From Stones to Grace: Shame Undone
Daily Scripture
John 8:2-11
2 Early in the morning he returned to the temple. All the people gathered around him, and he sat down and taught them. 3 The legal experts and Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery. Placing her in the center of the group, 4 they said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery. 5 In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone women like this. What do you say?” 6 They said this to test him, because they wanted a reason to bring an accusation against him. Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground with his finger.
7 They continued to question him, so he stood up and replied, “Whoever hasn’t sinned should throw the first stone.” 8 Bending down again, he wrote on the ground. 9 Those who heard him went away, one by one, beginning with the elders. Finally, only Jesus and the woman were left in the middle of the crowd.
10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Is there no one to condemn you?”
11 She said, “No one, sir.”
Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on, don’t sin anymore.”
Daily Reflection & Prayer
The accusers in this ugly scene weren’t satisfied with shaming the woman. They wanted to stone her to death, quoting verses like Deuteronomy 22:22. (By the way, the woman’s partner was missing—one big reason many scholars believe she’d been set up.) Jesus did not blindly follow every word in the Bible. He offered the accusers a different standard: “Whoever hasn’t sinned should throw the first stone.” The accusers left, and Jesus, who WAS sinless, didn’t want to throw stones.
- Have you, or someone close to you, ever responded to a failure to live up to God’s (and your own) ideal by saying, “I just feel sick about what I did” or even “I wish I could die”? In what ways was Jesus’ offer to free the woman from shame, and restore a healthy relationship with God and others, a source of deep inner healing? Can you accept Jesus’ offer of forgiveness by forgiving yourself?
- Imagine yourself on the ground like this woman, with the “righteous” who condemn you glaring at you. Hear Jesus saying, “I don’t condemn you.” How precious is his grace to you? Now imagine you’re in the circle holding a stone. Who—what person or group—did you drag to Jesus? What “sinners” do you most despise? Lay before Jesus the fears, feelings and actions that make those people so offensive to you. Ask Jesus to help you daily grow into someone who is both forgiven and forgiving.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, sometimes differences or disagreements make me want to condemn those who shake my sense of certainty. Help me walk farther away from judging others each day. Amen.
GPS Insights
Ginny Howell
Ginny Howell, who serves as the Worship Experience Director for Resurrection, wrote today's Insights. She leads the church’s efforts to provide radical hospitality and an excellent worship experience across all of our locations. She’s a mom to three, g-momma to one sweet little boy, and shares much of her time with her closest companion, a rescued Pit Bull named Lola.
You know what I love about this passage? Jesus levels the playing field with one simple statement the people simply couldn’t ignore, not a single one. The mob mentality that sought to tear down and shame this woman was forced to look at themselves through the same lens.
You can feel the layers of distrust in the tensions being held as they gathered at the temple. They brought Jesus someone who had been “caught in the act”, so there was no debate to be had about her guilt or innocence–she wasn’t the one on trial. Experts were calling Jesus “teacher” while also telling him what they knew the law to be, presumably to see if he would uphold it. Knowing he was being tested, Jesus grew quiet.
Interestingly, he wrote on the ground twice, but there is no mention of what he had written. I’m curious, though, because it seems to have had some power. His words alone surely were compelling as he asked the crowd who among them had not sinned, but was that enough to make them all leave? I also find it interesting that as they left, one by one, it was the elders who left first. I wonder what it says about those who have more life experience when it comes to their quickness to judge others.
I find some parallels to that in my own life. The more experiences I have, the greater perspective I have to not judge a situation or a person as quickly as I might have before. When I was a new parent, I had a really judgy attitude about nap time, and definitely threw some undeserved shade when I saw a kiddo melting down in the grocery aisle at what I’d decided was a standard nap time. How could the parent expect a different outcome? Fast forward a few kids and many, many meltdowns that had absolutely nothing to do with a missed nap, and I have far more empathy and understanding than I did when I thought I had it all figured out.
Isn’t it great that we don’t need to keep score or worry about who is doing what and why and how that should be managed? That is exhausting, and we could never possibly know the whole situation, or every single detail, and it’s not ours to know anyway. Jesus laid the path for us all in his treatment of this woman who was caught in the act of adultery. He didn’t condemn or defend her, and she didn’t attempt to defend herself. There was no shouting or upheaval, he simply asked the people to examine their own hearts and one by one, the people just left.
I pray that my heart remains open to this reminder as we seem to constantly encounter loud crowds shouting about who is better than the other. May we all have the strength not to get swept up in the loudness of the crowd and focus on whatever it is that Jesus writes on our own hearts.
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Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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