free of charge!

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Series: Conversations with Jesus
John 7:53-8:11
“Free of Charge”
Of Human Bondage is the story of Philip Carey
- A sensitive boy born with a clubfoot, a deformity where the foot is turned to the side - At nine years of age, Philip entered King’s School in Tercanbury, and soon discovered it was less a school of education and more a house of torment
- For his foot fascinated the other students - Turned them into mimics and voyeurs - On his second day, the kids played a game called ‘pig in the middle’ during recess - A game that called for one to roam the field, tagging the boys who dashed across, and Philip was the pig - Philip tried miserably to tag them, but they were too quick and he was too clumsy - Soon the other boys started clumping exaggeratingly across the playground, both mocking and eluding Philip
- Limping and hooting - While a sense of deep shame raged in Philip’s soul
Shame is something we all have some experience in
- Either as givers or receivers of shame.
- When I was in high school, shame set its sights on the one who smelled, who looked differently, who wasn’t as bright as the rest.
In the conversation in John 8:1-11, Jesus confronted shame Jesus has a conversation with “a woman caught in adultery.” In response to her sin, Jesus neither condones nor condemns her, but rather extends His grace and mercy which changes her life. His loving response to this woman provides us with lessons for our lives and for how we respond to those around us.
- This is a conversation our culture, and all too many churches, largely stripped of grace, needs to hear
- The first thing we notice is that it is a story looking for a context
- Many question whether it belongs here in John
- For it is absent in some of the earliest manuscripts
- But most believe it is a story that most likely happened
- And one could say its context is the whole of the gospels
- The whole of Scripture
- For Scripture is the story of the grace of God
- Verse 2 tells us it was dawn, and Jesus was in the temple and people kept coming to Him
- The tense is intentional; His message drew people such that they kept coming even at the break of day
- But suddenly this pastoral care was disrupted by those who hated Jesus
- A young woman, most likely a teenager was forcibly brought in
- Their motives were obvious, their intent was to shame her, EXPOSE HER
- Hence the terms “made to stand in their midst”
- Suddenly, what was done in the privacy of a bedroom was undraped before the community
- Like a tree stripped of its bark, she was there for all to see inside
- And she most likely felt shame
- All of us have felt the disgrace of shame
- Either because of sin or shortcomings
- Shame comes pretty naturally, even without the help of others
- Shame, after all, was the first expression of sin
- Adam and Eve were naked and NOT ASHAMED
- But with the advent of sin, a sense of disgrace took hold
- Adam and Eve wanted to hide
- And we have been hiding ever since, covering up for the shame we feel over moral failure
- Shame for not being clever enough, rich enough, accomplished enough
- For being too fat for being too thin
- Shame for not being attractive enough
Illustration – Robbie covered up the fact he had lost his hair with an expensive toupee
- Tragically, when he came down with cancer, he accepted no visitors in the hospital
- For he felt shame over his appearance
- Some feel shame for being smaller than others, for not having good social skills
- Shame that we have lost our job
- Shame that our children aren’t as able as others
- That our car isn’t as big and flash like others
- Shame for being adopted, divorced, used-up, hurt by another
- But in this story, it was less about the shame she put on herself
- More about the shame a graceless religious system heaped upon her
- Their intent was to see her pay for her sins
- After all, they were called to carry out the law (even though what they were doing was illegal, where was the man?)
- “If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife-both the man and woman must die” (Deuteronomy 22:22)
- Adultery is was, and always has been, viewed as a very serious act
- But verse 6 tells us it went deeper
- It wasn’t so much an act against her, as it was an act against Jesus
- A trap
- A determination to “speak against”, accuse, SHAME Jesus!
- Hoist Him upon the horns of a dilemma
A) If Jesus opposed stoning, He would be viewed as soft on the law, ignoring the law, opposing the law, OPPOSING MOSES, shame on you!
B) If Jesus favored judgment, He would have been accused of OPPOSING ROME
- Usurping Roman law which did not permit execution by subject peoples
- A thousand shames on you!!!!
