What’s your Guilt? John 8.1-11

Lord God of Heaven and Earth, please speak to us from your Word and then from what you have given me to share, I pray Thee.  Amen.

“At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 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. 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.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

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. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” John 8.1-11

In “Brilliant Grace and Reason,”  I called the woman Reason – a reason for the Jewish leaders to trap Jesus in the crosshairs of Jewish law and Roman rule.  He had to say ‘stone her’ as the Law required, but the Jews were forbidden to do so under the Roman government. 

Jesus offers another way ~ the way of grace.

Could I have your attention, please? 

What if you were Reason, cast on the ground,

          literally in front of God and everyone,

                  your sin exposed for all, waiting for your sentencing,

                            sure of your own guilt?

And then, you cannot believe your ears as you hear Jesus say, ‘Neither do I condemn you, go your way and stop sinning.’  After you collapsed with shuddering relief, even your shoulders on the ground … you would eventually have to pick yourself up and walk away.  How then would you live?

For surely, I am that woman.  There are times when my sins, shortcomings, failings, ‘should haves’, ‘ought-to-haves’, and general self-centeredness and pride have dashed me to the ground, until I wonder how I will get off the ground . . . how do I get up and accept the grace of Jesus Christ?

There is nothing in this whole world as sweet or amazing as the grace of God.

One day in Heaven we can ask Reason how she got up, went her way, and stopped sinning, for surely she did!  For now, we can just imagine that she slowly looked up at this loving Rabbi who spared her from death.  Maybe Jesus reached out a hand and helped her up … maybe not, because rabbis were forbidden from touching women, but then Jesus wasn’t much bound by rules.  Then, she probably looked rather long in his face, and turned and ran from the Temple courtyard.  Upon arriving home, she stripped soiled sheets to wash them, and bleach them in the Eastern sun … eager for a clean bed on which to lie, symbolic for her life. 

And then Reason set her course to walk in grace.  She prayed the prayer she knew from her youth, “Search me, O God, and know my heart.  Try me and know my thoughts.  See if there be any wicked way in my and lead me in the way everlasting.”  She chose to walk a new way when she went to the market to avoid temptation; she chose to think on that which filled her mind with good and right things, and she prayed again!  After all, Reason was a new woman, her sins had been forgiven, and she was free to begin anew.

What’s your guilt?  Reason just showed you how to be made new in the grace of God.  Confess your sin.  Turn from it.  Accept God’s forgiveness and begin each new day, walking in the freedom of God’s grace—a new creature, guilty no longer.  

Grace to you,

Christine

PastorWoman.com