Caught in the Act

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0:00 We're going to be using Psalm 103 as our call to worship this morning. Remember that the call to worship is like this line of demarcation that says the next hour is different. That you can put away your concerns of the week to come and the week that have passed and because God can handle those. So for this next period of time we're going to be available to the God. And the call to worship is the line that says okay this next time is different.

0:34 And it helps focus your heart and mind on the sorts of things that we're considering together. And so I want to look at Psalm 103 for our call to worship this morning. I'm not going to read all of it. It's a little longer than we need. It says this, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your disease,

1:08 who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good, so that your youth is renewed like the Eagles. The Lord's works, righteousness, and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love.

1:38 He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities, for as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love towards those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.

2:13 For he knows our frame, and he remembers that we are dust. Or be with us this morning as we gather in your name, around your gospel. Love us, teach us, and convict us as only you can in Jesus' name. I want to continue looking at this little meditation book. It's called Poverty of Spirit.

2:45 It's been a really cool meditation for me over the last several weeks coming out of the Easter season, thinking about what it means to be a live resurrected human life, to be fully human, this side of Christ's resurrection. We've been thinking about this reality that to be human is to be limited,

3:18 to be human is to have poverty limitations that we can come to God for. As I read this next little section, he titled the section that I'm looking at for this week, The Anate Poverty of Humanity. I want to look at chapter eight of John's account of the gospel. If you have a paper copy, Matthew Mark Luke John towards the back of your copy of this scriptures, John chapter eight.

3:50 This is one of my favorite stories in the gospel. It's a little bit ironic because if you're looking at a paper copy of the text, usually they'll say the earliest manuscripts do not include this story that I really like. We have our earliest copies of the New Testament, some of the oldest paper fragments of the New Testament that we have, none of them are complete. What scholars have done to build a New Testament, a Greek New Testament,

4:25 the oldest, most original version of the Greek New Testament that we can't have. They've taken all these old fragments and put them together to make the oldest copy of the New Testament. It makes us way back into time and it helps us start to date when the book was actually written. In those earliest manuscripts, the earliest manuscripts we have of the gospel according to John, this story is not there. Some people might think that's a reason to avoid the story, but I love the story for that reason.

4:56 A lot of most scholars believe that John's account of the gospel was the last one written. I love the idea that as the people of God, the people of Jesus in that first and second century were beginning to read rather than just orally transmit the stories of Jesus, there was one story that had been preserved among the people passed down from grandmothers to grandchildren for generations and they began to read it and they realized it wasn't in any of the accounts of the gospel

5:27 and they thought we have got to get this one in. So they added this story in, this little story about Jesus and the Pharisees into the gospel of John. It's appropriately placed right as the Pharisees are starting to question Jesus. Let's look at it together. John chapter 8 verse 1, it says, Then they went each to his own house. This is the Pharisees who had been meeting and discussing how to get rid of Jesus.

5:58 They went each to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives and early in the morning he came again to the temple. He was in the temple because of, if you look back, in John he has him in Jerusalem a couple of times and he's there for the Feast of Foods, just like one of the seven festivals in the Israelite church at the day. So the Jerusalem was full of people because they had come from all around to celebrate this festival day here, the festival of booths. And so Jesus had kind of snuck in earlier in the story.

6:30 You could see that the Pharisees were already looking for ways to arrest Jesus and so he didn't come processing in like he does at the triumphal entry. He kind of snuck in and people found out he was there because when he goes to the temple and starts teaching crowds gather. And so in this story this one that the people of Jesus made sure got into the text after its original writing, Jesus has come down out of the Mount of Olives early in the morning and taken a seat at the temple stairs where all of the scholars would be and he was teaching.

7:02 Early in the morning he came to the temple and all the people came to him and he sat down and taught them. So he would sit down and steps and he'd be teaching them and all this crowd of people would be gathered around him and the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery. And place he in the midst they said to him, I'll say so the scribes and the Pharisees, you know he's at the temple, the temple is run by this little sect of Israelites called the Sadducees.

7:33 And then the Pharisees didn't run the temple but they ran all of the synagogues and stuff in the villages. They were like the church lawyers. They had memorized the texts and all of the rules and made sure people followed the rules and shamed the ones that didn't. And they didn't like Jesus for a lot of reasons, right? He was subverting their power system and their power system was tied to their money system and he wasn't in line with what their notions of holiness were. And so they were trying to find reasons to trap him. And so the scribes and the Pharisees said, we know how to trap him.

8:07 We'll go get this woman who we set up to catch her in the act of adultery and we'll take her in front of the whole crowd of people. And you can imagine she's at the temple, Jesus is sitting on the steps and there's all these people around and these like church folk, the like the holiness police come back to the temple. Come barging into the crowd with a woman that they've caught in adultery and they throw her into the middle of the circle and they ask Jesus.

