John 8:1-11

The Real Jesus - His Mercy

Sermon preached January 10, 2016
Opening
Of all the bad ideas put forth last year maybe the worst of all was this - Yelp for people.
You may know that Yelp an online review system for everything from restaurants to
doctors to dry cleaners to dog groomers. Really pretty helpful - can be driving through a
town you dont know and pull up Yelp and usually find someplace good to eat based on
reviews.
But people can also be merciless in their judgments
if a drycleaner makes a mistake - and we all make mistakes - and loses a shirt, its
on Yelp forever
if a restaurant has a bad night - and they all do from time to time - scathing
reviews that are on Yelp forever
But that bad idea I mentioned - is a new app called Peeple that is Yelp for people. Where
we all get to review one another. Where people can review you and those reviews stay up
on the internet forever.
You cant opt out. You cant delete bad reviews
Its like middle school following you into adulthood where you get publicly judged and
publicly shamed for everyone to see - and just like you felt in middle school that you
couldnt escape the walls of that school - you cant escape the merciless judgement of the
Peeple app.
As one article pointed out, Where once you may have viewed a date or a teacher
conference as a private encounter, Peeple transforms it into a radically public
performance: Everything you do can be judged, publicized, recorded.1
The judgment of the woman
If you think thats bad - try to imagine what it would be like to be the woman in our
scripture reading.
We find Jesus in the temple teaching the equivalent of an 8 am college class - its early but unlike how college students dont ever want to take 8 AM classes, there are people
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glad to be there gathered around Jesus.

Remember - hes in the temple - it had two main functions - it was the place where you
encountered God - through worship - and it was the place where sacrifices and offerings
were made before God so you would be forgiven for sin, wrongdoing.
So God has shown up in the temple, in the person of Jesus. Not a remote, terrifying
figure, but a rabbi from Nazareth in Galilee. Flesh and blood. Approachable. Loved.
And hated.
The people who hated him cooked up a trap. These were the Scribes and Pharisees. The
Pharisees were a group that tried to honor God by personal purity - being moral and
righteous in every area of their lives. And the scribes - the Greek word for scribe is where
we get our word grammar - they were the ones that interpreted the law of Moses that
the Pharisees and other used to follow God. Both these groups hated Jesus because he
drew a bigger following then they did - and because he often contradicted their narrow,
harsh, inhumane teachings.
So they cook up a harsh and inhumane trap
They drag a women before Jesus who they say had been caught in the very act of adultery.
And they mean - the very act. According to their law, it wasnt enough to see a woman
leaving another mans house or stealing a kiss - you had to catch them actually, you
know, doing it.
Now right away, something in the story smells fishy. Wheres the man? According to
law he was just as guilty and just as subject to punishment. But hes not there.
Suggesting that the woman was set up. Seduced by a co-conspirator of the Pharisees and
Scribes so theyd have a guilty woman to drag before Jesus and publicly shame.
Shame - the custom was to strip the woman to the waist. So there she stands, arms
probably crossed over her chest, head bowed, tears staining her cheeks. There she stands,
with a group of religious leaders pointing their fingers at her, with the crowd around Jesus
all looking at her
Us
Can you imagine even in a small way what that would be like?
Unfortunately, some of us can.
We live in a bizarre culture. Lets face it. We somehow combine shamelessness with a
vicious desire to shame people who dont measure up.
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Last year - Kim Kardashian posed nude and posted the pictures on the Internet in
an attempt she said To break the internet - so many people salivating to see
nude pictures of this woman whos had multiple plastic surgeries, this woman
who is famous simply for being famous, that it would crash the Internet. That
didnt happen but surely hundreds of millions of people got an eyeful of
Kardashian posing without shame. And she can do it because of that surgicallyenhanced body and face.
But on the other hand - our culture is merciless towards those who dont meet our
standards of beauty and perfection, towards those who make mistakes.
The singer Adele comes out with a great new album and is merciless fatshamed because shes got a few extra pounds - isnt sleek and skinny.
There is an epidemic of cutting and self-mutilation among teenagers - who take
razor blades to their arms and slice themselves in order to do something with the
pain they feel for the shaming and bullying and harassment they feel at school youre ugly, fat, stupid, a loser, a geek - so they cut themselves to say, yes, yes,
thats true about me.
