Second Chances
by Maynard Pittendreigh
John 8:1-18
1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.
3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group
4 and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.
5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?"
6 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.
7 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."
8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 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.
10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
11 "No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."
There was a time when a person could start over in life.
In the history of the Old West, that was often the motivation of putting a few belongings into a covered wagon and risking your life to move hundreds of miles to a new frontier.
The movie Insomnia tells the story about a crime that takes place in Alaska. At one point in the story there is a moment when a woman tells a police officer “There are two kinds of people who live in Alaska. Those who were born here. And those who are running away from something.”
It’s hard to do that now. Everyone who applies for a job today has to submit to background checks that thoroughly review your history. The Internet makes it easy for people to check your past, and harder for you to get a fresh start in life by simply moving from one place to another.
I think the only people who can really do that in this day and age are those career criminals who turn over evidence to the FBI and enter the Witness Protection Program.
But sometimes you just need to start over.
Some of us need a second chance in life.
And in the Gospel of John, we learn that you don’t have to move West, head to Alaska, or enter the Witness Protection Program.
All you need to do is encounter Christ.
The story is well known and familiar to most of us. Jesus is at the Temple in Jerusalem and a group of Pharisees brought a woman to Christ. She had been caught in the act of adultery and they remind Jesus that the Law of Moses insisted that she be stoned. They ask Jesus “what should we do?”
They did this to set a trap for Jesus. By this time in the Gospel of John, Jesus is losing his popularity and some religious leaders are wanting to put a final end to his ministry. So they are actively trying to find some way to destroy his credibility and a good way to do that would be to trap Jesus into saying that the Law of Moses was meaningless.
And the Law was very clear. The Old Testament book of Deuteronomy 22:21 says, "’If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.”
What’s interesting here is that the Old Testament Law doesn’t specify that she must be executed by stoning. It’s almost as if the Pharisees are slightly misquoting the Law in order to provoke Jesus into a nit-picking debate about what the Law says and what it doesn’t say.
But Jesus doesn’t do that. He stays focused on the real issues. He kneels down and begins to write on the ground with his finger.
The Pharisees continue to badger Jesus with their question.
But Jesus ignores the question and asks, “Is there anyone here who has never sinned? Let the person without sin cast the first stone.”
And with that said, Jesus returns to writing on the ground. The way the wording is in the Greek text is that Jesus was writing against someone.
Traditionally, it has been believed that he was writing something against the Pharisees – perhaps listing the sins which they had specifically practiced. (1)
Whatever Jesus was writing, that and the mere question of who is without sin is enough to deflate the antagonistic crowd. One by one they all leave until only Jesus and the woman are left.
Jesus, who was the only one who was truly without sin, could have justifiably cast the first stone. But he doesn’t. Instead he tells her to go, and to sin no more.
The grace of Christ and His forgiveness gives us a second chance.
In the movie, City Slickers, there are three life long friends discussing their lives. One of them is in tears. He has committed adultery with a young checkout clerk from the grocery store he manages. He has lost his wife. Because the store he manages belonged to his father in law, he has lost his job. His whole life is a disaster. He has nothing more to live for.
But one of his friends says, “No, that’s not true. Remember when we were kids and we would play ball, and someone would hit the ball and it would get stuck in a tree – we’d all yell ‘do over.’ And we’d get the ball out of the tree and do that play all over again. You’re life isn’t over. It’s a do-over. You have a chance to turn your life around.”
Some of us need a do-over. Some of us need a second chance.
The woman caught in the act of adultery. She comes face to face with execution. Instead of meeting death, she meets Jesus. She has a do-over. She has a second chance.
The same is true for the embezzler, the liar, the selfish, whatever you’ve been – or are – through Jesus you get a do-over. A second chance.
Now, that is a wonderful truth that we find in this passage.
Jesus came to give us a second chance in life.
Jesus forgave the adulterer, he will forgive us.
But this is a text that is filled with problems.
One problem involves this business of judging others. (2)
Many people believe that we should not judge other people.
Christians especially, should not judge other people.
But is that really true?
We tell our children and teenagers all the time to judge others. “Don’t hang around the wrong crowd. Stay away from those who take drugs.”
When we get married, we judge someone – “is this someone I want to spend the rest of my life with?”
When we elect elders or call ministers we judge those people – “is this a person who is spiritually mature? Does this person live a Christian life?”
And what’s wrong with that?
