Eric Bailey's

I thought I would post part of the sermon from yesterday. I was amazed and inspired by the story and the places it took me and I would like to share some of that with anyone who will read it.
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Caught. Your shame, your secret desires, you at your worst laid bare for all to see. Public humiliation, public scorn, huge red letters seared into you forehead for all to see - SINNER.

This woman is bought to Jesus, caught cheating, caught in the arms of a man who is not her husband, or fiancée. She is dragged out with only what covering she could grab. Naked body, but worse is the naked soul.

Caught, judged, and sentenced all at once. It's not like she has any arguments to present, any defense that can absolve her of guilt. She's caught, guilty and she knows it. She may have found ways and reasons to justify her actions in the dark recesses of her mind, but in the light of day she sees her sin clearly. Dragged before Jesus, she stands waiting, wishing they would just finish, just kill her and get it over with, all this waiting, all this shame feels worse than death.

I have had my moments, my scenes of utter humiliation. In those moments the fragment replays in your mind leaving you wishing you could undo, leaving you longing to change just that moment and make a better choice, a different choice.

But again I find myself on the other side of the stone. I am ready to cast it. It is natural to us, instinct. We are told, "Don't judge a book by its cover," but we do. Clothes don't make a man, but they sure influence how we perceive him. It is far easier to look people who have sinned, people who have done things that we have not and shake our head. We accuse. We condemn. We feel bad that they would do such things.

There are a lot of things in my life that I haven’t done. I can look at people and say the Dr. Phil line, “What we you thinking!” I can sarcastically ask “How’s that working for you?” I can shake my head and label them in my mind so that I always recognize that this sin, this problem is forever a part of their life.

1. The Woman
This story shows us humanity at its lowest, and Jesus at his best. We come before God, pointing fingers, accusing, tattling as if God is unaware, like a parent in another room.

3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?"

This woman was not just having sex outside of marriage, that would be called fornication, or some word like that, no she was either married, or promised to be married, both official covenants, official contracts. This woman was breaking a commitment made before God. She was guilty, but not alone in her guilt. The saying says it takes two to tango, but the other is not found here. I wonder if he was part of the crowd, or was he friends with some of the leaders, a convenient way to dispose of an unwanted mistress. Whatever the case he was not present as the law would also demand his death. She was not only on display, her shame for all to see at the temple, but she was alone.

2. The Writing
When they come to Jesus, he stoops down and starts to write. Many people speculate about what Jesus may have been writing, but as I was reading about this I discovered what I had not heard before. Jesus wrote with his finger in the sand. There have been other times that the finger of God wrote in stone, the Ten Commandments. Whatever else we are supposed to learn from this passage, we are supposed to remember the whole law, not just whatever parts are convenient at this moment.

A second thing that I read that moved me was about the empathy of Jesus. One writer says, “Jesus was seized with an intolerable sense of shame. He could not meet the eye of the crowd, or of the accusers, and perhaps at that moment least of all of the woman …” As I read this I pictured Jesus with his eyes brimming with tears, but also knowing that no one here would understand. Jesus understands people in such a complete godly way and yet expresses the feelings for them in such a human way.

Whatever he was writing, whatever the reason for ignoring the crowd, Jesus was acting out of the love that God had for each person there, the accusers, the woman, the onlookers.

3. The Response
Jesus seemed to initially ignore them, but they would not be ignored. This was a trap that had to be sprung. It was here that they had Jesus, friend to sinners trapped between his concern for the outsider and the law, also trapped between the Law of Moses and the Roman authorities who would not allow the Jews to carry out capital punishment themselves. The trap had to be sprung.

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." 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

9 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.

“Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Jesus says, “You’re right, according to the law she deserves death, who else here does? You’re right she has sinned before God, what about you? You’re right she has done some horrible things, what about you? Are you really any different?”

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says,
(Matthew 5)
“21"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' 22But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.”

“27"You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' 28But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Who is righteous enough to be the judge? She deserved punishment. I deserve punishment. She stood with her sins there for all to see. I hide mine pretty good. I fake normal very well, but I am just as naked before God, and in just as much need of forgiveness.

4. Forgiveness
So often when I hear the forgiveness offered here, I wonder about it. It seems like she got off too easy. A child receives spankings, groundings, or time-outs, but she got advice.

Then again, she had already come face to face with the possible effects of her sin, she had already faced the judgment and was about to die for what she had done. She had no reason to believe that she would survive this ordeal, this trial.

The passage ends …
10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
11 "No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

I find it interesting that after all these people have left, in what was probably a slow process, the woman didn’t leave. By this time the attention would not have been on her anymore. All that people saw was that each person next to them was leaving. Each person there was recognizing his own lacking before God. No one was thinking about the woman anymore. By the end of the passage I find a sense of safety, of security. There is something about the presence of Jesus in this scene that is accepting of who the woman is while still calling her to become. It is in the presence of Jesus that we are safe to bloom, to open up and blossom.

I wonder if this is the kind of challenge before us as a church. What kind of people can come here, who is accepted? Do you have to be good to be welcome or can this be the kind of place that accepts people, warts and all and still provides that boost to grow.

I think that the key to finding this acceptance is to see ourselves in the other person, to recognize our own struggles and weaknesses in them. We are not that different. One traveling preacher a contemporary of John Wesley would say when he saw a man being taken to prison, “There but for the grace of God go I.” If it were not for God’s grace, I would be in that same boat.

10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
11 "No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.
Amazing love, now flowing down
From hands and feet
That were nailed to the tree.
As grace flows down and covers me.

We find ourselves naked in the presence of God, but his grace covers us.