Skip to main content

A Morning View By the Wood Stove

“Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.

“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?”


They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.


When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

“No, Lord,” she said.


And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”      

                                                                                    - John 8:1-11 NLT


This is an often quoted scripture. Scholars, theologians, pastors, Christians and Non-Christians often quote this passage and usually it is to prove a point or justify a stance on sin. 


I confess my use of this passage in the past for the same reasons. After all, when you read it it is very clear that the woman sinned, the Pharisees tried to trick Jesus, Jesus did something to remind all that they have done some wrong things and he told the woman she was forgiven and do not commit adultery anymore. This seems very straight forward. 


Two extremely important points are often missed. Point one is Jesus actually offered grace to everyone in the story, not just the woman. As each one recognized grace, they left until the accused was the only person before Jesus. Jesus powerfully offered her grace in that moment.


Verse 10-11 

"Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”


“No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”


We often think Jesus was specifically referring to her sin of adultery but he was not. He was referencing all her sin. He forgave her sin as he has forgiven all our sins. 


The word for sin in this verse, hamartane, is not a word for a particular kind of sin, but rather for any kind of sin. Jesus was telling her to go and do not sin. Period. I believe that Jesus does not just focus on our specific sin, but desires for us to not sin at all. 


Go and be different, go and sin no more, go and embrace my grace, go and share your story, go and make disciples, go and be different. 


Friends we do not need wallow in the pity and shame of our sin. All sin is forgiven! 


GO and Embrace GRACE! 


Peace,

PB

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Morning View By the Wood Stove

If you proclaim Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then I must ask you a question. Are you seeking the deepest possible intimate relationship with God that you can ever experience on this earth? Because I know what I am about to say to be absolutely true. If you are not and if you are pursuing anything other than God you will not ever be satisfied and ultimately any other relationship will fail. It does not matter how deeply connected with another person you are without God it will fail. Failure may not mean completely walk away, failure can mean that a relationship will not be what it is intended to be and you settle for it because at least it is there, it's the best I can do, it could be worse and for many other reasons.  We are created to be in relationship with one another. We have many relationships and many depths within those relationships. We have social relationships. We have relationship with many forms of addiction and substitution. We have friends and we have FRIENDS...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Morning View Near the Patio

I believe Christians are called to live a different life in the world than those who are not Christian. I believe that no matter the circumstance of the world, the government and all the just and injustice we are called to be different. Jesus handled the Easter journey much differently than I believe the modern Christian in the USA would have handled it. The Apostle Paul lived as best he humanly could to model the path and life of Jesus Christ during the difficult times of persecution and injustice of his journey. A lot of thoughts are swirling in my head during our difficult time we are currently experiencing and all of those thoughts come back to my life as a Christian, believer and follower of Jesus Christ, and do my thoughts, actions and words model Jesus on the Easter journey to the cross? In Matthew 16:24-26 Jesus told his disciples to "take up their cross and follow me!" I am believing that Jesus is telling us to live like, act like, be like and love like Jesus did....
Post a Comment
Read more

A Morning View Near the Patio

Sabbath - to rest from labor, set aside as holy. Because we have less to do in our current situation, perhaps as Christians we can redefine what Sabbath looks like for us. I wonder how many of us traditionally go to church in our weekend routine, have lunch then get right back at it? After all, we have so much to do and so little time. It has been nice to sit and be. On the nicer days, when the weather cooperates, it has been so nice to sit on the patio and just be. I have sat and contemplated there more this year than I did all last summer. Perhaps a new normal of Sabbath can take place in our lives. As a child I remember going to church on Sunday morning and on the way home being dropped off at Grandma and Granddad's place. We would have lunch and quite often go for a ride. Usually the ride would end somewhere with ice cream! The routes must have been develops around the ice cream establishments in Northeast Ohio! We did very little, but for me as a kid we did a lot. I remember...
Post a Comment
Read more