AFFLICTIONS OF BELIEF: PART 4 -- ANYTHING FOR LOVE, BUT...

The Beatles once sang, "All you need is love, love; Love is all you need."

If all you ever need is love, then why does the couple in the photograph have gifts behind their back to gave each other?

We Christians speak a lot about love. We say we love God. We say we love Jesus. We say we love each other. We say we love everybody. Is love really all that important?

" ‘...love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.' " Leviticus 19:18b

Jesus replied, " 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,' and 'love your neighbor as yourself.' " Matthew 19:18b-19

" 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." Mark 12:30-31

He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' " 

"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live." Luke 10:27-28

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Romans 13:8-10 

Apparently then, love is very important for the Christian to have. That is easy to say, but is it easy to do? I love my neighbors. But I have very nice neighbors who will help you if you need help and who are always friendly, and if they are going to do something they think may offend you, like put up a fence, they come and ask if it is okay with you.

Maybe it isn't so easy loving a neighbor who plays loud music all night or throws trash in your yard. Of course, it may be beneficial to show some love to your neighbor, even those bad ones. After all, maybe if you do, they’ll turn down the music if you ask, even lend you a tool on occasion and throw the trash in the yard on the other side of theirs and not yours (yeah, that’d be a real Christian solution, wouldn’t it?)

But we're not suppose to love someone for what we can get out of it, are we? We're not to approach each other with those little bribes (and secret motives) hidden behind our backs.

Neighbors are one thing, we have to live with them, but love our enemies? That becomes a little harder. Do I have to really love my enemies?

Proverbs 25:21-22.  If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.

But maybe my enemy isn’t hungry, maybe he is just blood thirsty. They do grievous things sometimes. What if they enslave people, take away their freedom, fight a war with my country to destroy my beliefs.

Can I still find love for them?

Yes, I can, because if I can't, they have already destroyed my beliefs

 God has placed it upon the government to wage just wars against evil.

For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Romans 13:3-4.

So for the most part we as individuals should heed Romans 12:14-21, no matter how difficult and counter-intuitive it may seem: 

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:14-21.

It doesn't mean I don't fight the wars against injustice. It doesn't mean I don't condemn bad behavior. It doesn't mean I allow slavery. When we rail against those things, we do it out of love. When a child misbehaves, we punish that child out of love in order to stop the child from continuing their wrong desires and ruining their lives, not to inflict pain for pain's sake. And when the punishment is doled out, when the bad deeds end, when the wars are over, there is something else we do out of love, and we can never ever truly love ourselves if we don’t. That is forgiveness.

"Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said 'the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether'.

“"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan – to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."  Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address 1865.

Lincoln practiced what h preached.  After the Civil War had

ended, Abraham Lincoln traveled to the home of his enemy, the Confederate President, Jefferson Davis. Mrs. Davis greeted him at the door holding her young daughter in her arms. She told President Lincoln her husband wasn't home. 

The little girl was reaching out, trying to clutch him. President Lincoln took the girl from her mother and held her to his breast and she kissed him on the face. When he handed the girl back to her mother before leaving, he said, "Ma'am, tell your husband for the sake of that kiss, I forgive him for all." 

There was a song by Meat Loaf called: "I'll do Anything for Love, But I Won't Do That." 

We cannot love our neighbor. We cannot love our enemy. We cannot even love ourselves unless we do something, which too often we say "but I won't do that".  Yet we are commanded to do it by God and Christ, and we can with the help of the Holy Spirit. This brings us back to the full verse of Leviticus 19:18.

" 'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.' "

Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.' For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Matthew 6:12-15

If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, "Love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.

Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment! James 2:8-13

 We can never love, ourselves or anyone else, if we have never forgiven those who have hurt or wronged us. Do you really think there is someone in your life you cannot forgive?

   

    Corrie Ten Boom, some time after the Second World War when she was free from the concentration camps, where her family and her beloved sister Betsie had perished, gave a speech and at the reception afterward she saw a familiar man coming toward her. Here is how she told it:

"Betsie and I had been arrested for concealing Jews in our home during the Nazi occupation of Holland; the place was the Ravensbruck concentration camp and the man who was making his way forward had been a guard – one of the most cruel guards.

