There is no judgment or condemnation in
Jesus, as he has showed us many times throughout the Bible. The one, that I found to stand out to me, while
reading tonight was in John 8:11. This
is where Jesus was asked by the Jews on how he would handle a woman being found
guilty of adultery.
During the time of Moses, he had said
that if a woman was found guilty of the crime, adultery, she should be stoned
to death. The Jews, in this situation,
again, were trying to catch Jesus so they would be able to accuse him of some
wrong doing. Jesus took a moment, and I
love this, he bent down and was writing in the dirt. They then asked him the same questions, and
this time Jesus said, let him who is without sin among you be the first to
throw a stone at her. Then he bent back
down and proceeds to write in the dirt with his finger.
The people, who moments before Jesus
spoke, were so quick to stone her, started to feel their conscience rise up in
them, because they too are not without sin,
one by one they started to throw their rocks down and leave, until it
was just Jesus and the woman.
Jesus asks the woman where are your accusers. Basically, see, you are not alone in your
sin. He then tells her in John 8:11 that
he does not condemn her either, and to go on her way, and sin no more.
There are so many things I love about
this small part of the story. One, I
love, that Jesus after being asked what should happen with this woman, bent
down to write in the dirt. As if people
weren’t already suspicious of his mental state now he is fueling the fire by
playing in the dirt, instead of answering the question. What just tickles me with this, is that I
believe that Jesus used writing in the sand as a way to deflect the question,
and have some time to hear from God on how to answer them.
This is a great lesson for us in
life. There are many times when we speak
to quickly, and then almost instantly wish we could take back the words that we
have just said. If maybe we would be
silent and in those moments ask God for how to answer the question, or wait for
the Holy Spirit to direct us, maybe we would have less of those moments.
I enjoy how Jesus will answer a question
posed to him with a question right back to you.
Now, I like this while reading the Bible, but I am not that happy with it,
when it’s happening in my conversations with him. But I understand why he does it. Well at least I think it’s to get us thinking
about what should be done in the situation.
In this case, here you have this woman,
who has committed adultery, something that we know is wrong, and is written in
the Ten Commandments, but Jesus so quietly points out that we are not without
sin too. So just because this woman
made the mistake of committing adultery, we should stone her to death? What makes this sin any worse than the sins
that you have committed? What makes her
sin worse than yours, and for that matter, if we are going to stone her for her
sins, than shouldn’t we be stoning you for yours?
There is no way that you can stand and
hear that question, and continue to stand there with the stone in your
hand. Your sin is not worse, or better,
than hers, so how can you be in judgment of something you yourself have done.
My favorite part of this story is when
Jesus is having a chat with the Woman, as they are the only ones left, and he
asks her, so where are your accusers now?
Where are those who condemn you?
Jesus then says to her, I do not condemn you either. Go on your way and from now on sin no more.
Just like that! Go on your way and sin no more. There wasn’t a five page lecture about how
your sin was horrible, and you have truly disappointed your God. There was no, you’re a bad person and you
should do a list of things to get yourself back into the good graces with
God. Nope, just I don’t condemn you
either and sin no more.
I love that!! I want to high five Jesus for saying
that! He is saying I take you as you
are. I know who you are when I came into
contact with you, and I love you anyway.
I love you no matter what shape you come to me in, because I know my
love will mold you into my image! The
Faith that Jesus had in God, but also in Man, is beautiful.
I am not sure how you can see all the
faults of a person, know that they might plan on doing you harm, and love
them anyway! And then, ask them to come into relationship with you,
anyway! The Goodness of Jesus amazes
me. This is why we strive to be changed
into his image and have the mind of Christ.
Jesus didn’t come to give the world
pain, condemnation and confusion. Jesus
came to set the world free of those things.
We need to learn a lesson here from the story of the adulterous woman,
and see our own sin before we see someone else’s. We don’t know the back story with this
woman. We don’t know what caused her to
make such a poor decision. What we do
know is that we all have fallen short of the Glory of God, and if we were stoned
for every sin we committed, there would be no one left on this earth.
Next time you want to come into judgment
on a person’s behavior, take a moment, write in the dirt if you need too, but
take a moment, and check your inner man, the Holy Spirit, and see if you too are
not a sinner!
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