While certain sins carry greater earthly consequences sometimes, we dare not forget that in God's eyes, all sin is serious and all sin carries the death penalty. Thus we should not maximize the sins of others in our minds and minimize those in ourselves.

On March 5, 1994, Deputy Sheriff Lloyd Prescott was teaching a class for police officers in the Salt Lake City Library. As he stepped into the hallway he noticed a gunman herding 18 hostages into the next room. With a flash of insight, Prescott (dressed in street clothes) joined the group as the nineteenth hostage, followed them into the room, and shut the door. But when the gunman announced the order in which hostages would be executed, Prescott identified himself as a cop. In the scuffle that followed, Prescott, in self-defense, fatally shot the armed man. The hostages were released unharmed.(1)

When Jesus came to earth and walked among us, God, in essence, dressed himself in street clothes and entered our world, joining us who are held hostage to sin. On the cross Jesus defeated Satan and set us free from the power of sin.

It's called the Incarnation. It's when God became flesh and walked among us. Defeating sin wasn't Jesus' only mission, though. One of His key teachings was that He was God come to earth in human form to explain Himself. From Jesus, men learn what God is like in a way that all can understand.

As we study the life of Jesus, we are actually studying the nature of the Eternal God. Jesus said, "I and the Father are one." (John 10:30). He said, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father." (John 14:9). The Apostle Paul said, "He is the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15).

How would God respond to us if we were to meet Him on the street? To answer that, we need only look at the accounts of the life of Jesus and the way He responded to the people He met.

Among the many stories that reveal this to us is the one in John 8 that tells the story of the woman taken in adultery. Jesus response in that situation is important to us because it shows us how God deals with sinners - something that all of us are. The lessons there convey a message of hope that everyone needs to hear.

Please join me in your Bibles at John 8:1-11.

The event that John describes here occurred at a time of confrontation in Jesus' ministry. By now He had a well developed following of supporters and a well-developed class of enemies who wanted Him dead. His teaching proved to be a sword that divided the earnest seekers from the ones who saw Him as a threat to powerful positions. Already there was a plot to seize Him and kill Him. The situation was so bad that He had to attend the Feast of Booths in secret. Speculation about His identity was rampant.(2)

So widespread was the controversy that the religious leaders had concluded immediate action was necessary to silence Him, lest they lose control of their constituency. Since He seemed to be able to avoid their murder plot, they hatched a plan to lure Him into a trap of words. That is the substance of chapter 8. We'll begin with verse 1.

(Read v. 1-2)

So, Jesus is in the temple. It is early in the morning. A small band of early risers was gathered around Him to hear what He would say. The atmosphere was noticeably tense due to the events of the previous day. People were wondering what would happen next.

(Read v. 3-5)

The accusers of this woman were the Scribes and Pharisees. The Scribes were the legal experts of the Jews. In the scripture they were also called "lawyers" and like lawyers of today, they were very good at using words to build a case. They were the "experts" in the Law of Moses and the traditional laws of the Jews. The Pharisees had summoned them for this occasion with the intent of trapping Jesus in something He might say. How many of them were present we don't know, but we do know that they, with the Pharisees, had set an ingenious trap that they were sure would discredit Jesus and allow them to have Him arrested. The woman they brought was the bait.

According to John, their claim was that she had been caught in the act of adultery. She had been pulled from the arms of her lover and dragged through the streets of Jerusalem at this early hour and was now thrust out into the place where Jesus was teaching.

You can imagine the disruption this would cause - the sudden surprise of the intrusion, the staring of the people, the utter humiliation of the woman. With only the tiniest effort I can also imagine the sneering demeanor of the Scribes as they spat out the challenge in their smug air confidence.

"Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do you say?"

Lest we misinterpret what is happening here, we need to read John’s eyewitness evaluation of this.

(Read v. 6a)

That brings us to our first lesson we can learn about God by watching and considering Jesus in this story:

1. God is Concerned about Sinners.

To these men, this woman was just a tool they could use to further their intentions. She was so much bait for their trap to help them destroy Jesus. To them, she had no name, no personality, no feelings, no humanity, and no importance beyond her present use. As the story unfolds, I want you to notice that Jesus showed her genuine concern.

It is always wrong to regard people as mere things. The doctor’s patient is always a person. The counselor’s client is always a human being. The Christian's "prospect" is always a man or woman whose life is important in the sight of God. As we see the way Jesus deals with this woman in compassion and then contrast it to the way the Pharisees used her like so much meat, we see something that our country today is losing in direct proportion to the way it is losing its Christian ethical heritage. People are becoming numbers. Human life is growing cheaper and cheaper. Machines are making the utility of human life seem less and less important.

I think most of us realize that to treat any person as an object rather than a being means that we will ultimately receive the same treatment down the road. What many don't realize is that without Christ as an influence in our world, people ultimately become objects and we are powerless to stop it from happening. In our modern world, to the question that every human soul asks, "Who am I and what makes me important?" the great thinkers of our age have now responded, "You are just a complex machine," "You are just a higher animal in a world of animals where survival of the fittest is the only rule that makes sense."