“Now he was in front of me, hand thrust out: 'A fine message Fraulein! How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!'

“And I, who had spoken so glibly of forgiveness, fumbled in my pocketbook rather than take that hand. He would not remember me, of course – how could he remember one prisoner among those thousands of women?

“But I remembered him and the leather crop swinging from his belt. It was the first time since my release that I had been face-to-face with one of my captors and my blood seemed to freeze.

“'You mentioned Ravensbruck in your talk,' he was saying. 'I was a guard there.' No, he did not remember me.

“'But since that time,' he went on, 'I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well, Fraulein, ' - again the hand came out - 'will you forgive me?'

“And I stood there – I whose sins had every day to be forgiven – and could not. Betsie had died in that place – could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking?

“It could not have been many seconds that he stood there – hand held out – but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do.

“For I had to do it – I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. 'If ye do not forgive men their trespasses,' Jesus says, 'neither will your Father in Heaven forgive your trespasses.'

“I knew it not only as a commandment of God, but as a daily experience. Since the end of the war I had had a home in Holland for victims of Nazi brutality. Those who were able to forgive their former enemies were able also to return to the outside world and rebuild their lives, no matter what the physical scars. Those who nursed their bitterness remained invalids. It was as simple and as horrible as that.

“And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion – I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. 'Jesus help me!' I prayed silently. 'I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling.'

“And so, woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes

“'I forgive you, brother', I cried. 'With all my heart! '

“For a long moment we grasped each other's hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God's love so intensely, as I did then.

“But even so, I realized it was not my love. I had tried, and did not have the power. It was the power of the Holy Spirit as recorded in Romans 5:5 '...because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.'”  by Corrie Ten Boom

I do not hate anyone. And I can say I have forgiven everyone I ever perceived had done me harm, to the point I cannot remember most of those hurts. There is one I remember because it was the hardest for me to forgive and my forgiving only happened in recent years. That was the Doctor who refused to come when my wife, alone and fearful, lost our first baby. This was the Doctor who came too late, when the silence corpse of that child lay curled within a pan, and said when asked what to do with it, "you can throw it in the garbage for all I care."

How did I forgive this? Because I do not know what was in that man's mind when he said that. What was he thinking? What terrible thing was in his heart? What burdens did he carry in his own life? There must existed some deep hurt inside to enable such cruelty, especially from a Doctor pledged to do no harm. How can he be healed without forgiveness, and how could I have been healed from picking at the wound from that lash, so as to make it bleed over and over, and wound me over and over, if I wouldn't forgive him. If he is dead or alive, I pray he found true forgiveness from Our Lord and escaped Hell. (He is deceased, having died this past decade.)

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. Galatians 5:13-15

When I write, I pray the Lord will guide me. But I am not Paul or any of the Gospel writers. I may quote God's words, but I am not writing as the voice of God. I believe what I write, but am not safe from imperfection and making an error of interpretation. I pay attention to what others say and review my thoughts against theirs and then test their thoughts and my own against Scripture. If I make a mistake, I ask your forgiveness. If I disagree with you in some matters, I ask it as well.

Sometimes when I read comments I see disagreement. Please do not allow disagreements to become bickering. We live in an evil world and we need each other to stand against Satan. If we disagree on some matter, and we have tried to resolve it and can't, we need to forgive each other and agree to disagree, unless the error is such it threatens the core of our beliefs and could bring harm to our brother. But still forgive and reach out and leave the judgment to God.

Even if we come under the most erroneous attacks as Christians, we must still forgive and pray for the attacker. Always remember:

When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One." Luke 23:33-35

The Illustration of the kissing couple I used for this section  is not of such innocent love as it appears. It is a statue in a Korean Garden dedicated not to love, but to lust. We cannot have true love if our innocent front hides dark secrets and wishes for revenge against anyone. We are called to love and called to forgive. 

It is one of the things the Lord taught us to pray.

and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. (Matthew 6:12)

That is from the Lord’s Prayer, of course. If you were Catholic you probably know the prayer well. At one time, even if you were a church skipping Atheist you probably knew it well, too. We use to say it every morning in the opening exercises at school, public school, no less.

