***Start off with movie clip***
As humorous as this movie clip is, as it depicts Jesus going around the crowd of people and telling them how they have sinned, it is also really sad. It’s sad because there are a lot of people, some sitting in this very room, that see Jesus and having a relationship with Him being just like this.
I think one could compare this opinion of Jesus to the traffic cop who rides with you in the car for your license test. Obviously, because there are a bunch of you who haven’t gone through this process, let me explain it to you.
On the day of your test, you show up at the parking lot of the Registry of Motor Vehicles, and you wait in line to get into the car for your test. When it is finally your turn, you get into the car with this traffic cop who is very impersonal right from the beginning. You would think they would be a little excided for you because you are, well, might be, getting your license today. You know, it’s a huge thing in your life so they should have like a mini party for each person, with cake or something. But at least a smile and kind hello would be good enough.
Instead, the cop grunts for you to give them your driving permit and paperwork. They write some numbers down on their clipboard, hand your papers back to you and tell you to do your hand signals. As you do each one out the window of your car, the cop makes some check marks on the paper and then says to turn the car on and get ready to drive.
You make sure to buckle your seat belt and then put the car in drive and do your best to follow the officers directions. The whole time you are driving the cop only offers directions, turn here, do a three-point turn here, parallel park there. While the officer isn’t grunting things at you, they are jotting notes down on the paper and checking things off. Occasionally they sigh or make a face while slightly shaking their head, all of which just makes you even more nervous.
Once you finally get back to the parking lot, you stop the car and put it in park and just wait to hear your fait. The cop continues to make some notes and fills out a sheet of paper. The suspense is killing you. You just want to scream out, “WELL…Did I pass?” Eventually, the officer rips off a little piece of paper and hands it to you. Your fate is now in your hands and you go on your way either to celebrate or to practice some more.
Jesus, to a lot of people, is this authority figure just sitting there next to us, being rather impersonal and blunt. He grunts some commands at us and expects us to listen. Meanwhile, He sits there with His clipboard in hand and makes a bunch of checkmarks and notes, occasionally shaking His head or sighing. And then every once and a while throughout this test of life, Jesus rips off this little piece of paper and gives us this list of all these things we need to correct, do better, or start or stop all together. This usually leaves us going through life constantly feeling guilty and like a huge failure.
To accept and believe in a Jesus fitting this description is completely missing a major piece of who He is. That piece is His amazing and unfathomable grace. To help us understand this thing called grace, let’s open our Bibles to John 8:1-11.
***Read John 8:1-11***
Just to begin with a very brief side note, as some of you may have noticed, just before our text for today there is a little parenthesis that reads, “Most ancient Greek manuscripts do not include John 7:53-8:11.” As there is a lot of debate of whether or not this passage was actually written by John, there isn’t much debate on whether or not this story is authentic and true. If want to know more about the reasoning of this little footnote or are concerned, you can talk to me afterwards and I can explain it a little deeper. If not, just ignore it and let’s dive into this story together.
In our text we find Jesus having arrived at the Jewish Temple early in the morning. Apparently the day before he had been at the Temple teaching and speaking with people there and now was back for more. As soon as Jesus got there a crowd gathered and Jesus sat down and began to teach the people more.
As Jesus is speaking to the people, the Pharisees, who were the religious leaders of the Jews at that time, came over and interrupted Jesus. With them, they brought a woman who they exclaimed was caught in the act of adultery and stuck her in front of everybody and exclaimed to Jesus that she must be stoned to death because of her actions. They questioned Jesus, not because they thought He was an authority but instead, as verse 6 tells us, because they wanted “to trap him into saying something they could use against.”
See, if Jesus had said that the women should be stoned, the Pharisees would have accused Jesus of breaking the law laid out for the people in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, which says that both parties, the man and the woman, needed to be stoned and put to death for committing adultery. This would have also given the Pharisees a reason to turn Jesus into the Romans because they did not permit the Jews to carry out their own executions. But then on the other hand, if Jesus had said that the woman should not be stoned, they would have been up in arms about this adulterous woman needing to be punished for her sin.
Now, those of you who are a slightly familiar with the actions of the Pharisees will know and remember that these leaders were all about following the rules. They were all about the law and the check lists on the clipboards. They knew better than everyone else and looked down on the people around them who were sinning. And this wasn’t the first time that the Pharisees had approached Jesus and questioned him about the law.
Earlier on, they had questioned Jesus about a number of things including, but not limited to, eating with sinners at Matthew’s house, why his disciples didn’t fast regularly, doing work on the Sabbath day, using power that was from Satan, ignoring ceremonial hand washing before eating, and ultimately what gets Jesus put on the cross, speaking against God.
As the Pharisees question Jesus about this adulterous woman, Jesus does something rather odd; He kneels down and begins writing on the ground with his finger. To be honest, no one knows what Jesus was writing. Some people say it was a Bible verse, others say it was what He was about to say, and still others say he was writing the sins of the Pharisees or their sexual partners names, but no one knows for sure. Whatever it was though, Jesus used it to buy time to make the Pharisees to think.
Jesus get’s up and expresses to them, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” Then Jesus returned to his writing in the dirt. One by one, the Pharisees slowly slipped away, staring with the oldest, until Jesus and the woman were left alone in the middle of the crowd.
Often times we can be just like the Pharisees. We look around our school and look down upon a whole bunch of people who are dirty, disgusting, and not worthy. We come to Breakaway or to church and look around and see people who, in our mind, don’t deserve to be here. Jesus here makes a very good point in that when we go to point the finger at somebody else, there are three more pointing back at us. Grace and forgiveness is something that we need to extend to others because we are just as dirty, disgusting, and not worthy. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
We also need to extend grace to others because God has extended His grace and forgiveness upon us. Once all the Pharisees had left, Jesus stood up and asks the woman where everyone went and if even one of them condemned her. The woman replies that no one did. At which Jesus replies, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”
Because Christ knew that He would be taking every sin of anyone who accepted him, to the cross later on, there was no condemnation needed. Her adulterous behavior, and other sins for that matter, would be put upon Jesus and taken to the cross as he paid the penalty of death that she deserved. And that is that whole point of grace, this woman deserved death, she didn’t deserve to live. But God freely gave the gift of His Son to this woman, and to all of us who also did not deserve life.
Now, when we sin and disobey God, we need not live in guilt and fear of being punished because even though it was the last thing we deserved, when Christ died on the cross, he died for everything we have done, are doing, and will do. What that doesn’t mean is that we can just do whatever we want, because as he expressed to the woman, to receive the grace and forgiveness, we need to believe in Christ and leave our life of sin behind us as best we can. His pierced hand offering forgiveness is extended to all of us that we might receive his free gift of grace even though we don’t in the least deserve it.