A few years ago on the PBS program, "Nova," the topic of discussion was a Chimpanzee that could communicate in a limited way by "signing." The point that they labored to make was that now another of the "supposed" differences between humans and animals had been removed because now we knew that animals could communicate. The bias of the program was evident: Man is an animal and the sooner he accepts that the sooner he will cease striving with such meaningless ideas as religion that places him in the center of the attention of a concerned God.

These people are playing with a loaded gun. Further, they are pointing it not only at themselves, but also at you and me because if man is just another animal, then he has no more value than an animal and can therefore be treated like an animal if whim or convenience dictates. Further, the only one who can stop such treatment is a stronger animal. Humane treatment of human beings dies because the value of the individual human being dies.

Christianity is critically relevant to man today because it gives human life value whether that life is strong or weak. It does this on the basis that each person is made in the image of God - a fact that, until recently has been valued and protected by the widely held and accepted ethic of Christianity.

I know that it seems that I am off the subject here, but we must realize that Christianity is more than what some call an ancient religion that foolishly backward people choose to embrace. It is the only remaining way of life that stands against the dehumanizing of mankind! That is intensely relevant, even in an age of nuclear bombs, computers, and fax machines.

God is concerned for every individual human being.

2. God Doesn't Have a Double Standard.

Don't you wonder where the man was who was involved in this adultery? It does take two! If this woman were taken "in the very act," why didn't they bring the man, too? Surely he could have been apprehended had they wanted to do so. It makes you wonder if this situation weren’t somehow staged to take advantage of the weakened condition of the woman involved. It's either that or the Pharisees going around peeping in windows to try to find a case. But no man was brought.

I know you've seen the attitude: She's the prostitute - he's the playboy. That stinks! God does not honor such double standards at judgement. He is going to judge without partiality and without regard to gender.

Of course, the first cousin to adultery is fornication. That, too, seems to have a double standard. Why is it that it is always the gal who is expected to say "no?"

Double standards are hypocrisy. They were then and they are now.

Living today, we don't see immediately the dilemma that these accusers were trying to put Jesus into, so let me explain.

The Law of Moses commanded death for adulterers - both the woman and the man. So the Scribes and Pharisees were legally right on that account. But by the time of Jesus the Jews were under the dominion of Rome and Roman law forbade capital punishment to the Jews. If Jesus said the woman should be pardoned, he was technically in violation of the Law of Moses, which he had diligently upheld. If He said that the woman should be stoned He would be on a collision course with the Roman law and they could have Him arrested for insurrection. Either way, they figured they had Him. It was the perfect trap, had they been dealing with someone besides the Creator of man's mind!

Jesus simply bent down and began to write on the ground.

(Read v. 6b)

Some say Jesus was just doodling as you and I might do on the back of a phone book. Others say He was writing down a list of the sins of these accusers. Some suggest that Jesus was just too pure to look upon this woman and that He was embarrassed by the situation and had to look away. Others say he was stalling for time so he could think up a response.

Frankly, I don't know what He wrote there on the ground. It doesn't say.

But it did serve a good purpose. The accusers were forced to repeat their request, therefore clarifying it in the minds of all that watched. It was sort of like an unspoken, "Would you like to repeat your challenge a little louder so that when I blow it out of the water, everyone will know what has happened?"

(Read v. 7a)

Now, with all attention riveted on what His answer would be, bystanders fully realizing the obvious trap He was in, He said,

(Read v. 7b-8)

You probably could have heard a pin drop on the temple floor for the next few moments as that sunk in.

John described it this way:

(Read v. 9)

Suddenly it is quiet. The woman is there before him, perhaps weeping. All of the people and the accusers are gone.

(Read v. 10-11)

What a colossal victory that Jesus had at this point over His enemies! He shut them down and left them speechless. But in this consideration of the nature of God in human flesh, we need to take note that His focus wasn't on the victory. His attention was on this woman before Him. These are perhaps some of the most beautiful words in Scripture.

"Neither do I condemn you; go your way. From now on sin no more."

That brings us to our next point about God that we can learn by watching Jesus.

3. God Is Still Concerned for Sinners Who Are Deep Into Sin.

In the eyes of the Jews, the most serious sins among them were murder, idolatry, and adultery. These were the "big three." If you wanted to be a good Jew you certainly would want to be sure you declared your revulsion from these three, lest you appear weak or "unspiritual".

It seems that in any religious community there develop in time those "big sins" and "little sins". The "big sins" are the ones that we would mention the most - and perhaps the ones we pride ourselves in avoiding. No "good Christian" would ever be involved in these. An example today might be homosexuality. Then there are those "little sins" like deceit and gossip and malice and lying that we tend to gloss over.

