(Slide 1) A public reading of Luke 13:10-17 followed by a dramatic reading entitled ‘Christ on Trial: Witness: An Adulterous Woman’ written by Elsa L. Clark, Peter Mead, Arden Mead and Mark Zimmermann. © 2007 Creative Communications for the Parish.
(Slide 2) What is Jesus being accused of this morning?
(2a) If we would have been here the first Sunday of Lent, we would have heard from Matthew, a tax collector, to whom Jesus simply said, ‘Follow me.’ We would have heard the charge from the prosecuting attorney of ‘befriending sinners.’
(2b) Two weeks ago we heard from a woman who had been seriously ill and was miraculously healed by Jesus in a synagogue one Sabbath day. The charge from the prosecuting attorney after her testimony was ‘ignoring religious custom and the Law.’
(2c) Last week we heard from Nicodemus and in light of his testimony, Jesus was accused of being ‘delusional.’ However, what about this morning? What is Jesus being accused of?
(2d) It seems that Jesus is now being accused of judging people and forgiving sins because He has done two things: 1. He said to Pharisees, ‘…let those who have never sinned throw the first stones!” 2. He said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”… “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”
Why is this a problem? Why is Jesus being accused of judging people, people for whom faith was a way of life and who were held in high regard by many people (just remember how the crowd came to the defense of the Pharisees and the Law when Pilate tried to release Jesus). These people were educated and powerful people. They were the pastors and the teachers of the faith. Why judge them as being sinful?
Then there is this woman, whom we are shown in our dramatic introduction from a different perspective than just a shameless woman. She is in a tough spot. She has been caught (supposedly) in the act of adultery, a capital offense in that day, and she is headed (supposedly) for a meeting with those who will decide her fate. But they bring her to Jesus as bait to trap Him as John says, ‘into saying something they could use against him…’
So this woman, already publicly shamed and humiliated, is now being used as a pawn by ‘religious’ people for the purpose of getting some dirt on Jesus. Nevertheless, there is one thing that exposes their tactic and causes Jesus to out flank them. He knew the Law (and their hearts) better than they did and they failed to bring another person along with this woman as part of their case for stoning her.
(Slide 3) (3A) in Leviticus 20:10 we read, ‘If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife, both the man and the woman must be put to death.’
(3B) Then over in Deuteronomy 22:22 we read, ‘If a man is discovered committing adultery, both he and the other man’s wife must be killed.’
(3C) WHERE’S THE MAN?
Don’t know! Maybe there wasn’t a man and this woman was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe she was being abused by her husband who had more rights than she did. So she was dragged, perhaps kicking and screaming at first, into this crowd and dumped at Jesus’ feet. Or maybe she was guilty and the man… dare I say it… was one of them!
Jesus’ response was interesting… Writes John in verse 6, Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. And we have always been fascinated with what He wrote.
Let me suggest this morning that perhaps He wrote one of these two verses in the dust and it took the wind out of their sails because they had not brought the guilty male to the party. Therefore, Jesus says, “All right, stone her. But let those who have never sinned throw the first stones!”
Jesus did not say, ‘let those who have never committed adultery throw the first stones.’ He said, ‘let those who have never sinned throw the first stones.’ His blanket statement about their sinfulness causes them to stop, think, and finally admit in their walking away that they are not sinless. Maybe that is what He started writing in the dust – their sins.
But then late last week, as I met with a colleague for our Thursday morning coffee, he pointed out to me a passage in Jeremiah 17 which says this in my translation:
(Slide 4) O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who turn away from you will be disgraced and shamed. They will be buried in a dry and dusty grave, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water.
But in the New International Version it says (Slide 5), ‘O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of the living water.’
Maybe Jesus started writing their names because they rejected Jesus and so, in a very symbolic way, Jesus buried them.
Which may have left the woman confused and wondering was going to happen next. What happened next is an experience that signifies the coming new Covenant. He does not condemn her, he forgives her, and tells her to ‘Go and sin no more.’ Leave! You are free! Change your ways and live forgiven!
Is Jesus guilty of judging? Yes, He is guilty. However, so are the Pharisees because they bent the Law to their agenda.
Is Jesus guilty of forgiving? Yes, He is guilty. That is why God sent Him to earth – to die on the cross for our sins so that we can experience God’s forgiveness.
This leads me toward my conclusion with some important distinctions made by Christian counselor Henry Cloud in his book, Changes That Heal: How to Understand Your Past to Ensure a Healthier Future. They are important because they require us to accept important realities that are a part of Jesus’ encounter in this passage and His message and mission to humankind.
These two realities are: (Slide 6) Grace and Truth.
(6A) Cloud says this about Grace… ‘Grace is the first ingredient necessary for growing up in the image of God. (6B) Grace is unbroken, uninterrupted, unearned accepting relationship.’
(Slide 7) About Truth Cloud says, (7A) it is the ‘second ingredient necessary for growing up in the image of God… (7B) it is what is real; it describes how things really are.’
He goes onto also say, ‘Truth without grace is judgment’ and ‘Grace without truth is license.’ In other words, with no grace, the straight jacket of legalism and judgmentalism is put on us. On the other hand, without truth the false freedom of doing whatever we want eventually traps us and robs us of our souls. Both are necessary if we are to grow in our faith and relationship with the Lord as well as with others.
He then comes to our main text as an illustration of Grace and Truth working together. He concludes that only by showing grace through compassion and forgiveness of her sin and admitting the truth through his acknowledgement and acceptance of who she truly was – ‘an adulteress’ as Cloud says, was she able to truly experience the healing and forgiveness God through Christ has made possible.
I also underscore all of this with a couple of verses out of John 1. First, verse 14 (Slide 8): ‘So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.’ Then verse 17: ‘For the law was given through Moses; God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ.’
The Law of Moses, the code of conduct for the people of God, highlights our sins and shortcomings. It was the way guilt made its presence known in the human heart.
But, when Jesus came, died on the cross for our sin that the Law could not deal with but only remind us of it, and resurrected from the dead, God’s love and faithfulness kicked in on our behalf. So instead of being stoned, we are told, ‘neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more!’
Where do you see yourself in this story? If we are truly honest, we see ourselves in both the Pharisees and in the woman. We have been pointed at and done the pointing at others.
However, let’s remember that we are forgivable. We are not beyond forgiveness either for our finger pointing or for the reasons people point finger at us. The Lord wants us to live forgiven and free!
We have seen some powerful images and heard powerful testimony this morning. It has caused us to think about others about whom we are concerned. I also think that it has caused us to reflect on our lives the alienation we have sometimes felt from the church and, more important, God.
But I would remind us that while we sometimes have felt invisible to others and others invisible to us, God sees us all and knows exactly where we are and where He wants us to be – in a right relationship with Him and a right relationship with others.
Let us look to Him for our forgiveness and our freedom. Let us also, be looking for, and seeing, that man or woman out there who needs to find Jesus, too. Amen.
Quotes from Henry Cloud are from Changes That Heal: How to Understand Your Past to Ensure a Healthier Future. © 1990, 1992 by Zondervan Publishing.
Power Points for this sermon are available by e-mailing me at pastorjim46755@yahoo.com and asking for ‘031807slides’ Please note that all slides for a particular presentation may not be available.
