John 8
1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Once again I am left in awe at the wisdom of Jesus and the way He reputed the evil plans of the pharisees. I really awed...He is really the ultimate Teacher.
ReplyDeleteThe Pharisee tried to press Jesus to the corner here. If Jesus would have said, "Stone her." then the people who are listening would say that Jesus is not consistent with His message of love. On the other hand, if Jesus would have said,"Don't stone her." then Pharisees would say that Jesus is encouraging people to break the Law.
ReplyDeleteInstead of doing one of them, He stoop down and wrote on the ground (made of stone), symbolizing that it was His Hands who wrote the Law.
Another incredible thing to note here is Jesus, is showing the heart of the Father when He said, "Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more." Sometimes our formula is opposite to what Jesus said. We start with Go and Sin No More then we will not condemn the person. Jesus did the opposite, He assured the sinner that He, who has the right to condemn, will not condemn so that the sinner will have the power and confidence to "sin no more". The power to stand against sin is to realized that in Christ there is no more condemnation.