Grace

Scripture Reading:

John 8:1-11

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 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, “If any one of you is without sin, let him 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.”


According to Ecclesiastes 1:9 “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” One can’t help but wonder if Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter was inspired by this very story of the Adulteress we find in John. There are many similarities. Hester Prynne, the Scarlet Letter’s main character was also caught red-handed and arrested for adultery. Like the woman in our passage, she was paraded in public for her crime. Hester was forced to wear her shame on her chest in the form of a scarlet letter. There were a couple of huge differences though.

One, the adulteress in John wasn’t a fictional character. She was a real life woman, in a real life situation. The second big difference, the adulteress in John was placed on display with her sin boldly proclaimed not just to all within hearing distance, but also to the Great Teacher, the Great Prophet, the miracle worker, the man who claimed to be the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

I can only imagine the shame that she must have felt. We aren’t told much about her, just that she committed adultery and was arrested only to be used as a pawn in the Pharisees plot to trap Jesus. She had no defense. Verse 4 says “this woman was caught in the act of adultery.” We have to wonder if she was even given time to dress before she was dragged out of the bed and into the temple courts. Were the Pharisees camping out to catch her in the act? Like peeping toms outside her window. Did they know exactly where to go to find their pawn? They didn’t care about this woman or really even about her sin. This was evident in the way they treated her and the fact that they didn’t arrest the man she was with, who was equally guilty. And under the law deserved the same penalty: death by stoning. The Pharisees were looking to trap Jesus and the adulteress was to be the bait.

How embarrassing. In fact, embarrassment doesn’t even begin to describe the feelings that must have rushed through her as she was caught in the act. Being caught red-handed left her with little justification for her actions. So she stood there.

She stood there before the Great Teacher, before the crowds of people waiting to hear His every word; waiting to be sentenced to death, the punishment for adultery.

When I was 13 years old, my mom dropped my friend, Dawn and I off at Southwyck Mall. It wasn’t all that long ago, but the mall has changed drastically since. While the halls today are bare and empty and only a handful of stores remain, the only thing empty back then was our pockets. The mall was thriving. And as you can imagine, it didn’t take two empty-pocketed teenagers very long to get deep into trouble at a flourishing shopping center.

I had never shoplifted before, in fact I had never really even given thought to do it prior to this occasion. I learned quickly that day that Dawn was well-versed at the art of the five-finger discount. Apparently though, she wasn’t as good as she thought. We got caught. Not only did the store personnel see our actions but the strategically located video cameras caught it all. We weren’t even able to make it out of the store. Security promptly confronted us and detained us in the back office of the store. My parents were called and summoned back to the mall to deal with us. Dawn’s parents were out of town for the weekend and under my parents charge.

I remember sitting in that office for what seemed like hours, listening to the security officer telling us how much trouble we were in and how we could go to jail for this. All of which were things I knew very well, and I really didn’t need to be reminded that I had so seriously messed up. I knew, I knew I was done for.

Waiting for my parents to arrive, I contemplated all the trouble I was in…I could imagine the paddling I was going to get, not to mention the endless grounding that was sure to ensue. I would never be trusted again and the worst was I would have to look my stepfather in the eye and see the disappointment that was sure to be staring back at me.

Like the Adulteress, I had no excuse, no defense, I was caught red-handed and I deserved the punishment that was coming.

Many of us today can’t relate to the Adulteress John is telling us about. We’ve never committed adultery, we’ve never even thought about an affair. However, the Associate Press reports that 22% of married men have strayed at least once during their married lives and 14% of married women have had affairs at least once. The AP also admits that given infidelity’s inherent secrecy these numbers are most likely way off base and it’s tough to get a handle on the real number of people that are having affairs.

Do you know even if we don’t fall under this sin…even if we’ve never committed adultery that doesn’t mean that we are sinless? Just as the adulteress was guilty, I too was guilty of stealing back years ago. And I’d love to tell you that I learned my lesson, that I never again disappointed my mom and stepdad, that I had turned away from my sinful ways. But I didn’t. Shoplifting wasn’t something that continued in my life but I did in many other numerous ways sin against God and even against myself. The simple fact is that each one of us is guilty of a countless number of sins, some that we don’t even know that we committed because sin is so ingrained into our world. In Romans we are told the divine truth that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” No one is different from one another when it comes to sin. We all have it and we’ve all done it. We are all just like Hester Prynne and the Adulteress, we may have a different letter pinned to our chest, but the penalty before God is the same. Some of us have the letter “C” on our chest for covetousness; some of us wear the letter “I” on our chest because we are idolaters and we put money or material things ahead of God. Which letter is pinned on our chests doesn’t really matter, none is worse than the other. They are all the same in God’s eyes.

So we left off with the Adulteress standing in front of Jesus waiting for her immanent death penalty to be handed down and for the stones to be thrown. Oh, but what happened next was nothing short of a miracle in her life. Jesus poured His grace on her like a raging waterfall.

His grace didn’t begin with the words that He spoke. It began with His actions. We don’t know if the Adulteress stood gazing at Christ, if her eyes glared with repentance or with contempt, but what we do know is that unlike the people standing around her, accusing her were sure to have that hatred in their eyes and in their voices. Not Jesus though, He bent down and began writing in the dirt on the ground.

