Title: Guilt and Grace
Text: John 8:1-11
Thesis: In the face of guilt, condemnation and judgment… Jesus speaks words of grace and transformation.
Introduction
An attorney tells the story of a man who died. Speaking to the widow he said, “Your husband did not leave a will so we need to know the last words he said to you.” She replied, “I really don’t want to tell.” The attorney persisted, “Look, he did not leave a will so it is important that we know what his last intentions were.” Again she said, “No, I don’t want to tell you. It was between the two of us.” With a bit more urgency the attorney pressed on, “Please, I beg you; tell us what his last words were.” “Okay, I’ll tell you. The last thing he said to me was, ‘You don’t scare me. You couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn with that old gun.’”
You could say, “They caught her red-handed.” You could say, “She was guilty as charged.”
The same could be said of the woman in our text today.
I. Guilty as charged
As Jesus was speaking the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. “Teacher,” they said, “This woman was caught in the act of adultery.” John 8:3-4
Our story today is one of those classic “sex sells” stories. We are well informed regarding the FBI investigation into a seemingly unrelated issue that led to an e-mail trail that revealed the ongoing saga of CIA Director David Petraeus’ extramarital affair with Paula Broadwell. They were caught “red-handed.” (The term “caught red-handed” has Scottish origins. The allusion is that when a person is caught with blood on his hands after a murder or a wildlife poaching, he has been caught red-handed. For example, “If he is not caught red-handed” or “with blood on his hands” the sheriff cannot arrest him.”) Our story today centers around a woman who was caught red-handed, in the act of adultery.
This whole scenario reeks of injustice. The accusers were not so much concerned with upholding the law as they were about trapping Jesus into saying something they could use against him. They were not nice men and they were willing to make a public spectacle of and humiliate a woman… even stone the woman to death if need be.
The law stipulated no one could simply be accused of adultery and stoned to death… the law required that there be two eye-witnesses. (A husband could not just accuse his wife and get her stoned…)
Additionally, the Jewish Law stipulated that in the case of adultery… if it happened within the town, both the man and the woman were to be taken to the city gates and stoned to death. The man for obvious reasons and the woman for not screaming for help. Deuteronomy 22:23-24 (The assumption was, if she did not scream for help then the act of adultery was consensual. Interestingly, if the act of adultery had taken place in the country the man could be charged and the woman not charged because there would not have been anyone near enough to hear her calls for help.)
The woman was guilty as charged. There were two witnesses who had caught her in the act. Unfortunately, in that culture the woman was to be blamed as the instigators and lacking in moral fiber in upholding the law. It was a throw-back to the Garden of Eden when Adam defended his actions saying, “The woman made me do it!”
The law is somewhat reminiscent of Congressman Todd Akins’ comments to the effect that women’s bodies have ways of preventing pregnancies in cases of “legitimate rape.” If the woman is truly taken advantage of she will not get pregnant… so if she gets pregnant the act was consensual.
And if that were not injustice enough, where was the man? He too was caught in the act of adultery. The law stipulated that both the man and the woman are to be charged. Not exactly fair…
Illustration: When I was a young person we would occasionally hear of a pastor requiring a young woman who became pregnant to confess hers sin to the congregation and ask their forgiveness. And so she would tearfully stand before her church family and dutifully confess her sin as did Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter. Though she did not have to wear a big, scarlet letter “A” sewn on allher dresses as did Hester Prynne, she was a marked young woman. So where was the guy while she bore the brunt of the guilt and shame?
We can only imagine the depths of that woman’s humiliation and dread. And it would seem that her fate rested in the hands of Jesus.
So it is we find Jesus hooked on the horns of a dilemma.
II. On the horns of a dilemma
“Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “…the law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”
They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him. John 8:5-6
A dilemma is being in a position where you have to make an undesirable or unpleasant choice.
I’ve been trying to keep track of the rising stars in the GOP since the election… there’s Governor Chris Christie from New Jersey, Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, and Senator Marco Rubio from Florida. I think it is apparent that the horses are already in the race.
I may be totally misreading things but whoever is the GOP presidential candidate in 2016, he or she will need to broaden the party base in order to appeal to “some” segments of the electorate. However, doing so will not be easy. In a recent interview by GQ magazine, Senator Rubio deftly avoided the potential political costs of answering a question, though obviously well informed on the issue concluded, the answer is a mystery. It was a good answer. (Michael Hainey, “All Eyez on Him,” GQ Magazine, December 2012)
Senator Rubio was faced with a dilemma… if he answered the question one way he would alienate one segment of his constituency. If he answered another way he would alienate another element of the electorate.
In politics, and all politicians do it, a candidate needs some room to move around and exercise some flexibility in order to avoid political consequences of a wrong answer. (William Safire, in his new Political Dictionary calls that creating “wiggle-room.”
