So slow to condemn
May 21
John 8
1But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6They 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. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9At 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. 10Jesus 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.”
This is one of my favourite passages in the Bible, because it shows what Jesus is really like. So many people have a concept of God as being angry and condemning and quick to judge. So many people believe that God is just waiting for them to make a mistake so that he could pounce on them and destroy them. But clearly that is not God’s way.
After everyone had left and there is no one to condemn the woman, Jesus looked at her and says to her since there is no one left to condemn you, then nor do I. If ever there was a piece of Scripture which explains that shows Jesus true nature, this is it. He shows that he is all about love and about forgiveness rather than about judgement. We have read in the last few days that Jesus will judge, but his judgement is going to come at a later date at the end of time.
No matter what we have done and no matter what we do, God’s default nature is to look at us and wants us to forgive us, all we need to do is to do our part which is to confess our sin. He has promised that he will be faithful to forgive us our sins.
Perhaps one of the most important lines of all is the very last one in the above passage, where Jesus says to her “now go and leave your life of sin”. Part of the forgiveness of Jesus is that she now realises what she has done and she turns around and goes in a different direction. He tells her that this is what she must do, but forgiveness has already been forgiven it is not dependent on whether or not she goes and leaves her life of sin. What might God we serve.