John 8: 10 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.”
When you look back on your life are there moments that you wish you could call a “do over?” For me one of those times would have been my 8th grade year in Jr. High. It was a tough year for me. Knee surgery, broken arm from a senseless motorcycle accident. I was an active kid like most and loved anything sports or adrenalin related. Football, basketball, baseball, motorcycles, and water skiing were my life.
I remember going through several embarrassing moments that year, one of which I will share with you now.
I had knee surgery on my right knee my 8th grade year caused by a combination of football and water skiing stunts I probably had no business doing. Having knee surgery is tough at such a young age. After my knee surgery I started rehabbing hoping to be back in good enough shape for basketball season. Recovery was slow. I was never able to quite make it back to form that year.
During the healing process my right knee had a numbness on the front of the knee just in below the knee cap that created this itching sensation most of the time. It always felt like a bad case of poison ivy.
In this particular situation, I can remember being substituted for during a basketball game. I went over to sit down on the bench next to one of my best friends. The room on the bench was tight. We were packed in like an unopened jar of pickles (yes I think they are tighter than sardines). As we sat there watching the game I began to feel another intense itch coming on. Keeping my eyes on the game I reached down to start scratching my knee to relieve the itch. As I placed my hand down to scratch, I felt nothing! I felt my hand touching the knee but total feeling in my knee was gone. I couldn’t feel my hand on my knee at all. In this moment of panic I looked down. My friend sitting next to me with this calm cool look on his face leaned over to me and said “Randy, I know we are friends and all but please get your hand off of my knee and stop rubbing it!” I had placed my hand on his knee and not mine.
I don’t know if flushed red goes with green and gold which was the color of our uniforms, but I was embarrassed beyond belief. My only saving grace was that it was between he and I. Embarrassing…..
We all experience embarrassing moments in our lives. Often times these happen in moments when we are not paying attention to our situation around us. Sometimes they just happen. Sometimes they come as the result of conscious decisions we make, thinking we can get away with it but get “caught in the act.” In any case we can all relate to that feeling of being embarrassed. The feeling of your face turning flush. The cold clammy sweat developing on your forehead. Feeling the desperate need to go find a rock or closet to hide behind. Anything just to get out of the embarrassing moment.
When I’m in situations like this or see it happen to someone else, I’m always drawn to the the woman in John 8 that was caught in an adulteress act and humiliated by being paraded in public before Jesus in what appears to be a set up from the start for both the woman and Jesus. The intent was to for the religious leaders to use this situation to help them trap Jesus in a compromising situation.
Being “caught in the act”. It seems every day lately we hear in the news about someone who was “caught in the act” and are pleading how sorry they were for what they had done and now are trying to come clean. It is hard to know whether or not they really are repentant or just sorry that they had been caught.
In this situation, however, where was the male involved? Shouldn’t he have been on trial as well. No, she was set up, being used to try to trap Jesus into some compromising statement or action. The accusers and religious fanatics of the day could have cared less about this woman. So Jesus is faced with a complex set of circumstances. Facing these conniving accusers, but also having to deal with this humiliated woman in his midst.
I find Jesus reaction here interesting. He does several things:
First, kneels and starts writing in the sand. An odd reaction don’t you think? Why did he do this?
I think Jesus heart and mind were focused on the accusers but first and foremost were focused on the woman brought before him. He does something that takes the attention off of this woman and puts it squarely on him. By kneeling down and writing in the sand all eyes are no longer on the woman but on Jesus.
One of the first things we try to do when we are in an embarrassing situation is to try to remove ourselves or the attention we have caused away from us. If we look closely throughout Jesus’ time on earth he was carrying the cross for his followers and others every day well before he carried His own. Part of Jesus first response was to help this woman with the cross she was carrying at that time. I’m sure that in some way this woman began to feel some relief from the attention that was on her as eyes turned to Jesus. Think about it, she was there to be stoned and by law should have been! Even when we are at our loneliest, we are not alone. He knows what we are feeling and needing at that point in time.
The second odd thing Jesus does is the writing in the sand bit. There are all kinds of speculation about what he wrote in the sand that day. Could it have been the names of the accusers? Maybe the sins they themselves were guilty of committing? How about the names of women they themselves had secretly been with? Could it have been the name of the male that wasn’t present? We will never know. I do find it interesting that the oldest leave first. They had the most to be exposed of and to loose! We will never know but with Jesus responding “He who is without sin let him cast the first stone!”, it makes one think. It was definitely something that caught the attention of those accusers. Something that brought a glaring light on the fact that bringing judgement on someone can often turn into a huge mirror exposing the true inner being of the person doing the judging.
No matter how much we try to, we can’t hide from God. With Him there is no such thing as a hidden closet. He not only has the master key to that closet door he is also behind the light bulb that is in that closet. He knows what is inside. If this is so, why do we waste so much energy trying to keep it hidden from Him and our world. Part of being free from fear is when we have nothing to loose and nothing to hide. When there is no fear of being exposed, only then can we be truly free.
The final point I’d make here is when Jesus comes back to the woman. The accusers have left. They walked away from a very serious accusation which by most rights would have led to stoning. When Jesus asks her where her accusers are and offers her forgiveness and instructions to leave her life of sin, I can see him looking through her eyes into her very soul. Not only has he helped to carry her immediate burden of getting the attention from her, now offers her a new fresh life. One that has to start deep within.
When our lives are in ruins or when we are facing our deepest pain it is then that we tend to seek God the most. It is then when we often seem closest to God. Sure God would rather we reflect closeness to him every moment of our lives, but I think that God knowing us so completely will take what He can get. When our lives are messed up, whether it be our worst moment or an embarrassing moment, that is when God sees a perfect pattern emerging. Something that is becoming mold-able. The resistances are down. We become something He can work with. It doesn’t matter how bad our actions have been, when you come to God you will hear Him say “I never stopped loving you!”
How good it is to have someone like that (God) in our lives. How even more blessed to be surrounded with friends and loved ones that love in that same way, unconditionally. I am amazed after years of having gone through some of the darkest and most painful times of my life, though I could not see it then, as I look back, I can see how God has taken those experiences and used them to create a beautiful work of art called my life. It is not finished. That is both reassuring, but also nerve racking. I am learning, however, that whether things are going great or whether I am facing my most embarrassing moment, ultimately I am truly blessed!