Would you want your school to hire someone without judging whether or not that person was a convicted sexual offender?
Would you want to elect an elder who had a reputation for embezzlement?
Would you want you teenager hanging around drug dealers?
Where did we ever get the notion that Christians should not judge other people?
The Bible tells us to be discerning of others.
St. Paul says in I Corinthians (15:33), “Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character.’”
In the Old Testament, Psalm 1 says, “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.” And elsewhere it says (Ps 26:4), “do not sit with deceitful men, or consort with hypocrites.”
The problem may be in the English language – and perhaps other languages as well. The Bible tells us to be discerning, that we should be aware of the conduct of others. We should be discerning, but we should not condemn others.
But the problem is that we use the English word, “judge” for both discerning and condemning. The Bible tells us to be discerning. The Bible tells us NOT to be condemning. But we use judging in both cases and so we mistakingly think that we should never be discerning about the behaviors of other people.
In this passage, some of your translations will use the word “judge,” while others will use the more accurate word, “condemn.”
What this text teaches is us is that while we should always be judging in the sense of discerning other people’s conduct, we should never be condemning them.
And, in fact, we should be particularly discerning of our own actions.
In Matthew’s Gospel (chapter 7), Jesus says, “Judge not, that you be not judged.” And he means by this, “do not condemn others.” But he goes onto talk about how it is easy to see the faults of others, but we need to examine ourselves more.
St. Paul said in his letter to the Corinthians, (2 Cor 13:5), “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.”
Judging yourself, examining yourself, is expected of us.
When Jesus says, “Go and sin no more,” he is calling on that woman to judge herself – not in the sense of condemning, but in the sense of discerning and self-examination.
It is a question that we need to face as we seek to get second chances in life, as we seek Christ’s forgiveness. Have we properly examined and judged ourselves?
Another problem with this text is that almost makes forgiveness so easy, that we are tempted to cheapen the grace and forgiveness God offers us.
Have you ever received an apology for something, and you didn’t want to accept it because it was offered in a shallow manner?
Someone parks their car next to yours. They open the door, dent your car door, and offer a simple, “Opps, sorry about that,” and then they walk away.
You almost want to say, “Wait a minute. Come back here. I don’t forgive you. I want you to fix my car.”
And it’s not just with the simple things.
I don’t know how many times I’ve had a husband and wife in my office. They are there because their marriage is falling apart. There has been adultery, or abuse, or any number of very, very serious things. And one of them will finally say with great frustration, “I’ve said I’m sorry. What more can I do?”
And then the other will say with great pain, “but you always say that, and then you do it again.”
Forgiveness from Jesus is free of cost for us, but not free of responsibility.
Jesus forgives the woman caught in adultery, but then says to her, “go and sin no more.”
Jesus gives us a do-over in life. He gives us a second chance. But he does this with a great expectation that we will take benefit of that second chance and get our lives back on track.
I used to work in the Department of Corrections, the state prison system in South Carolina. And from time to time, there would be a prison break. It was never as dramatic as it is in the movies. No spotlights beaming from the guard towers, no machine guns, no sirens. We were a minimum security prison, so we didn’t have any of that. So for us a jail break was always low key. The inmates would just disappear and we would find out the next time count the inmates and come up short.
The first order of business was always to go to their homes.
Almost without fail, that’s where they would be.
They just go back to their home and we’d capture them.
That’s the way it is for all too many of us when we find Christ or experience forgiveness. We tend to go back to the same old place in our lives, doing the same old things, committing the same old sins.
Christ doesn’t forgive the woman so she can live and commit adultery again. He forgives the woman so she can live and abide by the Law of God.
Jesus says in Matthew’s Gospel (7:20-21), “By their fruit you will recognize them. Not everyone who says to me, ’Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
And in the New Testament book of James (2:26), we read, “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”
We do not earn forgiveness through good works, but when we receive forgiveness, we ought to be inspired to live a life of good works.
“Go and sin no more,” is a message that many people do not hear in this text. They happily hear Christ say, “I do not condemn you,” but they waste their second chance in life by not improving their life for God.
Whatever you are, or whatever you’ve been, Christ gives you a second chance – don’t waste it. When you hear Jesus say to you, “Neither do I condemn you,” as he said to the woman, be sure you also hear what else he said to that woman – “Go and sin no more.”
Copyright Maynard Pittendreigh, 2002
All Rights Reserved
