I want to start this blog by saying thank you for those who have been sharing their honest prayer requests through the offering. I want you to know that I sit down each Monday morning to pray through them and at our staff meetings as well. Thank you to those of you who have the courage to share and speak up when I challenge you on Sundays with questions. It is my desire that we look for more creative ways to create interaction and learn together in community!
There’s a time when a company gets it right and dove’s campaign for real beauty does just that. We live in a time where cosmetic surgeons are image consultants and where the picture of true worth is all too easily distorted and that is exactly what takes place here in John 8.
As I reflect on this story it reminds me that we are disconnected. What is it in people that leads them to see someone else as nothing more than an object. It happens when we strip someone of their dignity, their true worth, their true value. It happens all the time and our culture is fixated on rating people. The beginning of the problem in this story is forgetting that this woman had a name, she had a story and she had feelings. One writer said, ‘When people aren’t treated as fully humans, it’s called hell and this is where we find this woman. She is ready to be condemned and Jesus is put on the spot to make a judgment call and He does, but it isn’t at all what was expected. He is the one who connects what we see with the thoughts and very intent of our heart.
Take a step back and peel away the layers… what do you see?
In the beginning God created us in His image. We are image-bearers and then He gave us gender in male and female and gave life meaning. Since the fall we have become disconnected from God, disconnected from the true value of life and have subjected ourselves to a system that rates and assesses value to life. The sad truth is that people have believed the lies that others have told them.
The church is meant to display the new humanity, the real beauty, the new life that Jesus longed for us to experience. When we stand up for those who are being mistreated, abused, neglected, we stand up for God. When we respect the image of God in others, we respect the image that is at the very core of who we are.
As I reflect on this story it reminds me that we are disconnected. What is it in people that leads them to see someone else as nothing more than an object. It happens when we strip someone of their dignity, their true worth, their true value. It happens all the time and our culture is fixated on rating people. The beginning of the problem in this story is forgetting that this woman had a name, she had a story and she had feelings. One writer said, ‘When people aren’t treated as fully humans, it’s called hell and this is where we find this woman. She is ready to be condemned and Jesus is put on the spot to make a judgment call and He does, but it isn’t at all what was expected. He is the one who connects what we see with the thoughts and very intent of our heart.
Take a step back and peel away the layers… what do you see?
In the beginning God created us in His image. We are image-bearers and then He gave us gender in male and female and gave life meaning. Since the fall we have become disconnected from God, disconnected from the true value of life and have subjected ourselves to a system that rates and assesses value to life. The sad truth is that people have believed the lies that others have told them.
The church is meant to display the new humanity, the real beauty, the new life that Jesus longed for us to experience. When we stand up for those who are being mistreated, abused, neglected, we stand up for God. When we respect the image of God in others, we respect the image that is at the very core of who we are.
The Pharisees saw a prostitute, Jesus saw a broken woman.
One of the most powerful things I saw was when I walked in a Christian youth center not too long ago was the pictures on the wall.
They had images of youth that read:
Some see a vandal, we see an artist
Some see a gang member, we see a pastor
Some see a rebel, we see a leader
It is the God sized ability to see hope and potential in everyone that we meet.
It is the very way that people can commit crimes against humanity. It is when they look at someone from another race or culture, background, with a handicap and see them as less than real humans and that is what the concentration camps did and forced labour camps do…they strip people of their humanity Rob Bell
Imagine this woman’s story v1-6
- but for the grace of God go I.
Historically, Christians have divided sin into two categories, sins of the flesh and sins of the spirit.
The flesh includes appetites that usually get out of control, laziness, lust, greed, drunkenness and these sins or idols often lead to other ones, deceit, betrayal.
The second category is sins of the spirit that have more to do with our soul than with our bodies like arrogance, judgmentalism, self righteousness. They usually don’t provoke as much gossip though
Often in the NT we read the story of Jesus confronting sinners of the flesh and sinners of the spirit. The sinners of the flesh knew they were in big trouble, but in all these stories there is also a person guilty of pride and arrogance and Jesus called them blind. They thought they were the classic example of a Christian, keeping themselves unstained by the world, yet Jesus saves his harshest words for them. They thought they were the mature Christians when actually there pride in avoiding the sins of the flesh crippled their ability to love. He clearly laid out that the sins of the spirit were the most destructive and dangerous of them all.
We see a clear picture of this in Luke 18
9To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men–robbers, evildoers, adulterers–or even like this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
13“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
14“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
And, really, when these teachers of the law first signed up, it probably started out well I’m sure they were motivated by love, but somewhere along the way, all their study of Scripture had filled them with pride and their giftedness had made them impatient with the weaker ones.