But some of us who havent been teenagers in a very long time still carry around
wounds like this. Stuff that happened, stuff that we did, that if it came out we
would want to crawl under a rock and hide.
The trap
So this half-naked shamed woman is standing there in front of all these men. In vs. 6
John says that they did this in order to test or trap Jesus. The Greek word is a form of
the word used for Satan - the accuser - and these men are in fact doing Satans work for
him by entrapping this woman and dragging her before Jesus to destroy her, and to
destroy Jesus ministry.
How destroy Jesus ministry? Pretty brilliant on their part. The woman in front of Jesus theres no doubt that she is guilty of adultery - and they remind Jesus that the law of
Moses says she should be executed by stoning for this - so what say you, rabbi Jesus should we execute her or not?
Heres the trap. If he says no, let her go, stop picking on her - they can accuse him of
undermining the law of Moses that their whole way of life is based on - hes soft on
crime, so to speak - he winks at immorality - hes anti-marriage, anti-family. And this
destroys his credibility.
On the other hand - if he says go ahead, execute her - well, his whole ministry is
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welcoming sinners and outcast and broken people. Come to me, all you who labor and
are heavily burdened - and I will HAVE YOU EXECUTED!2
Either way, theyve got him! This challenge hangs in the air - and what does Jesus do he stoops down and writes in the sand.
Wouldnt you like to know what he wrote? So have about 900 million other people
throughout history who have speculated among things that he was writing down the
names and sins of the womans accusers - Joe, theft, Bob - neglecting sick parents,
Michael, coveting his neighbors wife. That would be pretty delicious, but we just dont
know.
In any case, it surely heightens the drama of the moment, it gets people leaning forward to
hear what Jesus finally says.
The answer
So Jesus finally speaks. The sinless among you: go first, throw the stone. And he
stoops back down to write in the dirt.
One by one, the oldest first, they drop their stones and walk away.
Jesus nailed them. And they knew it. Because these experts in the law knew that over
and over again in the law itself those who are to judge and carry out sentence, have to be
impartial, unbiased and fair. And they, are clearly not - in fact, they are as much or more
guilty of sin because of their conspiracy than the woman is. Only the righteous are fit to
judge and they know theyre not, so I imagine one by one they muttered to themselves,
Well (insert bad word here), dropped their stones and walked away.
Theyre all gone and Jesus looks up again and says to the woman, Whered they all go?
Neither do I condemn you.
The only one qualified to judge and condemn her, does not. There is now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, wrote the Apostle Paul. And Jesus, in
effect, reached out this woman and enveloped her in his grace and mercy. She is guilty she was caught in flagrante delicto, in the very act - but he does not condemn her.
Because Jesus is not in the condemnation business. To condemn means to tear down and
destroy. Jesus is in the reclamation business. Taking bruised, battered, beat-up people
and reclaiming and restoring them and setting them on the path to healing and wholeness
and new life.
A couple of quick applications here for us.
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For those of us who struggle with a haunting sense of failure and condemnation Jesus is the one who sees you most clearly. He can see every second of your life
in a glance. He knows the worst about you. He knows about your imperfections
and failures and screw-ups. He knows about the people who have and maybe still
judge and condemn you.
Now for us - think of the people who have condemned you, who do condemn you
- people who told you that youre no good, a serial screw-up, that you will never
measure up. Your life is haunted by this. It saps your energy and joy, it keeps you
from trying new things, from taking risks for the Lord, from trusting other people.
Heres the big question - those people whove done that to you, do that to you the people with the stones in their hands - why do you continue to give them that
power over you?
People who treat others the way youve been treated - these arent good and fair
people who mean you well. They mean to tear you down. Theyre doing the work
of Satan, like the Pharisees and Scribes. If you believe these people, the judgment
they pass on you, you are believing the lies of Satan.
Instead, believe what Jesus Christ says about you. He doesnt condemn you and
hes the only one whos qualified to do so. You turn yourself over to him - well,
he sees what is good and beautiful about you, he says come to me all you who
labor and are heavily burdened and I will give you - rest; burdened with regret and
shame and condemnation, laboring for the love and approval of people who arent
going to love you, dont want to love you - he, the maker of all things, loves and
wants you.