8:39 Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the law of in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. What do you say? I want to pause here in the story for just a minute because you see that they say in the law Moses commanded and I want to remind us just a minute about what the law of Moses was intended to be and how it's being used. Because the guy, the theologian here that writes our book says one of the big problems with being human is our innate limitation.

9:20 And that's a problem because from the beginning humanity is not okay with our own frailty, vulnerability and limitations. And so we have for the history of the world been developing themes to delude ourselves into thinking we have it all under control. And the Pharisees and scribes have very handily very fortunately for them found a way to subvert the law of Moses into this kind of power scheme for themselves.

9:58 To take what was the law of Moses. So the law of Moses, they called the law of Moses right because God the father at a pitical point in the history of our people very dramatically rescues them out of Egypt. He says that he ushered them on Eagles wings to Mount Sinai. And there where they'll be the nation of God thriving in the desert walking into the promised land, given a land with milk and honey and fortified cities.

10:29 He says, I'm going to outline for you what your life will look like now because you'll have me in it. And the life of a person submitted to God will look like and this will be handy because you can also use it as a roadmap for how to find your way back to me. And he takes Moses up on a mountain and very intimately with his own hand. He writes on these tablets this outline of what life with God looks like.

11:00 The scriptures call them the 10 words. We've come to call them the 10 commandments. And then they're expanded over the whole five books of the Torah into what's called the law of Moses. What's really interesting when you read the whole arc, the story of scripture is that the law of Moses was intended to be this outline, this guide that shows what life with God looks like. And our people, the people of God, the Israelites living first in the desert and then in the promised land at best followed the law of God very loosely.

11:39 In the worst moments, they lost the whole copies of scriptures. It's intended to be this ideal set out in front of you that at one time demonstrates what it looks like when God is in your life and at another time is an ideal you will not reach. Something happens when you read the story of scripture as the Israelites are exiled into Babylon apart from the temple. Adherence to the law of Moses begins to evolve.

12:16 Your life naturally looking like these 10 words because God is close to you changes to these 10 words standing apart from you and dictating what you will and will not do. And in the intertestamental period in between the Old Testament and the New Testament, it takes on this like really religious fervor that becomes super problematic. It actually inhibits people from fighting their way to God. This is exemplified in the story here in John chapter 8 where the Pharisees and the scribes take what is true, take the description of what life looks like and use it to exclude a woman from Jesus God standing right in front of her.

13:06 And they believe then what they've done is they've used this law to get them all the things they feel like they want but can't get themselves. They use the law to mask their own frailty. They've manufactured power and prestige. They've manufactured importance. They've used it to gain money and wealth.

13:40 The thing that was handy for the Pharisees and the scribes is that the law gave them all their sense of control with one handy tool. With the law they can get power and money and importance. They can get it all and then living in this little world they create of power, money and importance. They can delude themselves into thinking that they are not limited, that they do not need God, that in fact they are rich with respect to all the things of spirituality.

14:15 They are not poor. And that kind of rich confidence and that notion that they have everything under control in kind of absurd, haughty pride. They walk in front of the incarnated God, parade this poor woman out there and act as if they can sit and judge. So they are in the place of God to judge worthy and unworthy.

14:49 Just look at how Jesus responds. So now in the law of Moses, they can't believe that they use the law of Moses this way. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such a woman, what do you say? They said to test him that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. A lot of thought has been put into what the heck Jesus is writing on the ground here.

15:22 But I think it's pretty simple. Jesus has been sitting on the stairs and there is this whole crowd around him and very dramatically someone breaks up the circle of Jesus teaching. With this woman caught in adultery and thrust her in the middle of the circle and the Pharisees in the scribe, stop all the conversation, stop the teacher and force them to answer this question. Like the pressure in the moment, the intensity of the moment will be so high and everyone hearing it would not know a way out.

15:58 They would think either he's going to say the law doesn't matter or we're going to stone this woman right now. Those are the two options. In the midst of all this pressure Jesus does not bow to it. He's just like, I think it's just showing how cavalier he is, how unbothered he is by their false premise. How unimpressed he is with their self satisfaction with their schemes for power and prestige and money and work with their notion that they can judge.

16:33 He's unimpressed, he just draws in the ground. So he wrote this thing on the ground. Verse 7, and as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, let him who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone at her. And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. He just stands up and says, Jesus what do you say? The law of Moses says we should stone her what say you?

