Interrupting the Inevitable
John 8:1-11
Introduction:
I’m from back east…many of you know that...and we generally get more snow than in Toronto. But I remember one particular year about six years ago when the snow was extra heavy. I’m not complaining, mind you, because we’d had a pretty easy go of it as far as winter is concerned. Yet it seemed that nature decided to give us in four easy installments what should have been spread out over more time. Now, once again I want to remind you that I’m not complaining. After all we’re living in Canada, for goodness sake...and you’ve got to expect snow and ice when you’re in Canada in the winter. It’s just that...I was a shoveler.
A shoveler. What that means is that I didn’t have a snow blower, an old pick up with a plow, nor even one of those large, economy sized snow scoops. No, I had a shovel. Just an ordinary, run of the mill, wooden handled, aluminum bladed snow shovel of a rather smallish variety. So, it would snow and I would shovel. It would drift and I would shovel. Then it would snow again and I would shovel some more. I shoveled the steps, the driveway, the walks around the house, the decks, the garbage box, and the mail box. Then it snowed again, and I shoveled it all again.
One morning found me shoveling a driveway full of drifted snow. You know, the kind of snow that requires you to cut cubes with the shovel blade and pry each cube out with a lift on the handle. Now that wasn’t pleasant. Cut, cut, cut, cut, stab, pry, lift and sling. Cut, cut, cut, cut, stab, pry, lift and sling. Over and over again. All the while thinking about back injury, heart attack, and the injustice of nature.
You know, in my lifetime I’ve been a lot of places and seen a lot of things. Magnificent scenery, beautiful people, newborn babies...I’ve seen things that inspired me and motivated me...I’ve seen things that moved me and took my breath away...but I’ve got to tell you that the sweetest sight I’ve ever seen in my life was the end of that driveway. So I stood there looking toward the house from the end of my neatly shoveled handiwork...stood there sweaty and panting, yet with the satisfaction of a job well done. Yes, that was sweet.
Then it snowed some more.
It’s not I minded shoveling, really. It was just the seemingly endless repetition of it all. Snow. Shovel. Snow. Shovel. And always over and over on the same little stretch about 4 meters wide and 10 meters long. I mean, hard work is good and all...but it’s so frustrating when the hard work seems to get you nowhere.
Life’s a lot like that at times, isn’t it? Seems like you just start to feel like you’re getting somewhere and then it you’re snowed under. So you get back at it, work hard and push yourself. Finally, you get a breather. You’ve succeeded! You’ve got few extra dollars in the bank, the car’s running ok, you’ve gotten that promotion, and everyone is healthy... Then the car acts up, your hours get cut, your kid gets sick, and poof! Those few extra dollars? They’re gone too. Yeah. It’s snowed again.
Sometimes life does seem like you’re a hamster in a wheel, like you’re actually living out an old country song where “the harder you work, the behinder you get.” They tell us that hard work never killed anyone, and maybe it hasn’t. But the worry and the stress that usually accompany hard work today certainly have. So you find yourself in a cycle of worry, work, move ahead, get behind, catch up, worry, work...and on it goes. And every once in a while when you’re tucking you’re aching body and tired mind into bed, you find yourself saying to no one in particular, “There’s got to be more to life than this.”
I can think of no better way to describe sin and the effects of sin. Always promising more than it delivers, and always feeding you just enough to keep you hungry, sin keeps you dissatisfied. Sin takes your life into a spin of searching without finding and of yearning without fulfillment. Sin keeps you working hard at being a sinner, consuming the vital energies of your life in the pursuit of greater satisfaction. Deceiving, humiliating, and condemning, sin wears on you until finally, tired and weary, you enter eternity still longing and asking, “Is there no more than this?”
I. The Woman In Adultery
We’ve read this morning the story of a woman caught up in this devastating cycle of sin. While we don’t know her name and have few details of her life, there are some facts we can dig from these verses that may present us with a picture that we can recognize.
First of all, the language of the Bible indicates that she was betrothed...or in our terms, engaged to be married. However, in her times engagement wasn’t simply a space of intense courtship coupled with a diamond ring. Betrothal meant that she was obligated to remain just as faithful to her fiancée as if they had already taken wedding vows. In fact, the law said that sexual relations with a woman who was betrothed was adultery, and was specifically punishable with death by stoning. That’s what the Pharisees were talking about when they brought her to Jesus. The fact that they declared that the law said she should be stoned tells us she was betrothed, but not yet married.
