tripped him up, but they had also been cut to the quick as mommaw Snider would say of their own hearts. They had been caught up in their own judgmental nations while they were stuck in their own sins. So, what happened was they just started dropping their rocks and walking off one by one.
Eventually Jesus looks up and the only two people still standing there are him and the adulterous woman. Notice I am calling her an adulterer because of what Jesus is going to say next. Jesus looks at her and asks her where her accusers are? She says they are gone. Then Jesus says to her, if they aren’t going to accuse her then neither is he but he says something really powerful that typically gets overlooked right after that. He tells her to go and sin no more. Jesus is saying in those simple words he knows she is guilty of sin but so is everyone. She needs to fix her own problems. If she wants to be grateful for Jesus saving her life in this situation she needs to go off and lead the life God has made her to live by God’s rules, not the communities, not her own.
We need to learn a couple of things from this. Be careful throwing rocks or pointing fingers. Every time you point a finger at someone else four others are pointing back at you. We need to remember that God has given us rules to live by, and we are called to keep them to the best of our abilities. Finally, Jesus sees through whatever game we are trying to play. So just be honest and upright in the face of other accusations.
Don’t judge a book by its cover but still pick it up and read it and make your decision from there. Don’t point the finger at others till you have looked at your own life and see your own issues. Don’t sit around and do nothing. Get up and do something.
Well, that’s what I got for today, see y’all later if the Lord wills and the creeks don’t rise. God bless.