17:03 He's like down drawing. He stands up and says, hey whoever hasn't committed this sin, a lot of scholars think that there was a tradition that you couldn't stone someone for a sin you were guilty of yourself so that when Jesus is saying this, he's referencing the sin of adultery and he's saying whoever is without the sin of adultery, go ahead and start the stoning process and then we'll all pick up from there. In order to cross the first stone you had to be innocent of the sin that you were stoning for and Jesus says, hey whoever wants to get started, go ahead and get started.

17:34 And at once more he bent down and goes back to writing the ground. But when they heard it, they all went away one by one beginning with the older ones. I think that the older ones go away first because they're like this is never going to work. No one's going to do this be the first to cast the stone. No one's going to say that they are innocent of it and the younger ones keep holding out that somebody will start the process and then they can jump on and judgment that surely we can handle this ourselves. Surely we can be judged. Surely we are kind of righteous enough to make this decision.

18:11 Surely we are powerful enough to decide who lives and dies. Surely we are wealthy enough to execute punishment. Surely we are powerful enough to make this decision. But no, they all leave. And once more he bent to the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one beginning with the older ones and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.

18:44 And Jesus stood up and said to her, woman, hey where did they go? Hey, where are they? Has no one condemned you? He said. And she said, nobody. Nobody did. Lord. Of course, Jesus is left there standing and they had stones that they dropped on the ground. And so you could imagine a situation where Jesus then starts the process.

19:19 Jesus is the one who's left. By rights, Jesus could do the killing. Not just of the woman, but everyone who walked away. Jesus stood up and he said to her, woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? And she said, no one, Lord. And then Jesus says, oh, well, then neither do I. And then you go and go and send no more. Oh my gosh.

19:55 I have tried for over the years to try and imagine what that moment feels like. Where she's sure at the steps of the temple with the crowd around her, the Pharisees and the scribes behind her that her life is over. That she is too unworthy, too unholy, too poor and disenfranchised.

20:27 She will die. And then miraculously, the teacher disperses everyone. And then he looks her in the eye and says, I don't condemn you. I love that picture. I want that moment.

20:57 I believe our people were so adamant to get this into the story of scripture because this will be our moment. I have experienced times where my forgiveness was proximate and real, where I felt shame dissipate in a way that was tangible, where I felt guilt dissolve in ways that were noticeable.

21:30 And yet I look forward to the day where the risen Christ stands in front of me, looks me in the eye and tells me, hey Ben, I don't condemn you. Though you are, though you have failed, though you have sinned, though you are powerless to affect your resurrection, to stop your, you are powerless to stop your death.

22:01 Though you are inept at cultivating significance beyond the grave, I look forward to the day when Jesus looks me in the eye and says, I give you life beyond the grave. I give you significance with effect to generations. I give you purpose that will carry you forward into an eternity to be human

22:31 is to be limited. The answer to our limitations is encounter with the God, where from his great kind of store of possibility and protection and provision and worth and love they come rushing down to us. I want to point out one last thing in this text. It's at the very end of this chapter that I've been looking at. He says that if we attempt to generate our own power,

23:07 to generate our own prestige, our own worth, to generate our own love, much like the Pharisees in the scribes, if we try and take tools out there, whether it's our work or our children, whatever, wherever we try and manufacture our own sense of worth and power and significance in the world instead of having God give it to us. He says, if we attempt this, the truth of our being haunts us with its nameless emissary anxiety. If you try and stack up your worth in the dollars you put behind,

23:41 when you're focused on the dollars you may feel worthy, but the truth of your real worth will haunt you so that you will always be anxious about whether or not you have enough dollars. If you try and stack up your significance in your children, the truth that it cannot carry the weight of your significance will haunt you in anxiety that they can't love you enough, that you cannot be good enough for them. My heart breaks from the Pharisees in the scribes that when Jesus gives them the moment,

24:11 says he is without sin cast the first stone, they all walk away sure that there is no worthiness for them. The woman stays and for staying, recognizing her failure and staying still at the feet of Jesus, she gets his worth pronounced over top of her and the Pharisees in the scribes walk away, feeling anxious.

24:41 They will never measure up to the system that they have created. All the potential for us in this Easter season is that God will give us worth, significance, authority, love, mission. You don't have to build it up for yourself. God will give it to you now in fits and starts and failures and he'll give it to you now in the ways that you're able and then he'll give it to you ultimately.

25:12 When we greet him in his risen body and our glorified body as well, he'll give it to us. I look forward to the tastes I get of that now and the ultimate that I'll get in the end. Hey Lord, make us people who persevere in faith with you to the end. It's there Lord, where we will experience the unbridled joy of unmitigated presence with you.

25:44 Take us there. Give us glimpses of it today and take us there ultimately with you. In Jesus' name we pray.