You go first
How do we handle those who have messed up? I have heard it said that the Christian Army is the only army that kills its wounded. After many years of sitting in churches with all walks of life, I sadly have seen this.
How did Jesus deal with it?
In John 8 there is a familiar story about a woman caught in adultery. Let’s pick up in verse 3: The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 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. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is WITHOUT SIN be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. 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. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
First, let’s talk the woman….she was a Jew otherwise she wouldn’t be guilty under Jewish law and the Pharisees couldn’t have brought her.
Second, Jesus wrote in the ground. I have heard lots of people say what they thought Jesus was writing and how it pertained to the story, but if it was relevant, God would have gotten it to us. I just know Jesus wasn’t going to move until God said move….even if he ignored their repeated questioning.
Third, why did they walk away? These were the Pharisees who boasted in their sinlessness. Paul even alluded to his walk as blameless according to the law. So why did they really leave?
The secret is in the bold words ‘without sin.’ We miss it because of translation, but in the greek that word is a long word anamartetos. This is a little used word, in fact this is the only time it is used in the New Testament at all…and literally means ‘one who has not sinned.’ Does not sound like the English translation missed it. But the key is not in the translation, it is in the word….because anamartetos is only used one time in the greek text of the Old Testament called the Septuagint which all of those Pharisees read. They knew the bible, both Hebrew and Greek. They were in fact teachers of the law….they knew the word.
Why is it important? Because of where that word is used in the Old Testament. Let’s look in Deuteronomy 29:19-21 God is telling the children of Israel to not sin but gives a warning to anyone: “When such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself and therefore thinks to himself, ‘I will be safe (anamartetos) even though I persist in going my own way.’ This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as dry. YHWH will never forgive him; his wrath and zeal will burn against that man. All the curses written in this book will fall upon him, and YHWH will blot his name from under heaven. YHWH will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the Law.
When Jesus was saying to the experts ‘he that is without sin.’ He was saying which one of you is so confident you have no sin (anamartetos) that you’re willing to never be forgiven, you’re willing to bring all the curses in the law of Moses, and willing to have YHWH chasing you down to curse you? Whichever one of you experts is that confident…then by all means…stone her. They knew…never ever ever say you are ANAMARTETOS.
The bottom line is, we are in the reconciliation business, not the judgment business. She was in sin, but what does a sinner need more than anything? A Savior. Luckily for her, she found Him. Sin is still sin, and she was guilty, but so are we. We need more people humble enough to realize, we all screw it up sometimes….We need more people who are willing to take sinners to the savior even if they should have known better, even if they’ve been in church for years…what can we do to reconcile them to the King?
People need love the most, often when they deserve it the least.