Secondly, that she was betrothed indicates that she was young and about to be married in a few months. Women were married at young ages then, usually around 18, and engagements weren’t long, drawn out affairs. So it’s likely that she wasn’t even out of her teens when sin made its move to destroy her life.
Third, this may not have been her first of such encounters. The Scripture says that she had been caught in the very act of adultery. Catching her in the very act tells me that someone expected her to do this. And maybe it was expected because it had happened before.
Modern statistics tell us that those who cheat during their engagement are very likely to cheat during their marriage. While time and place has changed, human nature hasn’t. This young woman was in a situation that had spun out of control, and saying “I do” wasn’t going to make things any better. Sin had worked its way in her.
II. The Cycle of Sin
Sin had deceived her. Sin had lied to her about what being with this man would provide; “He’ll love you as you love him,” sin had said. Sin had lied to her about the results; “This is the way that you’ll secure his love! Don’t worry! Things will work out!” Sin had lied to her about the risks; “No one’s going to find out, no one’s going to be hurt!”
The truth was far different. Where was her lover when she was facing the snarling accusations of the Pharisees? Certainly not with her. So much for his love. Things will work out? Not hardly. Her fate couldn’t in any way be construed as “working out.” And no one could even begin to describe the deep and abiding hurt that she, her family, and her friends were all brought to feel because of sin’s deception.
Sin still deceives. Sin still lies. Sin tells you lies about fulfillment and satisfaction. Sin tells you that it will provide what you’re looking for. But it never does. The truth is that sin can’t satisfy. All its pleasures and joys are but temporary things that leave you searching for yet other pleasures and joys. One thrill passes leaving you searching for yet another. One high fades leaving you hoping for yet another. One encounter ends leaving you longing for still another. Nothing lasting, nothing satisfying, only endless searching, hoping, and longing.
Sin tells you lies about safety and security. Sin tells you that you’ll get by, that no one’s going to get hurt, that you are the only one at risk. But there’s always someone else caught in the fallout of your sin, someone else will always suffer with you. Sin doesn’t isolate its effects, but spreads it’s tendrils to those closest and dearest to your heart.
Sin had humiliated her. Her embarrassment and disgrace was almost beyond comprehension as she was torn from the arms of her lover and dragged through the streets of Jerusalem. What she thought was precious was revealed as cheap and tawdry. Her shame was proclaimed in the very temple of God as the Pharisees declared for all to hear, “She was taken in the very act of adultery!” There, in the temple, sin laughed at her.
Sin still humiliates. No matter what sin has promised, you find that its left you unfulfilled and dissatisfied. You thought, “I’ve found it! This is it!” But it was only sin. You proclaimed, “I’m satisfied!” But now you’re not. You declared, “I’m happy!” But how quickly did your happiness fade! Your sin has humiliated you because it has made your dissatisfaction public knowledge. “Finally!” you said, “I’ve found the relationship, the high, the thrill, the possession, the job, the knowledge, the pleasure, that is the answer!” But...the relationship brought heartache, the high brought a headache, the thrill faded, the possession rusted, and the job ended. The knowledge oppressed, the pleasure depressed, and at the end of it all the mocking laughter of sin still rings in your ears.
Sin had condemned her. Her guilt was not questioned, she was guilty indeed. And the fact of guilt brought with it definite condemnation. The law of Moses said that such an one should be stoned to death. Sin had worked in her until it had brought her to the point of ultimate destruction. Now nothing remained but for the sentence to be sanctioned by someone with authority that it might be carried out. Sin had pulled her in, deceived her, lied to her, cheated her, humiliated and mocked her, and now...condemned her.
Sin still condemns. There is no mercy in sin. It is a ravaging force that is never satisfied until you are yourself destroyed. Sin will lure you, tempt you, and lie to you. Then after the fact will humiliate you, scorn you, and see to your ruin. Sin will repeat its pattern of deception, humiliation, and condemnation time and again in your life until finally you are brought to your end.