But what is the line just before the “and”? And what do you think of it when compared to John 10:9-10? 

We’ll open that door some time and talk a bit about the realities of our lives.

THOSE WOMEN! LESSON 3: THAT OTHER WOMAN

John 7: 37-53

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.”  Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” So there was a division among the people over him.  Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

 The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?  But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?”  They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee

They went each to his own house,

This final verse of John 7 should  really continued
at the beginning of John 8. Remember, the divisions in the Bible books were added as a convenience. They didn't originally exist. So after a day of preaching and confrontation, the people all went home.

When it says, "on the last day of the feast", what feast?

Jesus and his disciples had went to Jerusalem for the Festival of Booths or Tabernacles. This is also called Sukkoth. In 2017, Sukkoth was held from Sundown on October 4 through Sundown on October 11.  In 2018, Sukkoth will begin on September 23 and end on September 30.

You can find this Festival listed in Leviticus 23 among the days God ordered Jews to keep, along with things like Passover and the Day of Atonement. It was a time to reflect both on Israel's past, when they lived in temporary structures on their escape from Egypt to the promised Land; and also the future when their Messiah would reign in the Millenial Kingdom, as prophesied in the Book of Zechariah.

Zechariah 14:16 Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths. 17 And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them.18 And if the family of Egypt does not go up and present themselves, then on them there shall be no rain; there shall be the plague with which the Lord afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths. 19 This shall be the punishment to Egypt and the punishment to all the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths.


At this particular time, Jesus' attendance at Sukkoth stired up controversy, fueled by the idea there were those plotting to kill Jesus and his being there roused up the Phrisees and priests.  The Pharisees were frustrated, however, in their wish to have Jesus arrested. Perhaps this is why another attempt to trap Jesus was hatched, which brings us to another woman of the Gospels.

But at the end of the day these people departed for their homes and...

Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives.

And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them. And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, They say unto him, “Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?”

This they said, tempting him that they might have to accuse him. John 8:1-6a (KJV)

Personally, I feel this is not only one of the most famous, but one of the most misquoted and misused passages in Scripture. I’ll deal with why as we go. I also feel this story fits well with what we have been discussing, another anonymous woman who interacts with Jesus.

This story comes at the beginning of John, Chapter 8. If you were to begin at this Chapter the first sentence would stand out because – well, because it stands out alone. “Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives.”

 This sentence is transitional, simply stating that at the end of the previous day Jesus and His disciples retired to the Mount of Olives. 

Apparently, while in the Jerusalem area they were sleeping there. If you recall, the reason Judas was paid money was to lead the soldiers to where Jesus “hid” in order to arrest Him. He was subsequently arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, which sits at the foot of the Mount of Olives.

When our current story takes place Jesus is about seven months away from His crucifixion. He and the Apostles were spending much of the last six months in and around Galilee. They came back to Jerusalem in Judea to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, a Jewish celebration of God’s provision and deliverance, which would have occurred in late September or early October depending on the moon cycle.

At this point Jesus is quite a controversial figure. Even before Jesus came to town people were debating about Him in the streets. 

Now at the Feast the Jews were watching for him and asking, "Where is that man?” Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, "He is a good man." Others replied, "No, he deceives the people." But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the Jews. John 7: 11-13 (NIV)

John is referring to the conversations among the  common people, the "Average Joes", who have gathered in the city during the Feast when he mentions “the crowds” and “the people”. They are chattering about Jesus, looking for Him because he is notorious now and yet they are being discreet out of fear of the rulers and leading men of the day.

Why?

Because they know these leaders would like to Kill Jesus.

At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, "Isn't this the man they are trying to kill? Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Christ? John 7: 25-26 (NIV)

Jesus is a hot potato.  

Into this scene of expectation and confusion of thought Jesus comes and goes to the Temple, as he has been doing. He’s been teaching and stirring the pot. The people flock to see and hear Him. So do the Pharisees and Scribes. They, and sometimes even the Sadducees, have been shadowing Jesus, often coming to ask some question designed to catch Him in some politically incorrect posture, a “gotcha” moment. This is one more such occasion.

