A Matter Of Life Or Death

In this week’s lesson (John 8:1-11; 56-59), Jesus refused to condemn a woman who by law was to die by stoning because of her sin.  And then, Jesus avoided being stoned to death by a misguided mob who refused to believe that He is the I AM, God incarnate. 

but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 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.  (John 8:1-6) In an effort to trap Jesus and publicly humiliate Him, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought a woman they had caught in an act of adultery to Jesus as He was teaching in the temple courts. They wanted to force Jesus to either (1) condemn this unnamed woman to death (in violation of Roman prohibition against Jewish religious killings) or (2) to ignore Jewish law (which required capital punishment for this sin) .  Notice that they only brought the woman, but the man that she was in the act with is missing.  This is evidence of their disingenuousness with regard to seeking a just and righteous judgment of this sin.  In fact the Law of Moses required both the man and the woman to be stoned (see Leviticus 20:10). In every respect, these Pharisees and scribes (teachers of the law) were guilty themselves of attempting to set up Jesus in order to accuse and kill 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.”  (John 8:7-11) Jesus heard their call for Him to condemn this woman.  Instead Jesus called for any of them who was without sin, to initiate the act of capital punishment.  In doing so, Jesus exposed the fact that none of us are without sin.  When we seek to judge others, we must be careful to recognize that we are not perfect and we have been saved from death and given eternal life only because of God’s grace. We deserved to be condemned under the Law, but we were pardoned and we received the unmerited favor of God to inherit His kingdom.  Jesus message to us who have received God’s grace is to “go and sin no more”.  In other words, we are to no longer desire a life of sin, but of righteousness. 

Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.” “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!” “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.  (John 8:56-59) As the Pharisees questioned Jesus about whether He considered Himself greater than Abraham, He answered them with the claim that He is God (note His use of the divine title “I AM”) and that by virtue of His being God, He existed before Abraham.   And although they revered Abraham as their father, He in fact is greater than Abraham.  Further, Jesus stated that Abraham himself acknowledged Him as greater.  The people refused to believe Jesus’ claim that He is God and took it as blasphemous.  They sought to condemn Jesus and carry out the capital punishment by stoning Him.  But His hour had not yet come (in other words, the appointed time for His death had not come yet).

Like the woman caught in the act of adultery, we are guilty of sins that, by God’s law, rightfully render us subject to death.  But, John 3:17 says that “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through Him”.  So, just as this woman found refuge in her connection with Jesus, we too find refuge in Him when we come to Him in faith.  In Jesus, we are are not condemned to a death sentence for our sins.  Instead, we are saved, forgiven and blessed with eternal life.  However, like those who sought to stone Jesus for identifying Himself as God and refused to believe in Him, those who refuse to believe do stand condemned.  The choice belongs to each of us, believe and be saved to eternal life, or refuse to believe and stand condemned to death. And that literally makes our decision to believe or not to believe… a matter of life or death. 

Blessings, Rev. Glenn 

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. ~ John 3:17-18