After we opened with prayer and worship music, the first weekly speaker went through her dissection of John 7.
Then came John 8.
John 8:1-11 reads:
1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 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.7 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.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 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.10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
When the speaker discussing John 8 came up, she shared this video with us. It involves a would-be dialogue between Jesus and the adulteress.
If you hate your sin, this video is for you.
If you hate what your sin did to Jesus, this is for you.
If you hate who you used to be, this is for you.
If you believe in Jesus and his death and resurrection, this is for you.
If you cling to hope because of Jesus, this is for you.
If you believe you're immune to sin and that by general standards, you're doing alright, we might need to talk. But this is for you, too.
The truth is, so many of us carry our sin around with us daily. We serve it like a prison sentence. Or worse, we're too afraid of the ramifications to confess it. Yes, we ought to hate our sin. Despise it. LOATHE IT. But to stuff our sin and shame into a backpack for us to shoulder is to say that Jesus' sacrifice wasn't enough. That it was all in vain. That it doesn't hold enough power to clear your name. If I'm knocking on your door at all, I hate to tell you, but you have sorely underestimated the God that we serve.
Now, to be honest, the video I'm about to share with you may not affect you the way it did me. Had I been alone at home, an ugly, ugly cry would have erupted. As it was, I merely had to wipe away a couple of tears. You've been warned - if you're a crier, grab a tissue.