They bring before Him a woman caught in the act of adultery and say, “In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" (John 8:5 NIV)

Remember we have been told they asked this to trap Jesus. 

If a man commits adultery with another man's wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death. Leviticus 20:10

If a man is found sleeping with another man's wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel. Deuteronomy 22:22

That is the Law of Moses to which they refer. It seems fairly clear cut. The Law is the Law, is it not?

Jesus has certainly demonstrated His knowledge of the Law over and over again, and represented Himself as obedient to God. If He were to say, “stone her”, would not that be the proper and legal answer?

Now there are those scholars who believe the trap here is to place Jesus against Rome. If He says, “stone her”, He is advocating violating the Law of Caesar prohibiting the Jews from killing anyone. They cite John 18:31, when Jesus is brought to trial before Pilate, to support this argument:

Pilate said, "Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law."

"But we have no right to execute anyone," the Jews objected.

This argument presents problems.

If Jesus said, “stone her”, would the Pharisees run to the nearest Roman police station and say, “arrest this man he advocates execution for which we are forbidden”? After all, these same men also advocate execution for adultery. They have to. It is the Law of Moses and they consider themselves to be the shining practitioners of the Law.

Or do they simply stone the woman, perhaps even hand Jesus a rock, and then run to accuse Him of breaking the Law of Caesar, which they themselves have just broken? 

This idea the Jews would not execute anyone doesn’t stand up to Scripture either. How many times were attempts already made to kill Jesus? Oh, right, this would be an execution, those attempts were just murder, all right, then.

  Herod executed John the Baptist and Rome did not come storming down on Herod. However, Herod was kind of tight with the powers that be in Rome, so they probably looked the other way, so maybe that doesn’t count.

But what about Stephen?

“…at this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him [Steven] out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul”. Acts 7:57-58 (NIV)

Saul, who would become Paul, was purging the land of Christians. This was the stoning to death of Stephen for Blasphemy. This occurred within a couple years of Christ’s death and resurrection.

Where was Rome? Did Rome sweep down and arrest Saul and these others for Stephen’s execution?

No, Rome did not because the Jews were allowed to execute those who broke capital crimes under their own Law. When the Jews said, “we have no right to execute anyone” it was in response to Pilate saying, “take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” The Jews did not want to judge him by their own law, they wanted Jesus executed as a criminal under Roman law and the charge they brought against Him was treason. Christ was not prophesied to die by stoning, but by crucifixion, which was a punishment used by the Romans for treason.

Why do you think Pilate asked Jesus if He were King of the Jews? This question did not come out of thin air. Jesus asks if it were Pilate’s own idea. Of course it wasn’t, it was part of the charge of treason. Pilate replied, “Am I a Jew? It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”

Jesus does not say, “I’ve done nothing.” He does not say, “They falsely accuse me of Blasphemy,” or “I have not betrayed Rome”. Instead he says, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place."

Pilate responds, “You are a king, then!”

“You are right in saying I am a king,” answers Jesus. [Refer to John 18 for the above quotes.]

Have you ever considered why Jesus stood by not answering any of his accusers before this and now He chooses to answer Pilate with self-incriminating words? Think about it.

So, if the trap was not to place Jesus against a Law of Rome, how was it a trap if He simply answered, “That is the law, stone her”?

To understand this we must realize the moment and the setting. Jesus has been preaching for a couple or so years now. He has attracted large followings among the common people. He has come this day to teach in the temple in Jerusalem. People have been looking for Him, waiting to see and hear Him. They have followed Him to the Temple. There are even more people than usual because this is during the Feast of Tabernacles. If the people are not expressing their views openly for fear of the Pharisees, the Pharisees are also fearful of the people. They want to somehow turn the people from Jesus. One way to do this would be to expose Him as a hypocrite.

From the very beginning of His ministry, Jesus has stated he did not come into the world to condemn, but to save:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17 

Jesus has emphasized repentance and forgiveness. He had accused the Pharisees of upholding the letter of the Law, but not the spirit. He had often called the religious leaders hypocrites. Now they wished to turn the tables. If Jesus said, “stone her” it would seem He betrayed His own teaching in front of the people who were following Him.

