Devotion - Tuesday, February 11

The story in John 8 is sometimes called "The woman caught in adultery."  I think another title could be "who has the right to condemn?"

The hyper-religious types bring this woman to Jesus, "to test him."  Already the story tells us that they are not interested in learning anything; they are only looking "that they might have some charge to bring against (Jesus)."

When asked what the Law of Moses calls for in such a situation, Jesus asks "the one without sin" to cast the first stone.  One by one, everyone turns and walks away.

This story is about Jesus' teaching.  He had gone to the temple, sat down and begun to teach.  But I think it also has something to say to us about our tendency to "test."  Maybe it is living in an academic community where "tests" are a part of every waking moment.  But all too often we look to put others to "the test."  And all too often they come up lacking.

Little of this (it seems to me) has to do with a desire to condemn.  Most of it (it seems to me) is our attempt to work out an understanding of how others view our actions; whether they would (given the chance) condemn us.

I doubt that in any single 24 hour period you have lived that there hasn't been someone who attempted to use you as their confessor.  It happens all the time, when someone begins telling us about an encounter or an action and we start to sense that something more profound is going on here.  Most often (way too often) we step away from the moment.  Not often enough do we recognize the moment and offer that person what it is that they need to hear.

None of us are without sin. This positions us perfectly to be the one to say to others that sin won't stand in the way of a good and grace-filled relationship with God.  See yourself as the agent of pronouncing forgiveness.

In John 8, when the crowd has dropped their stones and gone back to their own affairs Jesus asks the woman, "Where are those who would have condemned you?"  When she reports that they have all gone, Jesus tells her, "Neither do I condemn you."  His words of forgiveness become her motivation for sinning no more.

A word of forgiveness is a powerful thing.  Use it wisely; but use it.