Good morning, Friends! And a special thank you to Margaret Petty and the wonderful musicians from High Point University!
We are so glad to have you here today. This is the second time Margaret has organized this, and I hope you make it an annual event. When you go back to campus, one of you please remind Nido Qubein that he gave a sermon here many years ago, when he was a student himself. And he’s overdue for a return visit!
Seriously, you are very welcome here, and we so appreciate your taking the time to share your musical gifts with us. And I hope that you’ll take more opportunities to get out and get to know the surrounding community. Some of the best friends that I ever made in college were people I met off campus. They made such a difference to my life. They’re one of the main reasons that I became a minister.
Music is the main focus of our worship this morning. But I know some of you would feel disappointed if we didn’t spend at least a few moments with the Bible.
People who come to our midweek Bible study every week are used to me saying this, but the Bible in your pews and at home, the Bible you read today, didn’t just appear all at once. The Bible developed and grew over a long period of time. The version we read today wasn’t assembled in its final form until sometime in the 300’s.
And even then, there were different versions in circulation, because all copies of the Bible were copied by hand. And in these hand-written copies, there would be verses added or words left out sometimes. The Bible you read today tries to take all these different hand-written manuscripts into account.
One of the biggest differences is the story we’re going to read today. And it’s not because some ancient scribe misspelled something or forgot a word. Today’s story is one that was almost deliberately dropped, because there were people who couldn’t accept it. Even though it’s a story that almost everyone knows, in many editions of the Bible it’s left out, or hidden in a footnote.
Are you all dying to hear it now? Here we go!
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 Jesus.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him and 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.” And 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, Lord,” she said.“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
John 8:3-11
Like I said, this story almost didn’t make it into the Bible. Christians were so scandalized that they didn’t even want to read it.
Now today, we may not like this story for different reasons. When I share it with today’s readers, the very first thing people always say is, “Hey, wait a minute! They only brought the woman in front of Jesus. What about the man? It takes two to tango! Why didn’t they bring the man who was caught in adultery as well?”
And – you are absolutely right. 100%! Even back then, this was a problem. According to Jewish law, the man was equally guilty. Maybe more so. And the man should also have been brought in. The situation was absolutely unfair, even according to Jewish law at the time. But that’s not the point the story is making.
We’re outraged, today, by the unfairness of it. But the scandal, back then, was that Jesus refused to condemn her.
There was no question, in anyone’s mind, that she was guilty. And by law, at that time, the punishment was death by stoning. And the first witness, by law, was required to throw the first stone, with the intention of killing her. Because adultery was considered a crime, not just against your partner, but against God. And offenses against God carried the death penalty.
Adultery was right up there with heresy, with idolatry, and blasphemy. It was a capital crime. The sentence was automatic. In the Bible, it deserved death. And part of the story, is that anyone who disagreed with this, automatically deserved to die, too. So, this was actually a test, a trap that people were trying to catch Jesus in.
If Jesus disagreed with the death sentence, then Jesus himself would be just as guilty as the woman they brought to him. Jesus would equally deserve to die.
But here’s where it gets interesting. And here is where some of those different manuscripts helps us to understand the story better.
It says that while they were all yelling and accusing the woman, and laying the trap for Jesus, it says he “bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. . .”
What was he doing? Was he doodling? Was he writing a memo, or a shopping list?
One of the oldest manuscripts we have of the Gospel of John, which is where this story is found, says that he “wrote with his finger on the ground the sins of each of them. . .”
One of the things the gospels often say is that Jesus had the ability to know what was in people’s hearts.
So maybe, Jesus bent down and wrote in the dust, like this: “Hmm de hmm de hmm. . .adultery, yup. . .greed. . .cheating in the marketplace. . .not paying fair wages. . . Hmm de hmm. . .lying. . .badmouthing. . .bullying. . .ignoring that poor person on the corner. . .hmm, hmm.”
That’s all Jesus did that day. And everyone saw him doing it. He read their hearts, and they knew that he knew.
And one by one, they shut their mouths, and walked away, starting with the oldest.
That is the real point of the story.
And it fits in so well with some of the other things that Jesus said. “Don’t judge, or you will be judged yourself. The same measuring stick you use on other people, will be used on you. Before you go accusing other people of being blind, take the log out of your own eye first. . . God has forgiven you so much, and you can’t forgive the much smaller debt that someone else owes. . .”
This story is saying the same thing.
People wanted to take this story out, because of the scandal of adultery. But they wound up keeping it in, because it agreed 100% with all of the other things Jesus said about mercy and forgiveness.
Easter is coming up in a couple of weeks. And in a weird kind of way, today’s story is kind of an Easter story. Because in the gospel, all of Jesus’ stories are leading up to Easter.
Not just the Resurrection. But forgiveness. The new life happens, because the slate has been wiped completely clean. Not just for me, and you. But for everyone. Every sin can be forgiven.
One of everybody’s favorite lines from the gospel of John is John 3:16 – “God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that whoever trusts in him won’t die, but have the life that goes on forever. . .”
But just as important is the very next verse: “God didn’t send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that through him the whole world might be saved. . .”
I want you to stop and think about that for a minute.
If anyone had a right to go around condemning people, it would be Jesus. And if you listen to some people talk about Christianity, you’d think that condemning other people was a full-time job.
But that’s not what Jesus did. It’s not something that Jesus ever did. He didn’t add to our guilt. He came to pull us out of it.
He didn’t even condemn this woman who – let’s face it – was caught in the act. Yeah, they definitely should have brought the guy in, too. But there’s no question that she was guilty.
Jesus didn’t point a finger at her. He didn’t shame her. He didn’t try and make her feel worse.
He shamed her accusers. And the only thing he said was, “Whoever is without sin among you, throw the first stone.”
Sometimes, Jesus can be like that. Because his goal, all along, from Day One of the beginning of creation, has been to save the whole world. The good people. But also the broken people, and the people who have given up hope. People in the worst hole we can imagine.
Good and bad. He wants to save us all. And he insists that if we want to be forgiven, if we want that new life, that Easter life, we need to forgive each other.
That’s all I want to say. Thank you so much, Margaret and musicians from High Point University, for coming today. You’ve made our worship so much richer! Please come back!
And all of us, whoever we are, whatever we’ve done, ever – Go home, forgive each other, and sin no more.