However, if He said, “Do not stone her,” He would be accused of going against the Law of Moses; that is, the Law of God and would be accused of being a heretic.

Quite the conundrum, especially since there is no reason to doubt this woman was indeed guilty as charged. It states they “brought Him a woman caught in adultery”. I feel certain if the woman was simply a co-conspirator, perhaps paid to play a role, or falsely accused, Scripture would have told us so. Besides, Jesus’ last statement to her confirms her guilt.

But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.

So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.

And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, “Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee?”

She said, “No man, Lord.”

 And Jesus said unto her, “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”

The Pharisees must have thought, “Man, we got him now. Look at him stalling for time. He doesn’t know what to say.”

So they begin to prod Him to answer. But Jesus just casually leans back from his stooped position and calmly replies, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” (John 8:7b NIV)

No one knows what Jesus was writing on the ground. We all like to guess. Some guess he was writing down the sins of the men who brought her. Some believe one or more of the men were whom she committed the act with and Jesus was naming names. The picture that comes to my mind when it says Jesus “wrote on the ground with His finger” is of God writing with His finger on the tablets given to Moses. So, my guess is He may have been writing the Ten Commandments in the dust.

It says the men were “convicted by their conscience”. I’m not so certain you would say that if Jesus had written down the names of any of them as involved with the woman or even if he began listing their sins. These were men who did know the Law and it could be in seeing the Ten Commandments before them convicted them. That is just speculation; however, so lets deal with things that aren’t guesswork.

They are convicted and they slowly disperse and leave, the eldest first. I don’t know if this means the oldest men or refers to members of the Sanhedrin, who would have been considered Elders in an official sense. The word translated as eldest in the King James and the oldest in the NIV can mean either.

Let’s also try to separate what the Bible says and the images of this scene we may have in our head. We sometimes see depictions of this encounter, especially in films, where as these men walk away they drop the stones they are holding. Nowhere in the scripture does it say these men had stones at the ready. We tend to get this picture of an angry lynch mob, rocks ready, shoving this woman up to Jesus just waiting for Him to give the word to stone her.

It is most likely that what they are doing is itself an illegal procedure since it doesn't appear the accused was taken before the Sanhedrin for a trial or judgment. Objections can be raised as to where is the man. If she was caught in the act it is presumed the offending man was also caught and he also should be stoned under the Law.  This was apparently a  kangaroo court and the woman had been denied a proper hearing or trial, but is this the reason Jesus allowed the woman to go free.

These things are irrelevant. Tried and convicted or hustled directly from the capture does not matter. Even if all the fine points of Law had been followed, these men did not bring the woman before Jesus for truth, for justice and certainly not for mercy. They brought her with only the motive of trapping Him. 

Something besides the guilty man is also missing. Where are the witnesses? The men say she was caught in the act, but where is the testimony of the actual witness or witnesses. You see according to the tradition, the witnesses should be the first to hurl a stone at the condemned. Perhaps being the first to throw a stone would be confessing too much. How did you happen to witness this act?

The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.(Deuteronomy 17:7)

Anyway, the men have dispersed, slunk back to their spider holes to hatch more plots. Jesus rises up from His writing and sees no one but the women. The “no one” is the Pharisees who brought her. The woman and Jesus aren’t alone. Remember, they were in the Temple amidst a crowd of people whom Jesus was teaching. These people didn’t leave. Even all the Pharisees hadn’t left, just those who had brought the woman. Those people remaining are standing around waiting to see what happens next.

He asks her a question, “Woman, where are those accusers of you? Has no one condemned you?” 

What is so important about this question?

Because the law states in Deuteronomy 17:6,

 "On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness."

It is required for sentenceing there be two or more witnesses. The witnesses have fled.

Jesus then says to the woman, “You are forgiven, go in peace.”

Huh? What’s that?

Oh, that isn’t what He said?

Well, you know you are right. I want to deal with that and some other issues this passage raises. I especially want to deal with that most misused Bible quote ever uttered. And we will do that in the next lesson.

NEXT:  HOPE, FAITH AND CHARITY

Illustration: “The Woman Taken in Adultery” by Harmenszoon van Rijn Rembrandt, 1644