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1. The battle begins at home:
The story begins in chapter 5 where Jesus heals a man at the Pool of Bethesda. It’s a familiar story of the man who had been lying near the pool for 38 years, but could never make it in to be healed. Jesus heals the man, ending 40 years of pain and sadness and sickness, but because the healing happened on the Sabbath, it can’t be accepted. The man gets caught carrying his mat, and when questioned about carrying it one the Sabbath the leaders soon find out he was healed by Jesus. When confronted Jesus confirms His role in the healing and even calls God His Father. And from chapter 5 through 8 the church leaders are in a roar because of what this man has done. The start of chapter 6 mentions time passing, then the feeding of 5000, yet in the middle of chapter 7 people are still complaining about him healing on the Sabbath - days or even several weeks after this man was healed.
They call Him demon possessed; they state that He has deceived and mind controlled all the “common people” because they don’t know the law; they even question his validity because none of the senior pastors, bishops, elders, or deacons believe him. All of this because He did not follow proper church protocol. (John 7:45-49)
So while these things are happening Jesus takes a step to the Mount of Olives - I’d image for a spiritual reset & recharge, and returns to the temple to share a message again. And while He is teaching, in the middle of a sermon, the leaders interrupt, charge in, woman in tow, to present to Jesus a woman caught in the act.
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2. In kindness we share peace
Think about this: Jesus is in the middle of the sermon. He’s in the flow of the spirit. Minds are being impacted. People are in the congregation saying things like “how is He able to speak so profoundly?” “Why have I never heard this before?”. Hearts are changing and in the midst of a powerful act of the spirit the church leaders dismantle it all in an effort to discredit Jesus. It is amazingly saddening to me to see the lengths people will go to get rid of someone they don’t want. It is even more saddening to me how people will use others as guinea pigs in the process of getting rid of someone they don’t want.
What is amazing to me is how Jesus responds to the attack.
He doesn’t erupt in a barrage of attacks laced in anger because they interrupted his sermon.
He doesn’t pick up along with the accusers, “well - Leviticus 20:10 does state ‘If there is a man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, one who commits adultery with his friend’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.’ It’s tight but it’s right - so you have to deal with it.
He doesn’t say well, we need to address this now. Protocol states that the case must be brought before the church conference, if only after approval by the steward board, so that the official board can then submit a request to the quarterly conference so that if need be it can be forwarded as a discussion item for the Annual Conference subject to decision by the bishop. Her fate is at stake right now!
I was at a church conference 3 years ago when 2 members of a church approached a bishop pleading because the pastor of their church had nearly one hundred of thousand dollars for personal expenses. The members had sought legal counsel and had actually won the case legally and were pleading with the bishop to recognize this so that the pastor could be removed from service and placed under judicial review. At that moment the bishop condemned them for not following correct protocol and having the issues presented at a church and quarterly conference. The bishop asked the presiding elder who oversees the pastor, and the elder refused to acknowledge this. When the members would not stop complaining the _____ were sent in to physically remove them.
How does he respond to the accusers? How does he respond to the accused?
He brings peace to the situation. Many times when we are caught off guard, corned even, rather than firing back, getting hot and screaming, or just passing the situation off we’ve got to bring a little peace. How?
Jesus just slows down, stops even- He scribbles something on the ground. People have been trying to say what He wrote for years. I don’t think that’s the point. I think the point is that he just paused.
When we can just throw a pause in the situation, we can:
Access the situation
Stop and pray - silently or publicly.
Stop and think about what to say so that we don’t put our feet in our mouths
Let people - including ourselves - calm down and breathe.
Let others speak.
Or just see how someone else is doing.
Silence can be a powerful instrument
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3. In kindness we share hope and love
I think at it’s simplest level, hope is just having a small chance at believing things can get better when they don’t seem possible. It’s a wish, a prayer, a desire to God to make something different. Hope is something we share with and for each other, even if they can’t have it.
I’ve had to have hope for my wife over the course of this year. There have been some pretty significant things in her life that have really rocked her world. The past is saying that she’s destined to fall and not recover, and while she at times has not been very hopeful, I’ve had to be.
I’m hopeful of the future of our church, we are not large in numbers, we’ve no sanctuary, or educational building, or fellowship hall, but I’m looking over where we are and where we’ve come from and I’m very hopeful of what the future holds.
Where is the hope in standing someone in front of the church - in plain sight of everyone - so that she can be made example of. I don’t know this, but I’d probably argue that if this woman was caught in the act:
she may have been setup: the accusers could have met, planned, setup, scoped her out, and probably even paid the guy who she was caught with
she was forced down several streets for all to see and condemn
she was publicly chastised and called out
she was spat upon, possibly even punched and kicked while literally being dragged down dirt roads
she was probably even naked for all to see
and in the midst of all this torture and abuse, she was then dragged back to the temple, doors forced open, forced down the center aisle, and placed at the alter in front of the pastor to see and condemn publicly before the congregation.
My question: do these kinds of things happen today?
Are people setup?
Are meetings had prior to calling someone out with alterior motives - sinister, ungodly motives even?
Are people’s reputations put on the line and dragged through the streets
Just so they can be brought down the aisle and destroyed because of someone else’s personal gain
Well, I believe that these things happen everyday, not just in church, but at our homes, our workplaces, our schools even. And if it hasn’t already happened one day a person will come to us telling the story of someone who was caught in sin, throwing a scripture out in our face, asking us what we think or what were going to do to see what side of the Christian fence we lie on. And when it happens how will we respond?
Will we join the conviction or will we offer love and hope like Christ did?
Hope that someone cares
Hope that it’s not the end of the road
Hope that in Christ there is a chance for something new
Praise God, that Christ can see through all this and give hope - a chance at something new, a chance to turn the situation around, a chance at life when she is in the middle of a death sentence.
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4. In kindness we share faith
Yes, we share faith about God and Christ, but I believe sometimes it’s just as great to share faith in others.
She knows she is wrong. There is no doubt. But rather than call her out He simply says: Go on your way. From now on, don’t sin."
When we love others like Christ loves them, I believe it also means letting them know that we’ve got faith in Christ, and faith that they can overcome. He didn’t have to give her a five point thesis on adultery. Or how she got lucky this time, but just shared love.