Now I have to say that this is the only time in the Bible where Jesus wrote something down…does it tell us what? No. John leaves us hanging on this one…and oh, would I love to know what He wrote…just what was so important that He had to bend over right then and write it down. Well, I was a bit disappointed to hear that most scholars believe that Jesus was just…doodling. You know, looking at the ground and drawing circles.

But let’s look at that again and think about it…if He’s looking at the ground and keeping himself occupied there, perhaps thinking of what to say…He’s not, like all those around him, staring and judging her with his eyes. This is the first outpouring of his grace; he has spared her his holy gaze.

His grace doesn’t stop flowing there. It’s as if He is refusing to answer them, refusing to play along in their trap. They keep nagging and nagging, like little children wanting a cookie. “Well, well, what do you have say?” “Aren’t you going to give her the punishment she deserves?” “Are you not going to follow the Law of Moses?” “What kind of Rabbi are you?” “Don’t you have an answer?” “What are we to do with this filth?”

And then grace appeared. Jesus straightened himself. The New Living Translation records Jesus’ words as “All right! But let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” I can imagine Jesus being somewhat irritated by their whining and just with a little conviction and perhaps a raised voice saying, “Fine, just stop, just be quiet, do it but let the one who’s never sinned be the first to throw their stone.”

This was the second outpouring of grace on the woman. No one there accusing the adulteress was qualified to throw that stone. And they knew it. Silence consumed them. You could probably hear a pin drop on that dirt floor. The one, by the way, that Jesus went back to doodling on.

There is only one person that “has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.” (Heb. 4:15) There was only one person there that could have rightfully condemned her. There was only one person that could have thrown that first rock. And he was busy doodling in the sand.

The accusers all walked away, the old ones first. If find this interesting. It leaves me with a couple of unanswered questions: Did the old leave first because they had racked up more sins in their lifetime or because they were wiser and able to see their sins more clearly? Nonetheless, they all left and the woman was left standing before this Great Prophet, Jesus all alone.
Just when we thought she had about all the grace she could stand or at least all the grace we thought she deserved. Jesus the one who could condemn doesn’t throw a stone. He doesn’t even throw a harsh word. Do you know if it were me or probably most of us, we would have probably given the woman a stern talking to? But why, this woman knows what she did; she didn’t need to be reminded.

Jesus throws her grace, even more grace than before. While he never condones her sin, he does forgive her. She was still a sinner, but forgiven. She was still guilty of adultery, but he had lifted her sentence from her shoulders and placed it on His own. Grace was given in abundance to the Adulteress that day. She had been saved.

That day at Southwyck mall, my accusers were there reminding me what I had done. And my stepdad, oh, I didn’t know until writing this just how much of godly man he was, but that look that I dreaded. That look of disappoint that I thought for sure I would bare, it never came. Now sure I was grounded for a century, but I don’t remember ever seeing the look that I knew I deserved. My stepdad did not condemn me that day, but like Jesus he loved and forgave me. He showed me grace.

Today, we have accusers. We have one great accuser, Satan who stands at our shoulder, like he has done since the beginning, telling us how wrong we’ve been, how bad we’ve messed up, how deep we’ve dug our grave. And like the Adulteress, there is only one who is worthy, there is only one who is sinless, there is only one who can throw the first stone. And his stones of choice are grace.

Do you see, Jesus didn’t come here to condemn the Adulteress and he didn’t come to condemn us today. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:17). Jesus came to save an adulteress that day in the temple, Jesus came to save me that day in the mall, and he came today to save you!
His grace is sufficient to stop our accuser in his tracks. It is sufficient to forgive all our sins. His grace is sufficient to save us.

By the end of our passage, our adulteress was left standing before a man that had once been known to her as the Great prophet, the great teacher, the man who claimed to be the Messiah. Do you think that after this encounter with grace that she thought him anything less than all that he claimed to be?

I believe that if there was any contempt in her eyes for the Pharisees who had so embarrassed and shamed her, if she had in the beginning looked on Jesus with the slightest bit of haughtiness, that by the time she was standing with him face to face – alone – her eyes were probably filled with hope, they were probably filled with repentance. She was given her chance by Jesus to deny her sin and she didn’t, she acknowledged it. And He forgave her.

She walked away that day with a new life and a new hope! She experienced grace from God himself. Well, I’m here to tell you that you can experience it too. Jesus came not just to save the worst of the worst or to save the best of the best; he came to save us all. He came to throw his stones of amazing grace at each one of us.

You are sitting here today, and you are feeling shame, guilt, embarrassment because of who you’ve become and what you’ve done. You’re in too much pain even to try to continue to justify your life anymore. You sit naked and exposed before a holy God whose law demands you pay the price in full. But Jesus isn’t content with that. Jesus’ agenda is not about shaming or condemning you. Jesus is here this day to end your condemnation and to put you on the road to a different life…No one here is qualified to condemn you. And neither does Jesus. He’s reaching out to you right now, and he’s saying: Leave the old life behind. Leave the old you behind. Accept the love and mercy I offer you. Go and sin no more.

