“Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Christ’s statement to the scribes and Pharisees that presented an anonymous female adulteress before him in the temple.
The guilt and shame this woman must have felt, the anxiety she must have experienced. She was probably well aware of the penalty for adultery – death by stoning. A public and barbaric display to make an example out of the sinner.
Christ was being tested to see if he would uphold the law and condemn the woman. Christ advocated for the truth and challenged those that judged her to look at the condition of their hearts, souls and the sin that existed in their own lives.
He did not pass judgment on her, as easy and common as that is today. It is far easier to judge and place distance between ourselves and those whose appearance, clothes, homes, income level and tattoos we don’t like and don’t even begin to understand.
It requires that precious resource of time that we guard with an iron grip and are far too many times selfish with. What do people want as much as anything in this life…….to be accepted for who and what they are in spite of their shortcomings.
Pastor Shawn, Seymour UMC
Author of Incomplete
shawnlarueorg.wordpress.com
BooknVolume 