Friday, August 10, 2018

TIM Good morning, I’m Tim Wise, Senior Adult Minister and Sanctuary Choir Director at Central. In the Gospel of John, we read about a young woman caught in adultery. The Pharisees try to trap Jesus by saying by Jewish law she should be stoned to death. The Pharisees asked Jesus, “What do you say?” They asked this to trap Him so they might have evidence to accuse him. Jesus responds in silence. He doesn’t say anything. He stoops down and begins to write in the sand with his finger. We don’t know what he wrote that day. Perhaps it was scripture. Perhaps he was writing “Where is the man?” Adultery requires another person, right? Or maybe he was writing down the sins of the Pharisees. While we don’t know what Jesus wrote that day, I believe his heart was aching for this woman. He was feeling her emotional distress. Finally, Jesus stands and says, “Let he that is without sin throw the first stone,” and one by one the Pharisees depart because they recognized none of them were sinless. Jesus transferred the humiliation from the woman to the religious leaders, but it doesn’t end there. Jesus offers compassion and grace and a message for us all to take away. Jesus says, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, Lord,” she answers. And Jesus tells her, “Then neither do I. Go now and sin no more.” Just as Jesus did with this adulterous woman, Jesus does the same to us. He doesn’t condemn us. But he does offer us salvation. May you receive the forgiveness of our good, good father and go and sin no more.