GOD BENDS DOWN BEFORE SINNERS
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Opening Prayer
I come to your Word, Father, knowing that in its pages, I always find truth, encouragement, and direction. Help me to understand what you show me today and to apply it.
Read JOHN 7:53–8:11
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
8 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, “Let any one of you who is without sin 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.”
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
‘Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.’1
Tell me, ancient scribe Reuben: what do you remember most about that day—when you dragged (only) the woman from her adulterous bed to the busy temple court? Was it the noise? Her cries of protest dimming to a whimper amid the hustle of city life? The Galilean accent of Jesus telling a story, the laughs and exclamations of the listening crowd? The lull when you interrupted him, depositing there your human visual aid, your case study? The hush that felt endless and deafening as your test question hung in the air unanswered? The piercing invitation Jesus gave to the sinless to set the stoning in motion? The eventual shuffling of feet as each accuser dispersed?
Reuben, what do you recall most vividly about that scene? Was it the body movements that took on a wordless eloquence? Jesus sitting with the ease of a teacher, surrounded by the curious in rapt attention? His stooping form, responding to your confrontation by turning his face away from everyone, to doodle in the sand at his feet? The way he straightened himself up to look into the eyes of each one, including you, as he finally responded with his own challenge? His bending down again, to write in the dust, offering space for you to stop and think? I wonder: did that mesmerizing finger look anything like the finger scribing God’s commandments at Mount Sinai, the law you claimed to love?
All these years later, Reuben, what lingers in your heart? As you walked away, did some of the shame you poured on the woman stick to you? As you visualize her standing there, exposed, condemned, alone, did her public disgrace reveal something hidden in you? As you left Jesus with her that day, what did you want him to say to her? What do you wish he might say to you now?
Apply
Where are you in this story? Imagine you are there and watch for what Jesus might be saying to you.
Closing prayer
I confess, Jesus, that there are times when it is all too easy for me to neglect your call for grace and mercy, to judge and even condemn. I ask for your forgiveness and for a heart more in tune with yours.
1 Ps 139:23, 24
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