Founded by Bryant Wright, Right from the Heart is a
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The Writing in the Sand Nov 01 2009
"Jesus stooped down and with his finger, He wrote on the ground." - John 8:6
The Pharisees had just brought an adulteress before Jesus and demanded, “Jesus, what do you say?”
Silence.
The Bible doesn’t tell us what Jesus wrote in the sand that day.
Maybe He wrote scripture.
Perhaps He was writing, “Where is the man?” Doesn’t adultery involve two?
Or perhaps He was writing the sins of the Pharisees who were accusing this woman.
Maybe Jesus just needed time to collect His thoughts, because He was angry that they were humiliating this woman just to get at Him.
I have no idea what He wrote, but I’ll tell you what I believe was taking place. I believe that Jesus’ heart was absolutely breaking as He knelt in the sand. When He looked at this woman, His passion for the lost was causing His heart to break at how she was being treated as an object, unworthy of life. His heart was also breaking because He looked at the Pharisees and realized they just didn’t get it. Jesus would have been totally justified to get in the Pharisees faces and say, “You guys don’t get it! I came not to judge but to save.” (John 3:17)
But Jesus didn’t do that. He didn’t blow His top and blast them. In an amazing display of self-control and compassion for this woman, He finally stood and said, “Whoever is without sin, you throw the first stone.”
They slowly drifted away – dropping their stones as they left. Jesus, in a moment, transferred the humiliation from the woman to the religious men. What wisdom. What a man, this Jesus. You gotta love Him. I surely do. How about you?
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6 Comments
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Yes, report it NevermindI have allways loved this particular scripture. We are all too quick to want to judge someone else when if we would just stop and think, our sins are just as bad as someones elses.
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Yes, report it NevermindYes, I do love him too.
There are so many lessons here, as with most of what is recorded about Jesus' actions and teachings. For me, one of the most powerful is the obvious contrast between judgement and mercy. The Pharisees thought they had Jesus cornered on a legal technicality. Yes, the woman was guilty. But, she was also being used. When the tables were turned on the Pharisees, they were "in the dock". At least they were honest enough to see their predicament.
I agree with Jerry. We are very quick to see sin in others and slow to admit our own.
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Yes, report it NevermindPS - I love the way he preserved the woman's dignity and gave her an opportunity for a "new beginning".
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Yes, report it NevermindIt's funny, I was just reading this story not even 10 minutes before I saw this devotional. :-D The whole writing in the sand thing was puzzling me as well. I just seems odd that in this story that sums up Christ's teachings, something so vague would be so prominent. But that said, the point is forgiveness and not being held to the law. None of us is perfect, and none of us are worthy of judging each other.
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Yes, report it NevermindYou know this never happened right? The story was added to the bible somewhere around the 4th century. Totally made up. Even the Dallas Theological Seminary admits this.
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Yes, report it NevermindWhile it is true that the Pericope de Adultera is not found in the few text surviving today from the period 200 - 400 AD, the scholars who lived around 400 and studied what they considered to be ancient text at that time, acknowledge the periscope did exist.