Some commentators say that is exactly what Jesus was doing when Jesus stooped down and began writing in the dust. It was a conundrum. It was a dilemma. Here’s why some might say Jesus was looking for a little wiggle-room:
1. If Jesus let her go it would appear he was condoning her sin and violating Jewish law.
2. If he gave permission for her to be stoned he would be in violation of Roman law. The Jews did not
have the authority to take life. Remember when they wished to crucify Christ they had to get
permission from the Roman authorities.
3. If Jesus condemned her he would not only violate his own nature… he would alienate those whom he
was trying to reach. Jesus was known as a friend of sinners.
Jesus was on the horns of a dilemma but Jesus dealt with the guilters candidly and with the accused graciously.
III. Grace Trumps Guilt
Jesus stood and asked the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”
“No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.” John 8:10-11
There are several ways we may look at another person’s sin.
A. We typically see the sins of others as being worse than our own.
It is always fascinating to me how we tend to focus on accusing others of their sins while neglecting our own more acceptable sins. We don’t know that those who were accusing the woman were bad people any more than we are bad people. We do know that they thought they were better than the woman they were accusing.
Do you know what hackles are? Hackles are the fine feathers on the neck of a bird or the hairs on the back of a dog’s neck that raise up when the bird gets its feathers ruffled or a dog gets upset or feels threatened. Because I am a man of modest means I tend to get my hackles up when I hear about someone in a position of power, i.e., ceo’s, speculators, schemers, insider traders, uses that power to feather his own nest at the expense of little people. It may be good business but it is injustice non-the-less. So since I could never and would never do such a thing, I tend to think their sin of greed is worse than my own sin of a having a condemning and judgmental spirit. The woman’s accusers obviously saw her as being more sinful than themselves.
Another way to look at this scenario is to see the accusers as fighting their own demons.
B. We sometimes go easy our own consciences by focusing on the sins of others… particularly when their sin is our sin.
Over the years I have found that those who have overcome an addiction or a habit or a propensity or an indiscretion in their past are the most outspoken and critical of that very thing in others. I don’t know if it is from a sense of pride or self-righteousness that they now feel free to condemn others. Perhaps it is knowledge of their own downfall that compels them to intervene in the lives of others. All I know is that those who crusade hardest against certain sins are people who have themselves been guilty of or have a propensity for those sins. I could cite several once prominent Christians who railed against others only to be caught in that very thing they condemned in others.
Jesus very cleverly got right to the point. He was obviously motivated by compassion for the woman. His hackles were raised by the hypocrisy of her accusers so he simply suggested that whoever was without sin was welcome to cast the first stone. (The woman probably thought Jesus had abandoned her at that moment… and she may well have expected to be struck by a barrage of stones.) Of course they would not because to do so was against the law. But in truth, they could not because they were themselves sinful. And they all, one by one slipped away leaving Jesus and the woman.
But rather than thinking and acting typically or as we sometimes do…
C. We may take our cue on guilt and grace on from observing Jesus Christ.
Jesus saw the woman’s guilt and shame and where her accusers were condemning, he was compassionate.
The accusers saw the depths of her sin… Jesus saw the power of forgiveness. In Jesus, the woman saw a new Lord. And in the woman Jesus saw a new life. So it was he spoke a word greater than guilt… he spoke a word of grace. And implicit in his word of grace was the opportunity for the transformation of the woman’s life. “Neither do I condemn you… now go and sin no more.”
Conclusion
• Maybe you’ve been an accuser and the story serves to give you pause about condemning others.
• Maybe your life has been wrecked and ruined and you are living with condemnation and guilt.
• Maybe you have been hurt by judgmental religious people and you live leery of being condemned again.
• Maybe you are looking for a compassionate Savior and could use a good, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and don’t sin anymore.”
Really… there is something in this story for each of us.
I read a story this week of a businessman who found out that an elderly woman was unable to pay her rent. Feeling pity for her he asked some of his friends if they would help him put some money together to make her current on her rent. They generously put together enough to make her current and see her through two additional months. He went to her house to deliver the money. But despite repeated attempts to get her to answer her door he finally left.
A few days later he saw her on a downtown sidewalk looking very discouraged and destitute. He approached her and said, “Ma’am, some friends of mine found out about your situation and we want to help. We have enough money to catch you up and pay your rent for two months. I came to your house to give it to you. I knocked several times but got no answer.” She kind of gasped and raised her hand to her face. She said, “Oh, I thought you were the landlord coming to evict me.”
If you take nothing away today other than this… know God is not out to punish you, evict you and kick you out into the cold and condemning world. God is out to receive our confessions of sin and forgive us of those sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
When we find ourselves accused, God speaks into our shame and guilt simple words of grace: “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”
Be we the accusers or the accused, may we hear these words of Jesus and take them to heart for ourselves and for others. In the face of guilt, condemnation and judgment, Jesus speaks words of grace and transformation. May we hear those words for ourselves and may we speak those words for others.