What is so insidious about the sins of the spirit is that the carriers usually have no clue. When you sin in the flesh, you know you have messed up. With the sins of the spirit, you just continue to walk through life with it growing inside of you.
· Judgmental thoughts
· Superior attitude
· Impatient words
· Bitter resentments
· Little room for love
And people are being weighed down all around us in brokenness and pain with guilt and fear. We need to stand up and take notice and be moved by their condition.
Who Do You Identify With Most… v7-11
Do I see myself more as the tax collector or the Pharisee?
Are we Pharisees at heart?
Do we find it all to easy to point the finger at others?
Do we like sending people on guilt trips?
Do we require things of others that we don’t of ourselves?
Do we impose self made rules that are not written in Scripture?
Do we practice guilty by association?
Do we take ourselves too seriously?
Do we judge by outward appearance?
Are we more comfortable talking about how God worked in the past than today?
Are we more interested in people’s opinions that God’s?
Do we make ourselves feel better by comparing ourselves to others?
Do we create our own loopholes when it comes to obeying God?
Do we tell others that we are more in tune with God than they are?
These statement come from an unbroken life, a life that isn’t ready to be fixed…
So, I have been in the church for as long as I can remember and why is it that we can produce so much pride and judgment? We have forgotten what we are all about, we have to laugh, we’ve lost our joy. What happened here is that these men had forgotten what they were all about, they had forgotten where they had come from.
So what does Jesus do? He bends down and starts writing in the sand and then he straightens up and says, to them, “If any of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.
What did Jesus write? John doesn’t tell us. Some have thought the 10 commandments, another idea more popular, dating back to the 5th century, was that Jesus was writing down the sins of the men in the group. He confronts these men with a decision. If you are going to condemn her, first take a good, hard look at yourself. When sinful people start passing judgment on others, they pass judgment on themselves.
And then, it starts, with the elders of the group, the wise ones, they drop their stones and walk away.
Do you have any stones that you need to let go of?
Paul said that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus Romans 8:1. On Jesus’ team we don’t need to condemn people who stand condemned already. The question is what are we going to do about it? How are we going to love them back into relationship.
How will we let go of judgmentalism that has become so deeply rooted in us.
What have you been holding on to that you need to let go of?
It starts when we identify ourselves more with the tax collector and woman caught in her sin in today’s passage…
Do you throw yourself at the Lord’s mercy? Do you come with your arms open wide? Do you come before Him in humility and grace? Are you broken? That is the real question. More often than not we don’t, really we don’t. We come with a sense of self assurance, but not self awareness. The point of this story is that Jesus can’t fix you unless you are first broken and continually broken. It is in brokenness that we find healing and forgiveness, restoration and a burning flame. A burning flame that burn away the self righteousness, self assurance and shame and refines us and makes us new.
What are we all about? GRACE, accept people and TRUTH, bring freedom!
No as we close, notice that Jesus doesn’t stop there, He tells her to go, now and leave your life of sin. He was the only one who had the right to condemn her, but He doesn’t. Go and sin no more…These words fill her with pain because of her past, but they fill her with hope because the future looks bright, someone’s believes in her!
He doesn’t approve of her behavior, but He wants her to be free! Galatians 5:1 It was for freedom… True forgiveness is treating the person as if the offence never happened in the first place and you can’t muster that kind of love on your own, no matter how many times you tell yourself, its is calling on the one to enable you to love, the one who has loved us with an everlasting love.
You cannot offer acceptance and withhold forgiveness.
We are in the life saving business, radical acceptance and forgiveness produce what judmentalism and condemnation cannot, a transformed life. We walk through their sin or failure and give them hope, courage and strength to overcome.
Let’s be authentic and share our struggles and in doing so give others to freedom to share and realize, hey, we don’t have it all together. We are just humbled by God’s grace and forgiveness in our lives.
v11 What it means to go and sin no more…
When you realized that you’ve sinned, go immediately to God. Go the first time you feel convicted. Be very specific about your sin and be very broken about its severity. Turn to Him in sincere repentance, and you’ll see God’s hand reaching down into the water and pulling you back to the surface with forgiveness, mercy and grace.
James MacDonald
The Takeaway
Only the broken can be fixed… that is to know true freedom, love and forgiveness
I was at a wedding on Friday night and one of the most beautiful things that I saw were some of the workers from community assisted living dancing to none other than 'Dancing Queen' with the physically and mentally challenged. They were not only affirming worth but experiencing it in their own lives as well.
Questions For Discussion and Small Groups:
Who do you most easily identify with in this story and why?
In what ways have you tried to ‘fix yourself’?
How do we fight back, fight fair in a world obsessed with external beauty?
How do you experience God’s true worth in your own life?
Have you been broken by God? What did that look like for you?
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