Use Your Words - a reflection on John 8

Then they all went home, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.  At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

As I was studying for this sermon, many commentaries brought up the fact that the woman should not have been brought there alone. As one commentary put it "adultery is, after all, a team game." That the woman is brought there alone felt significant. So I tried to read it with that fact in mind and then I started to see echoes of the story God has been telling all along.

Marriage is a metaphor that God uses from the very beginning to describe His relationship with His people, Israel. Adultery is a metaphor that God uses starting in Deuteronomy and continuing throughout the entire Old Testament to describe the way His people will act towards Him. Over and over again we see Israel as the harlot, the prostitute, the adulterous or wayward wife. In Ezekiel, God says "I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery…I will deliver you into the hands of your lovers; they will strip you of your clothes and bring a mob against you, who will stone you..."

The accusations are swirling around Jesus' head and the woman is standing helpless and accused. Jesus writes in the dust of the temple court. The first covenant was written in stone by the hand of God. It established the covenant relationship between God and Israel. These marriage vows that were meant to unite God with His people became a list of do’s and don’ts.

How did we get here? How did our relationship get so broken? When God is talking to Jeremiah about his unfaithful wife Israel, He says "“How bitter it is! How it pierces to the heart!" God loves and longs for His unfaithful bride.

Then Jesus stands up and faces the crowd. When Jesus sees the crowd of accusers, He sees and hears THE accuser: the one who accuses us before God day and night. Later that same day He will say to the crowd, "You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning." Jesus knows who the real enemy is.

After He says to them "anyone without sin can cast the first stone," He bends down to write a second time. He is beginning a new love letter. A letter that will be written on our minds and hearts. A new covenant that will make the first one obsolete.

When Jesus stands up, He is alone with the woman. Such a powerful and intimate scene.

where are they? has no one condemned you?

no one, sir

then neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.

Long ago the Lord said to Israel: “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself. I will promise to make you Mine forever. I will take you as My bride. I will keep My promise and make you Mine. Then you will know the Lord. It shall come about in that day,” says the Lord, “That you will call Me my husband."

God uses language to speak to us in ways that we can understand. He used the imagery of the wayward wife in order to communicate to the nation of Israel in terms that they could relate to. He does not use this imagery to shame, but to communicate His desire for His people. All through the Bible God uses different words to describe His relationship to us:  He is a Bridegroom, a shepherd, a king, a door, a Father running to meet us on the road, a bird, a rock, living water, the bread of life and the Light of the World.

This all reminds me of another story: The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown. Let me read to you just a few pages:

Once there was a little bunny who wanted to run away.
So he said to his mother, “I am running away.”

If you run away,” said his mother, “I will run after you. For you are my little bunny.”

“If you run after me,” said the little bunny,“ I will become a fish in a trout stream and I will swim away from you.”

“If you become a fish in a trout stream,” said his mother, “I will become a fisherman and I will fish for you.”

“If you become a fisherman,” said the little bunny, “I will become a rock on the mountain, high above you.”

“If you become a rock on the mountain high above me,” said his mother, “I will become a mountain climber, and I will climb to where you are.”

This goes on like this for several more pages until the conclusion:

Shucks,” said the bunny, “I might just as well stay where I am and be your little bunny.” And so he did.

Over and over again in the Bible, we see God like the mama bunny telling us how He will meet us at every turn. And like the mama bunny, He desires for us to give up our rebellion and wandering.

So what is our response? Can you see yourself as the woman in the story? Can you stand before the living Christ just as you are? Caught in the act.  Filthy, naked, exposed. In the presence of Jesus our guilt is revealed; we have no defense.

Only the one without sin has the right to cast the first stone. Only Jesus is in the position to condemn. But instead of condemning, He rescues. Instead of accusing, He intercedes on our behalf. He knows we are guilty but He wants us to be free from shame. Brene Brown, in her study of shame and vulnerability says this: “Shame derives its power from being unspeakable. If we cultivate enough awareness about shame to name it and speak to it, we’ve basically cut it off at the knees. Shame hates having words wrapped around it. If we speak shame, it begins to wither...language and story bring light to shame and destroy it.”

Hosea, the prophet who married the harlot, writes these words: “Return, Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall! Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to him: “Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously" And God responds “I will heal [your] waywardness. I will love [you] lavishly.”