There is a story in John, chapter 8, which has intrigued me lately. It's that one where the Religious leaders bring the woman that has just committed adultery to Jesus, and I just love Jesus' response! "The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone."
But just before Jesus’ unarming response it’s interesting to note that the “Religious teachers” tried to justify the stoning by saying, “Moses, in the Law, gives orders to stone such persons. What do you say?” By the way, while all this is happening Jesus is drawing in the sand. So, after Jesus’ response they all start walking off, one by one. Who was left to condemn her? No one. “Neither do I”, says Jesus, "Go on your way. From now on, don't sin."
So many times we "Christians" want to throw the first stone, we want to condemn and bring judgement upon those “unrighteous ones”. But how many of us haven't sinned? How many of us then have the right to bring judgement upon them? Maybe we have to look at ourselves first? Maybe the Church needs to sort out its own sin, before we go condemning people about theirs! Does Matthew 7 ring a bell? "Don't look at the splinter in your brother's eye, when you have a log in your own eye".
So my question is, why point out people’s personal issues when there are bigger things to worry about like the gap between the rich and the poor, consumerism, climate change or the Aids crisis in Africa?
Would you still like to throw the first stone?
Andy Crowe
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2 comments:
Its interesting though, Jesus doesn't seem to upset that everyone has judged her for sinning, just that they were going to punish her for it? It makes it tricky to see the line between the two i think, we are allowed to see people's sin but not do anything about it? If we talk to them about it, maybe that would be considered punishment - especially because they could be socially ostracized etc.
I agree though, i would like to see us condemning a whole different set of sins: from now on, im going to start gossiping about people who are just a little bit too greedy! I jest, but my point is that if all sins are equal then we should condemn them all equally. I should keep a log for a while - how many times have i condemned sexual perversion this week? How about lack of love for neighbors? It would be a fun exercise.
If i were a pastor, i think my benediction catch phrase would be the one that Jesus used often: "Go, and sin no more!"
Great insights
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