Listen to him - the one who loves and wants you - not to the people who want to
judge, condemn and destroy you. They have no standing, no right, no competence
to be your judge. Like the men in the story, Jesus has run them off. Give them no
more place in your life. Eject, evict them.
Second point of application. If youre a stone-thrower, stop it. Now.
Because churches are full of rock-throwers. Churches attract people who try to
misuse Christianity as a moral code where they can act like good people and then
elevate themselves by pointing out the sin and mess of other people so they feel
better about themselves.
Philip Yancey writes about this at length in his wonderful book Whats So
Amazing About Grace. He recounts the experience of accepting the
invitation of then-President Clinton to visit him at the White House along
with other evangelical leaders. No agenda other than he wanted to hear
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their concerns.
Yancey wrote about the visit - and was deluged by hate mail. From selfprofessed Christians. They didnt just criticize him for making the visit they condemned Yancey for being stupid, a traitor to Christ, a pawn of
Satan.
If you are in the business of personally attacking people who disagree with
you...taking smug pleasure in the wrongdoing of others so you can point it out and
gossip about it in the guise of being concerned...if you get a sense of satisfaction
in condemning people for their sins, mistakes and crimes - you might be a rock
thrower.
And you are doing Satans work for him. Accusing and tearing people down. At
the last judgment, do you really want to be standing with the men who condemned
the woman in our passage? Do you really want to be called to account for doing
the work of Satan?
Go and sin no more
One final thing. We need to read and hear all of what Jesus said to the woman. Neither
do I condemn you. Go and leave your life of sin.
Our culture loves part of what Jesus says here - Let he who is without sin cast the first
stone... Thats used all the time to say that no one is ever capable of or justified in
making moral judgments. But the rest of what the Lord says isnt so popular.
But we need both parts. The Lords healing of this woman isnt complete without his
words to leave her sin. The Lord doesnt forgive us so we can go right back to doing
what is wrong and hurtful. I mean, Jesus doesnt say that the woman did no wrong. He
didnt say, that it didnt matter. He said I dont condemn her, now go and leave that life.
You see, the Lords acceptance and forgiveness is what enables us to live a better, more
free life. Because if we believe the lies of condemnation we believe were defective and
hopeless so whats the point? But if we believe the truth about us - that were loved and
freed and forgiven - that were beautiful and worthy to God - well, then we can live a new
life.
Jesus and the cross
One more one final thing. Its over for the woman, but it isnt over for Jesus and his
enemies. Because as Kenneth Bailey says, They will be back with a bigger stick. Jesus
is in the process of getting hurt because of what he is doing - for her...
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Jesus, the only innocent human being ever, is the one condemned. And dies not by
stoning but by the most shameful way possible - hanging naked on a cross.
Jesus words of acceptance and forgiveness were costly. Cost him. Cost him everything.
The one who refuses to condemn, is condemned himself. The one who is merciful, is
denied mercy. The one who spares the woman execution, is executed himself.
And in this we are exposed, in a far more telling way than the woman standing there
before the men, stripped half-naked. We are exposed as people with such a terrible
darkness in side that we not only judge and condemn one another, often for the same
things we do ourselves - we condemn, judge and execute the only purely good person
ever to walk the earth.
It was our darkness that put him there on that cross - and yet, its on that cross that we are
healed. All our failures and meanness and screw-ups and thoughtlessness, all of them,
every one - are taken by Christ into his great heart while he hung on the cross - and
forgiven. He is able to say I do not condemn you because he takes our condemnation into
himself.
Look on him, the one who loves others so much that he would do that - and drop your
rocks. Look on him, the one who loves you so much that he would do that - and hear his
words that he doesnt condemn you despite whatever anyone else has said or done - that
you are his forever.
Endnotes
1.Caitlin Dewey, Everyone you know will be able to rate you on the terrifying Yelp for people
whether you want them to or not, in The Wall Street Journal, 9/30/2015.
2. I stole this from Tim Keller in a sermon of his on the same scripture passage.