Sticks and Stones

“Then…they brought a woman caught in adultery, making her stand in the center… ‘Teacher…this woman was caught in the act…In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women’…Jesus stooped down and started writing on the ground with his finger…he stood up and said to them, ‘The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her’…they left one by one.’” John 8:3-9a.

In today’s society, there is certainly no lack of people who love to accuse another. The news and many people on social media don’t think twice about smearing someone’s character or transgressions for all to see. I remember a while back a woman posted pictures of her boyfriend on Facebook with another woman, and was relentless in her comments. She did in 2017 what the Pharisees did to this woman in John 8.

They dragged her into the circle where Jesus was teaching, and demanded that she be stoned. I read this morning in my commentary different theories as to what Jesus was writing in the sand when He stooped down. The most probable theory is that Jesus was writing the law which the men were breaking. (With adultery both parties must be brought into public, not just the woman.) Such was the tradition that the High Priest would write in the dust on the Temple floor the sins of the people. But I would like to imagine that as the shamed woman was looking down, Jesus stooped down to look back up. I can just imagine Jesus looking back up at her tear-stained face…her tear-filled eyes…her empty heart. Did He write in the sand where her eyes were focused…you are loved…you are chosen…you are valued? Did He look up between each statement He wrote piercing the very eyes of the sinner? Did Jesus use those hands that would one day be scarred to write her future identity…forgiven…redeemed…beloved. The one thing that Jesus didn’t do was throw stones.

The enemy will always use our greatest sins or weaknesses to shame us into believing we are nothing. He will highlight our greatest failures until it feels like we have been stoned to death. But when we focus our eyes on Jesus He stoops down from Heaven and looks intently into our heart. He understands that as believers, we don’t want to keep doing the things we are doing. His forgiveness extends beyond our sins. He wrote our name in the sand the day He rose from the grave, and we accepted Him. ‘Condemnation offers only guilt and judgment as it points to the problem; the soothing conviction of God offers a solution. He doesn’t bring up the past without the pointing to the future.’ Discerning the Voice of God, Priscilla Shirer, p. 115. We cannot allow the enemy to regain surrendered land. We can hold our head high because we have been forgiven, chosen and redeemed no matter what our past sins have been. Jesus knew then what He still knows today...that those trapped in the worst sins are not hopeless...they can still be redeemed.

“For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Anyone who believes in him is not condemned…” John 3:17.