But 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.” [John 8:1-11]
How do you think of Jesus?
I think it’s interesting that He filled so many varied roles during His life. He was teacher and rabbi, revolutionary leader and religious radical. He was human son and brother and worked at a common trade. He spoke to large crowds and wandered alone in the wilderness. But one activity we take for granted is almost never associated with Him.
We don’t think about Jesus the writer.
When the woman accused of adultery was brought before Him, Jesus stooped and wrote in the sand of the temple floor. It’s the only time the bible refers to Jesus writing.
We don’t know what He actually wrote. Scholars speculate that it was a list of sins committed by the accusers, or that He doodled in the dust to create a pregnant pause. Some even claim to “know” what He wrote based on interpretation and extrapolation from other scriptures. My take is that, since it’s not recorded, the actual content doesn’t matter.
A LINE IN THE SAND
My guess is that, in some way either literal or metaphorical, Jesus drew a line in the sand of the temple floor.
Regardless of its actual content, His message was unmistakable. There is a clear, distinct line between right and wrong, between righteous and sinful. And we’re all on the same side of that line.
I wrote earlier about our obsession with labels and drawing lines. We’re eager to divide the world into “us” and “them,” good guys (us) and bad guys (them). We’ll acknowledge our own mistakes, but we’re clearly not as bad as the REAL sinners.
A BETTER CLASS OF SINNER
We work very hard to draw lines that associate us with a better class of sinners, but we need to understand that our lines don’t matter. They’re a feeble attempt to distinguish evil, really evil, not-so-evil, and just-sortta-evil.
Jesus erased our artificial distinctions between acceptable and unacceptable sin. He ripped the veil from public piety that conceals private failure and revealed the darkness that haunts every human heart. We’re all on the wrong side of His line. His challenge for the person without sin to cast the first stone convicts all of us.
Jesus’ line in the sand makes the only true distinction. He’s on one side, sinless and obedient. We’re all on the other side. None of us is worthy to judge. Under His criteria, only Jesus can throw that initial stone.
BEYOND LINES
But then He did something remarkable. After all her accusers vanished, the guilty woman stood alone with Jesus. She now faced the true judge, the only One on the other side of the line.
He’d banished the pretenders, exposing their false sense of superiority by trapping them in their own logic and legalism. Her accusers were gone, but her guilt remained. She was still on the wrong side of the line, along with me and you.
Guilty. No defense, no justification, no denial, no appeal. The verdict’s in, and we stand before the judge. Doomed.
And the judge says the most amazing thing. “I don’t condemn you. I love you so much that I’ll pay your debt. Go now, and leave your life of sin.”
And just like that, we’re free. The record’s wiped clean. No guilt, no condemnation. We didn’t earn it, don’t deserve it, and can’t really understand it. But we’re free.
That’s what SetFreeToday is about. The line didn’t disappear. I’m still on the wrong side, guilty, awaiting sentencing.
You can’t erase your past. You can’t wipe away the worldly consequences of your own errors or obliterate others’ evil deeds. You can’t go back; life doesn’t provide do-overs.
But you can go forward in hope. Jesus says, “I see you as you are, and I love you more than you can imagine. Leave here with a new beginning. Go now, and leave your life of sin.”
“We are all products of our past but we don’t have to be prisoners of it.” – Rick Warren
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