Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Wednesday - John 8 - Sins & Stones

  
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NDERSTANDABLY, people who live continually in sin have a tendency to have an aversion to the Word of God. However, at the same time some rebels love to quote the first part of John 8. It is the story of a woman who was caught in the very act of adultery. Jesus famously responded to her accusers with, "Let He who is without sin cast the first stone," & to her, "Where are your accusers?" &, "Neither do I condemn you..." Folks who don't want to be judged or reprimanded for some vice that has come to dominate their life may find comfort in Jesus' kindness to this woman. But of course, we should remember that Jesus also said to her, "Go, & sin no more" (vs. 11). Jesus is the one person who is uniquely qualified to deal with sinners graciously while also dealing with sin strictly. The Pharisees & scribes in Jesus' audience had a habit of dealing strictly with other’s sins but loosely with their own. In this case they wanted to stone this adulterous woman (vs. 5), but they were not willing to deal with their own faults (vs. 7 & 9). And, after the woman had been set free, the religious crowd turned on Jesus, desiring to stone Him instead (vs. 59).

It's hard to image someone being so self-righteous that they would forcefully intrude literally into the very bedroom of private home in order to catch a sinner sinning, not so that they could stop the sin, but so that they could win a debate with a local religious teacher. It is interesting that they did not bring the guilty male; just the female. Of course, that was no problem to them because they were motivated only by a desire to humiliate Jesus publicly (John 8:6). We know that the opposite happened. They were the ones who ended up being humiliated.

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