III. The Hope
There she stood, head bowed in her hopeless condition, trembling as she waited to hear the word “Death” fall from the lips of the Rabbi, the one word that would’ve sent her to her doom. Yet it did not come. Moments passed, and moments stretched into minutes as Jesus seemingly ignored the clamoring of the Pharisees for His judgement. Still it did not come. And when Jesus finally spoke, it was something completely unexpected that took them all, the woman included, thoroughly by surprise.
“The one of you who is without sin can cast the first stone.”
Wait! What’s this? No questioning of the accused? No questions for the witnesses? No questions for the accusers? No! Never. Never any questions about the circumstances of her sin. Never any questions about her motivations for what she’d done. Never any questions about guilt or innocence. Never any questions for the witnesses for coarse details of what they’d seen. No questions for the accusers about the offence and their knowledge of the finer points of law. No! Instead, just a simple statement that had profound implications for the woman, for each witness, and for every accuser...“The one of you who is without sin can cast the first stone.” And the Bible says that the witnesses and the accusers all begin to slowly go, convicted by their consciences of their own sin.
With that short sentence Jesus established that sin is universal. The details of sin differ, but the fact of sin remains. What you’ve done is not what God questions. That you have done is already established. Jesus teaches that the deed of sin is only a manifestation of the reality of sin. Whether it is adultery, (as in our example,) or pride, murder or theft, blasphemy or rebellion, Jesus established that though the symptoms differ, the disease is the same. What you have done you have done not to be a sinner, but because you are a sinner. Your actions and attitudes don’t make you what you are, they reveal what you are.
Yes, God wants you to bring to Him all the particular things you’ve done that are sinful. But far greater than those deeds is the fact that God wants to deal with the root of sin in your life. God can and will provide you with a change of nature. Sin is universal; all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But the cure is universal too. The same thing that is the answer for the alcoholic is the answer for the thief. The thing that serves as the cure for the drug addict is the cure for the liar. What cleanses the adulterer cleanses the blasphemer. What satisfies the hungry will comfort the lonely. What heals the broken hearted will bring joy to those in mourning. The answer of the universe for the sin of the universe is the Lord of the Universe; Jesus Christ.
But Jesus continued. After the crowd of her accusers had melted away, Jesus asked her, “Does anyone accuse you?” She said to Him, “I have no accusers, Lord.” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”
There were two things that Jesus did not do. First of all, He did not “undeceive” her. Deception was accomplished already, and was proven by the fact of her sin. The results of her deception were painfully clear. Secondly, Jesus did not “un-humiliate” her. Humiliation had already fulfilled itself. Nothing could roll back that fact. Jesus did not change what had already occurred, He didn’t change history, He didn’t undo what had already been done.
There was only one thing left that sin had yet to accomplish in the woman’s life; complete her destruction. Her being condemned to death was the only thing that sin had yet to see done. And this is what Jesus stopped in its tracks...the condemnation. “NEITHER DO I CONDEMN YOU! Go and sin no more!” The death, the destruction, the judgment that had been thought inevitable was halted. Sin was stopped cold by those words of the Master. It’s as if He said, “Sin, you may have deceived her. Sin, you may have humiliated her. But I’m not going to let you destroy her!” Jesus interrupted her destruction and provided her with another chance at life.
You may have already been deceived. You may have already been humiliated. But that’s as far as sin needs to go in your life. Jesus can and will interrupt the cycle of sin and save you from certain destruction. Jesus can and will provide you with another chance at life.
You can be free! Your hunger can be satisfied and your search can be over. You don’t have to spend the great energy of your life pursuing satisfaction. You don’t have to live life weary, worn down, wondering if there’s more to life…there is more! The great answer to the great question is here! Jesus Christ can and will free you from your sin! You can be free!
How can such a thing be possible? How can these things be?
You must come to God in faith, believing that He will reward you if you honestly seek Him. That faith will lead you to obey the instructions of the Lord when He declared that you must repent of your sins. To repent means to change your mind about the way you’ve been living, ask God to forgive you of your sins, and then change your direction by turning your back on your old sins and practices. After you’ve repented of your sins, you should be baptized in water in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins can be washed away, and your guilt be removed. Then, the Word of God promises that you will be filled with His precious Holy Spirit that will empower you to live above sin and share with others the wonderful things that God has done for you.
Jesus can satisfy...try Him today.