He is throwing His amazing stones of grace at you? Are you standing, like the Adulteress, ready to catch them?

By Sharon McQueary 6/06/2008

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Summer Reading Recommendation

Glancing over the calendar strategically positioned on the refrigerator door in the kitchen, so as to be a constant reminder of the days ahead, I find myself overwhelmed not just today, but everyday. I have consciously laid out my life on a piece of paper. Not only my life but the life of the other four people that I call my family. Every appointment, every activity, every pick up time and every drop off time; it’s all there, nicely compacted into a one inch square called a day. It is almost a ritual for me. Each morning before I even get a cup of coffee, I stand at that door staring, hoping that I might find just a tiny moment to relax in the jammed pack agenda so neatly laid out before me, praying that I don’t disappoint someone, yet again, because I forgot to write down a crucial appointment or scheduled play date. Begging God to just help me get through until the next empty inch or open day which sometimes is weeks away. And when it finally comes, I spend it planning the next week’s calendar that will be like the previous, hung on my refrigerator door to greet me every morning.
The calendar is bittersweet. I need a reminder. I need to be told what I have to do each day. The mornings that I rebel against the calendar and I refuse to look at it when I open the fridge are the mornings that it never fails I receive a call asking me where I am at and I hear myself apologizing and begging for another opportunity for the meeting I missed. The worst was this year when I forgot about my 3 year olds school party. There was no call, only my daughter’s disappointed eyes telling me when I picked her up that next time I would have to come because all the mommies were there. I was the only mommy missing. It’s moments like that that I cannot reschedule no matter how much begging I manage to fit in. The calendar keeps me on track, it makes sure that I get where I need to be when I need to be there. But the calendar also confines me, seizes my freedom and the freedom of my family.
The calendar, as helpful as it is, runs my life. Having my time mapped out in front of me on a piece of paper almost always binds me to incessant work and obligations. More often than not I find myself filling in the blanks and squeezing all that I can into that one little inch called a day. It’s not unusual for me to see an open spot and try my hardest to fill it. It is almost as if the calendar is calling me to not let a moment of it go unused or wasted. The calendar does not just run my life: it is my life, etched out in detail on little squares, beckoning me to buy a bigger calendar with bigger squares so that I might have more time to do more things. I would have a two-inch day instead of a one-inch day.
Sadly, for me my calendar is full every day, seven days a week. My weekdays full of doctor appointments, school obligations, recitals, taxi-ing of children, church activities, etc.; my weekends, including the Sabbath, full of church, parties and housework. As I said above, I stand at the fridge sometimes begging God for strength to get me through to the next open day and I pray that I can resist the urge to fill it before it arrives.
I suppose that anyone living in America that reads this today would sympathize with the endless call of the calendar that daily haunts me. Our society has become so driven to constant activity that we all work to the point of collapse and then just keep going, surviving only on the caffeine injection from our Starbucks Venti Mochas or Monster Energy drinks. Looking back over what I’ve already written, I’m left with the simplest of questions: why? Why do we do this to ourselves? Why, when even the God of the universe took a day to rest after creating it all, do we think ourselves different than Him and continue to run ourselves ragged bowing to the idol called our calendar?
In her book, Receiving the Day, Dorothy C. Bass confronts this very issue: the gift of time. Time is a gift from God. “The first act of God is to create light and, seeing that it is good, to separate it from darkness. This is the beginning of time, which from that moment on bears the forms of Day and Night, as God’s first gifts are repeated again and again…Through this lens we also discover the Sabbath and understand that God intends for us to have time to rest as well as for work.”[1]
Bass cleverly reminds her readers how to receive each day anew by offering ways that “enable Christians to offer attention, daily, to the gracious presence and activity of God.”[2] Awakening to each new day with a God-centered perspective, thanking Him for all that we have and for giving all that we need, not being reminded of the unchangeable past and not worrying about the unpredictable future, but living each day for itself. “When the day brings suffering, enduring this day’s suffering, not dreading next month’s deterioration, is the necessity of this day. When the day brings testing or opportunity, to meet this free from bondage to the past or dread of the future is this day’s urgency. Jesus taught his disciples to ask God for bread for this day, not for all of them.”[3] It is when we look at each day in this way that we can ask ourselves “Where did I meet God today?” and actually have an answer, instead of not even having the energy to ask the question. Some of her tips for receiving this day include: honoring our body with cleaniless, healthy eating habits, exercise, sleep and rest; offering of attention, whether to our children at our feet or to the breeze rustling trees; praying with regularity; saying “no” when asked to unnecessarily fill our time; and unmastering the day by learning that the only interruptions to our days are really the moments that we have written on our calendars.

Overall, Receiving the Day is an extremely down-to-earth recipe for recapturing the gift of time that God has so graciously given each of us.

If you need a good book to read this summer and maybe some ideas for how to reclaim the time God has given you, pick up Receiving the day. It's a quick read and full of great insight!

[1] Dorothy C. Bass, Receiving the Day: Christian Practices for Opening the Gift of Time (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2000), 4.
[2] Bass, 19.
[3] Bass, 25.