In John 8 we see a story unfold in which Jesus has just retured from the Mount of Olives and goes into the temple. He is greeted by a group of pharisees who are dragging in a woman who was caught in the act of a sexual sin.They throw her on the ground before Jesus and then they remind him that their religious laws require that they stone her to death. According to John they are trying to trick Jesus.
At this point I imagine Jesus looking down at the humiliated, and likely still naked woman who is on trial for her sexual sin.
Then Jesus does something amazing,
He bends down next to her.
Now any one who knows much about communications will tell you that non-verbal communication speaks much more than what we say. And by bending down right next to this broken, sinful outsider Jesus is saying a lot.
Now Jesus could have stood tall and proud against this sinful woman. After all sexual sin is an abomination to the Lord right? The religious laws that the Jews followed gave them every right to stone her.
Jesus could have stood defiant against this sinful woman.
He could have made a bold and clear statement that God hates sexual sin and the law is there to enforce God's will.
But Jesus does things all wrong doesn't he?
He doesn't stand tall... he lowers himself. With his physical posture he places himself on the side of the outsider. He finds himself shoulder to shoulder, eyes down, hands in the dirt with a sexually sinful person.
But the religious law-keepers keep pushing the issue, so Jesus stands up. But at this point when he stands up it's not against the sinful woman is it?
He stands up for her!
Jesus stands up against the people who are supposedly on God's good side, and he stands up for the sexually sinful person who is supposedly not on God's good side. And then he reminds the religious law-keepers that they are just as messed up as she is and that they have absolutely no right to be so harsh.
And then, as the law-keepers are walking away Jesus looks down out the woman and says something truly amazing:
I do not condemn you.
Once again Jesus has a chance to stand firm against this sexually sinful woman but he doesn't. I imagine as he is saying this he reaches out his hand to help her up.
And then (and only then) after he has
lowered himself to be by her side,
stood up for her,
and made it clear that he does not condemn her,
does he look her in the eye and invite her to leave her old ways behind.
Now I don't know what happened next with that woman but I have to imagine that she took Jesus up on his invitation.
Why?
Because Jesus loved her.
He earned her trust.
He didn't try to threaten her with wrath or punishment.
He didn't even condemn her.
It's that kind of love that has unbelievable power to change people's hearts.
It's that kind of radical love that allows people to get to a place where they can accept God's grace and allow God to transform them.
It's that kind of love that we, as followers of Jesus, are called to embody.
Lately I've heard a lot of people talking about defending God and standing up for God. We are very insistent that we stand up and exercise our political power and privilege as the people on God's good side.
But Jesus says the way we treat outsiders is the way we treat Jesus himself.
And all of this is critically important right now because there are people all around us that have been hurt by Christians in our state exercising their immense political power. Most notably the lgbt community.
These people are not going to come seek us out. They are not going to come to our churches or show up at our campus ministry meetings. There is just to much pain and tension standing in the way.
But Jesus calls us to GO make disciples of ALL people.
Which means now is the time that we have to go to them. Sitting back and doing nothing is simply not enough. We have to go and reach out to them.
Be with them.
Love them.
Stand up for them.
Not condemn them.
Be Jesus to them.
We can no longer view them as enemies who are against us and our way of life. We have to see them as God's children (just like us) who need Jesus (just like us). Because God loves all of us.
grace & peace