- People love to shame
- We live in a culture stripped of grace
- Kerry Katona, drunk on this morning ashamed of themselves, rather than care for her
- Daily papers, celebrities should be ashamed of themselves
- Some would say all of us should be ashamed
- But the worst shamers are the religious
- There is something about religion that, like milk, can eventually turn sour
- Over time, these expositors of the laws of God, allowed their learning to curdle into pride
- Their passion for obedience turned into disdain towards those less devout
- Over time, their belief system mutated into a smug superiority
- Over time, they descended from the high calling as spiritual shepherds to become religious police
- Religion requires but grace enables (repeat)
- So Jesus had a conversation that began with words in the sand (verse 6b) EXPAND
- Writing their sins? Asking, “Where’s the man?”
- Doodling, treating their question with the contempt it deserved?
- While we are not certain what He wrote, it is clear what He said (verse 7)
- Words that unnerved them, caused them to drop their stones and leave
- But why?
- The law never made sinless perfection a condition for casting stones
- Something else had to be at work here, and maybe it was this…
- That while Jesus emptied Himself of the divine
- Stuffed His divine life into the cramped space of a human one
- There were moments when the divine burst out
- He walked on water
- He stilled the storms
- And here, maybe it was something just as powerful
- HE LOOKED INTO MAN
- With a piercing look that went all the way in, not a look that could kill, but look that pierced their hearts.
- A force of both mercy and righteousness
- Such that they suddenly saw their own nakedness
- Suddenly they recognized their own adultery
- They were the ones committing the greatest unfaithfulness of all
- They had left their first love of God and got in bed with religion
- Left the essence of what ministry is about, extending His love and mercy to others to enter the work of stone throwing
- In all of this, they forgot they were supposed to be in the life saving business
- With their departure, Jesus turned to the woman
- And lifted her shame, drew her out of the depths to the heights of forgiveness and called her to live as God had designed her to live
- Jesus told Peter how he would die, saying it would never happen again, I think this is what Jesus calls out to this woman, I think this is what God is calling to us, do not let your history be your future…………….(seek response)
In this conversation, I hear Jesus asking you and me some hard questions
1) ARE WE AWARE OF OUR OWN BROKENNESS?
- Our own tendency to be deceived
- To grow a Pharisaic layer that joins with an already inbred human tendency to be judgmental, condemning, disapproving
- We begin to believe we are better than we are
- Begin to have our own disdain towards those less than us for those who are different
- Use letters to editors/blogs to rant/judge others, condemn others, and discount others
- Use the phone to talk about the shortcomings of others, someone’s marriage which isn’t working
- The pew to exclude those different from us
- And over time, we forget that we too are broken people as well, we need grace, EXPAND but also need to be wells of grace (bill’s bucket/dead sea)
Here’s a second question
2) ARE THE BROKEN WELCOME HERE?
- Would they find grace here, or condemnation?
- I’m pretty sure most driving down Eskbank road would be pretty convinced they are not welcome, unless they got a lot of things right first
- This is the reputation of the church, every church
Illustration: In one episode of “The Simpsons”
- Homer sees his born again neighbour, Maude Flanders and says, “Hey, I haven’t seen you in a couple of weeks. Where have you been?”
- Maude replies, “I’ve been away at Bible camp, learning to be more judgmental.”
- The church is pretty good at creating stone throwers, can we not be grace givers?
- Jesus is asking: Are we holding any stones in our hands, or are we utilizing our greatest asset, GRACE? Gal 2:20
- For the world is full of hurting people
- Especially an emerging generation where:
- 1 of 3 have had an abortion
-1 of 6 have been sexually molested
- Most have been sexually active prior to marriage
- Most men struggle with pornography
- These are the people Christ came to seek and save
- And calls the church to do the same, to step out, invite people in, care for them in the name of Jesus
- To stand up and take a huge step of faith, not to build a museum for the saints, but a hospital for sinners
- And the only way that will happen is if in this world of hurting people
- They will come here and find:
- That this is a place where failure connects with grace
- That this is not a place for perfect people
- That it is place to “come as you are”
- That there is a rule here, where no one is allowed to have stones in their hands
- But it must start in our hearts
- In our homes
- Will you put this on your prayer list?
- “Lord, take any stones out of my hands?”