New insights are rare, at least for me. And when I get one, I want to celebrate. Most of my learning and understanding comes from the insights or wisdom or experience of others. To see something on my own or to hear from the Lord in a unique way, stirs my heart toward Him.
As I was reading today's passage, a scene from the life of Jesus popped into my mind. I could see it with clarity, almost as if I was there. The scene that came to mind was that of the woman caught in the act of adultery and brought to the feet of Jesus. Now the religious leaders were looking for a stoning and more than likely to create controversy around Jesus. They decried that the Law demanded that she be put to death. But if you remember, Jesus simply stooped down and started writing in the dirt. Then He said to the blood thirsty crowd, whoever is without sin, you cast the first stone.
What Jesus wrote in the dirt has been the subject of speculation from many. Was He writing sins? Was He writing names, dates and places? Was He playing tic tac toe? To be honest no one knows what He wrote, because the Bible doesn't say. I wonder if He started writing this passage from Deuteronomy 17 regarding the Law. God told the Israelites that if anyone, man or woman, did a detestable thing, that they were to take that person to the city gate and stone them to death. But the two or three witnesses were to be the first to cast the stones, followed by the others. However, if there was only one witness, then no one was to be stoned.
Did Jesus write, "city gate," or "two to three witnesses" or possibly "no one shall be put to death on the testimony of only one witness?" The fact that they only dragged the woman "caught in the act of adultery" to Jesus and Jesus' obvious response, tells me that there was more to the story than meets the eye. Speculation tells me that this was a contrived event to discredit the popularity of Jesus by the religious leaders of the day. My guess is that they grabbed a girl with a questionable reputation and through her at the feet of Jesus.
The only problem with the stoning thing; either they weren't prepared to go through with it if Jesus said to go ahead and stone her OR these keepers of the Law didn't have their law straight. Either way, Jesus had them by their own miscalculations. The place was wrong. The number of witnesses or the accuracy of the witnesses' testimony was wrong.
Jesus said, you're right, the Law says to stone her. So you guys who know the Law so well, you go ahead and stone her, but do it in keeping with the Law. They had no choice but to retreat. The woman wasn't the only one caught red handed.
As I contemplate this passage, I can't help but think of how many times I've bent the law to rationalize my actions. How many times have I circumvented God's truth and teachings with my own ideas and agendas. How many times have I manipulated things to get my results. Not that I was necessarily attempting to discredit Jesus, but simply to get what I wanted. The mean doesn't always justify the end.
God, I'm done with legalism. I embrace grace, your grace. Forgive me when I try to manipulate your truths to get what I want. I surrender. I'm dropping my stone. I'm not walking away from you, but rather I'm coming to you. I'm still learning to be your disciple. Help me to dump my self righteousness.
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