I don't know if you caught it on the news this past week, but a second man, Aaron McKinney, convicted of the murder of that gay college student in Laramie, Wyoming was sentenced to life in prison. That was the case, you might remember, where 22 year old Matthew Shepard was tied to a fence, bludgeoned with a pistol, and left with a cracked skull to die. He did die five days later in a Wyoming hospital, another incident in a long line of so-called "hate crimes."

To be sure, our Bible tells us that homosexuality is wrong and that homosexuals will not inherit the kingdom of God.(3) But before you conclude that the murdered man was getting his due, you need to remember that the same bible tells us that "all liars will have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone"(4) It also says that gossips, alongside those who are greedy and envious are also doing acts worthy of death.

While certain sins carry greater earthly consequences sometimes, we dare not forget that in God's eyes, all sin is serious and all sin carries the death penalty. Thus we should not maximize the sins of others in our minds and minimize those in ourselves.

George Whitfield, upon seeing a condemned man walking to the gallows, once remarked, "There, but for the grace of God, go I."

My friends there, but for the grace of God go you and I!

Whenever we have picked up stones, verbal or otherwise, in condemnation of another, and are ready to fling them, we had better be sure we've looked first at ourselves.

"He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone."

John recorded important words of Jesus for us on this subject in John 3:17

"For God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through Him."

If that is the mind of Christ, then it must be our mind, too. Let us never glory from our saved position with our foot on the neck of another human being. Our place in God's kingdom is a gift we never deserved. We don't deserve it yet today! We ought rather to weep that those who are still in sin have not found the same grace that we have and then we should do all we can to help them find it.

Next, we see from watching Jesus that:

4. God Doesn't Gloss Over Sin.

5. God Offers Another Chance to those Who Repent.

The mess she had been making of her life had suddenly, without warning, been thrust out in the light for all to see. She was exposed where everyone would know that she was an adulteress. There was no escape from the grasp of these cruel men.

Then just as suddenly, they were gone and she was free there in the presence of Jesus to start again. What do you suppose she did with her life from that point? Do you think she continued her adultery?

I really wish the scripture followed her story further. It doesn't. I suspect, however, that this event changed her life like nothing else ever had.

The gospel is really a "second chance" message. It is an opportunity to start again with a clean slate no matter how bad things in the past have been.

The world teaches that you and I are products of our parental upbringing or our environment or our genes and that really we have little control over what has happened to us. The Bible contradicts that over and over. It says we can change, and we can indeed, start over with a new life. The ancient prophet, Isaiah, said,

"Come, now, and let us reason together," says the Lord. "Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow."

To a person who has failed at life, that ought to be a great message. Some of the most deeply stained people Jesus encountered became His most faithful followers. A former prostitute became the first witness of His resurrection. A formerly crooked IRS man became His apostle. A former Jewish SS man became a powerful evangelist.

And it is still true today. Jesus specializes in rebuilding wrecked lives. That isn't just a religious cliche¢ . It is true. He offers a chance to start over. Often the realization of that second chance and gratitude for it becomes the driving force for change that was heretofore impossible.

Conclusion

Some of you might recognize the name of Dan Dierdorf, now an announcer on Monday Night Football. It was reported back in 1995 that Dan makes $600,000 per year in that capacity. In an interview he tells the following story of his life:

"I've been on this incredible roll," he says with wide eyed amazement. "I've made more money and bettered myself every year since I was 21 years old. If my life were a graph, it would be one continuous line at a 45 degree angle, pointing up."

While his professional life has had few hitches, Dierdorf has experienced one grievous personal setback. In January, 1985, his two month old daughter, Kelly, died, a victim of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). "For some reason, usually between the ages of one and four months, they take a breath and don't take another one," says Dierdorf. "There's no struggle, no choking; they just stop, like flipping off the switch on a light. My wife, Debbie, woke up at 4 and realized she hadn't heard the baby cry for her feeding at 2:30 or 3. She knew right away. She came back into our bedroom crying and carrying her. How do you describe it? It's beyond belief. Every day you sit around and start falling farther and farther into that hole."

Dierdorf, says Kelly's death taught him a hard lesson. "It made me more sensitive to other people's problems," he says. "When everything is going well, you're not aware of other people's problems. You don't have the time. Then when something happens to you, all of a sudden you find out that virtually everyone you know has a problem, sometimes a worse one than yours and you have been blind to it."

The enemies of Jesus in this story were blind to the needs of others. They were focused exclusively upon themselves. I hope that isn’t a picture of us. I hope that, had we been there in the crowd, we wouldn’t have been the one’s who picked up stones!

In contrast, Jesus reached out in compassion to help a woman in need. That is what Christianity is about. If you know people who claim to be Christians who have done it the other way, you must realize that isn’t a good representation of Jesus.

Will we do it Jesus' way or will we pick up stones?

Footnotes: (Please use your browser's "back" button to return to your place)
1. Greg Asimakoupoulos, Concord, California
2. See John 7:11-12, 40-43
3. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10
4. Revelation 21:8

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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