Years ago, I had the privilege of
baptizing a young man in prison. Once I
was talking with him, and he was expressing his sorrow for the thing he had
done. I told him, “Most of us have at
some point in time done things that we could have gone to jail for. Then I told him of some things I did as a
teenager. The only difference between
him and me is that he got caught, and I never did. Every one of us have messed up in our
lives--it's just that some of us get into more trouble for it than others. Jesus offers forgiveness for all. In today’s scripture we see that Jesus is not
soft on sin, but He is big on grace!
In
John 8:1-11 we find Jesus teaching in the Temple. Sometime during the night, the scribes and
Pharisees had caught a woman in the act of adultery. In front of the crowds
they brought her to Jesus. “’Teacher,’ they said to Jesus, ‘this woman
was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do
you say (vv. 4-5)?’”[i] This put Jesus in quite an uncomfortable
position. Jesus always taught about the
grace and forgiveness of God, while the Pharisees and scribes always taught
about God’s vengeance and anger. In
truth, the Bible talks about both of these things. Sin does anger God. But God also desires to show mercy. So which of these two things should he show
today? If Jesus showed too much mercy,
the Pharisees would say he was violating the law which called for her
execution. But if he gave her swift
justice without mercy, he would violate his own teachings of grace. What would he say? Jesus wanted to show that He’s not soft on
sin, but He is big on grace.
I
know what I would have said, if I had been there: “Where’s the guy?” I mean, think about it—in order to catch the
woman IN THE ACT of adultery, she would have had to be WITH somebody,
right? So why had they dragged her away
to put her to death, and let the man go?
Pharisees prided themselves on their law-keeping, yet the verse they
quoted in Deuteronomy 22:22 says, “If a
man is discovered committing adultery, both he and the woman must die. In this
way, you will purge Israel of such evil.” Could it be that the man was one of
the Pharisees?
Well,
I wasn’t there to challenge this, and that’s not what Jesus said. Instead, he carefully considered the binary
choice they had presented to him: Should he condemn her to death or condone her
sin? Often, when people want to trap
you, they will present you with a binary choice. Often, when the devil wants to put you in a tough
spot, he will make it seem like there are only two options. You may be in that same situation, when it
comes to your temptation to judge others.
You may feel like you have a choice between condoning or
condemning. But Jesus listened to the
Holy Spirit, presented a third option that neither condoned her sin, but didn’t
condemn her either.
Without
saying a word, he bent down and began writing in the dirt. What was he writing? Everybody gathered around to see. Now the Bible doesn’t tell us what Jesus
wrote, but it does give us the effect of what Jesus wrote and said. See, Jesus had divine insight, and had access
to God’s all-seeing eye. One preacher I
heard suggested that Jesus was writing the names of all the girlfriends of the
Pharisees—those names they didn’t want their wives to know. Then Jesus stood up and told them that they
should keep the Law of Moses, which said that the woman should be stoned. (In this way he protected his integrity by
maintaining the Law.) But, he added a
word of mercy. “Let the one who has
never sinned throw the first stone.” The
Bible says that the scribes and Pharisees left one at a time, beginning with
the oldest first. Why did the oldest
leave first? They had probably had more
time to sin, and had more of a list being written on the ground. Jesus had defeated those who tried to trap
him, and saved the life of a girl who had been caught in her sin.
Today I ask you, which character in
this story do you most identify with? Do
you see yourself in the role of this woman, who had been caught in the very act
of her sin? All of us at some time or
another are guilty of breaking God's law.
Some have committed this same sin that she committed. Others are guilty of different crimes. But all of us stand before God tainted with
the stain of sin. When the devil accuses
us, we are ashamed and want to hide our faces.
But Jesus is the one who does not condemn. He always forgives those who turn to him for
mercy.
Or maybe you identify the most with
the pharisees and scribes in this story.
Maybe you've caught someone in the act of committing a crime or a sin
against you. Has someone you know
betrayed you and now you want justice done?
Then you need to learn the lesson of this story: There's a difference between justice and
vengeance. God is a god of justice. And with God, being merciful is always better
than being just. You see, Jesus is not
soft on sin, but He is big on grace!
Or it could be that Jesus’
predicament reminds you of a situation you are in today. Maybe people go to you whenever big decisions
need to be made. Maybe you sometimes
feel trapped between what people think you should do, and what God wants you to
do. If that's the case, then you need to
pray that like Jesus, you might be given the wisdom of God to handle all the
challenge of calling sin “sin” on the one hand, and yet reserving condemnation
on the other hand, trusting that God is God and you are not.
You know, those Pharisees who so
readily quoted from Deuteronomy 22:22 would have done well to read the whole
chapter. They were quick to practice the
law of condemnation, but Jesus was following God’s commands by practicing a
higher law—the law of mercy. Verses 1-4
talk about the responsibility of a person who finds a wandering sheep or ox or
goat that belongs to his neighbor. Maybe
the animal has even collapsed on the road.
The law of mercy says it’s your responsibility not to ignore that poor
animal’s plight, but to take it under your protection and return it to its
master. If God could care so much for a
wandering beast, how much more does God care for an erring man or woman! Instead of condemning this woman, Jesus took
her under his protection, showed her mercy, and restored her to God. Jesus did this not because he is soft on sin,
but because he is big on grace!
Life constantly provides
opportunities for failure and for success.
Sometimes life presents you with temptations that you choose to follow
to their sinful outcomes. Jesus speaks the
same words he spoke to the woman who was caught in the act of adultery: "Neither
do I [condemn you]. Go, and sin no more
(John 8:11)." He doesn’t
condemn; He doesn’t condone. Instead, He
chooses to atone—and that act of divine mercy makes all the difference.
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