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Хвърли камъка
Йоан 8:1-11
*Introduction*
* I have heard a story about a judge in a small town.
Son was on trial for driving drunk.
Just judge and a loving father.
Guilty.
$2500 fine.
Father paid.
This is also our Father – God the creator of all of us.
* He is just.
We must know that there will be justice, if not in this world than in the next.
Those who have stolen, killed, destroyed lives will be held accountable.
* He is merciful.
He extends mercy to us.
He does not cancel our debt, but He pays it himself.
* Here we see in John 8 Jesus, the Son of God, demonstrating both God’s justice and mercy.
* Read John 8:1-11
*The Trap*
* The scene: Jesus is in the Temple and he’s teaching.
The religious leaders drag in a naked woman.
Push her in front of the crowd.
And tell Jesus, “4 “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery.
5 The law of Moses says to stone her.
What do you say?” [Учителю, тази жена биде уловена в самото дело на прелюбодейство.
5 А Моисей ни е заповядал в закона да убиваме такива с камъни; Ти, прочее, що казваш за нея?]
* Let’s make things clear:
* They do not care about this women.
She is going to be shamed, mocked and killed, so that these religious leaders can get at Jesus.
They are using her.
Jesus knows this – they want to use her and her misery to attack him.
* It’s a trap:
* Either he says kill her and he will be arrested by the Romans.
(only the Romans could order a death sentence).
* He lets her go and is arrested by the Temple (Jewish) police for breaking the law.
* The religious leaders have been looking for a way to get at Jesus and here is the perfect opportunity.
They do not care about the Law and they do not care about this woman.
They are using both to attack Jesus.
* Does he uphold the Law and have this woman stoned or does he give her Grace?
But someone somewhere has to pay the price.
*The Law and Grace*
* Within the Christian faith there is a delicate balance between Law and Grace.
God is just and must punish us for our sins, but is merciful so as to pay the price Himself.
* The danger is that Faith becomes Religion.
And when faith becomes religion Grace is replaced with Legalism.
* Our faith does not demand Legalism, but righteousness.
There is a difference.
* Legalism verses Righteousness
* Legalism is impersonal, but Righteousness is concerned with every person individually.
* They were just trying to use this woman.
They didn’t think about her; her life situation, her family, her hope, fears, or troubles.
They saw “a sinner” not a woman in need of help.
* But Jesus saw her as a human being, created in the image of God.
Afraid, confused, and standing there naked in front of a crowd that wanted her dead.
* Legalism keeps its distance, but righteousness gets close to people.
* Legalism is Selective, but Righteousness is God’s universal hope for us.
* One question: Where is the man?
Doesn’t it take two to tango?
* Leviticus 20:10 lays it down: “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbour, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death.”
[Leviticus 20:10 10 Ако прелюбодействува някой с чужда жена, /тоест/, ако прелюбодействува някой с жената на ближния си, непременно да се умъртвят и прелюбодеецът и прелюбодейката.]
The Law is clear, both the man and woman are to be punished.
But where is the man?
* Legalism is selective, because in Legalism we play God.
We decide who should be punished, because we compare each other.
* Righteousness demands Universal guilt, not comparative.
* We are all sinners, saved by God’s grace alone.
*
* Legalism is Punishment oriented, but Righteousness is Grace motivated.
* The motive was not righteousness, but vengeance.
Many people think of God as an angry god waiting to destroy people, because the church is often too Legalistic.
* What we see when we read the Bible is God who loves mercy and dispenses Grace.
* We’ll talk more about grace in a minute.
*
*The Response*
* First, he bends down and writes something in the sand.
* Many people have speculated as to what Jesus wrote in the dirt.
The truth is that we just don’t know.
* “O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be put to shame.
Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water” (Jer 17:13).
[13 Господи, надеждо Израилева, Всички, които Те оставят, ще се посрамят; Отстъпниците от Мене ще бъдат написани на пръстта, Защото оставиха Господа, извора на живата вода.
]
* This verse: (1) the girl is not shamed, but they that accuse her are.
(2) He writes in the dust, (3) because He is the only fount of living water
* Remember we just talked about living water!
* He says “You without sin, throw the first stone.”
[John 8:7 Той се изправи и рече им: Който от вас е безгрешен нека пръв хвърли камък на нея.]
* It may well be that the word for /without sin/ (/anamartētos/) means not only /without sin/, but even /without a sinful desire/.
Jesus was saying: “Yes, you may stone her—but only if you never wanted to do the same thing yourselves.
* There was a silence—and then slowly the accusers drifted away.
* In response to true grace, not legalism, Jesus is left alone – just Him and this woman.
*Conclusion*
* When all is said and done, it is just us standing before Jesus.
* Does this mean that she (that we) can just do whatever we want and Jesus will give us a free pass?
No.
* To understand this distinction we must understand that the law as revelation of right and wrong is not an arbitrary set of rules that God made up to test our obedience.
Rather, the law is the transposition into human society of patterns of relationship that reflect God’s own character.
Adultery is wrong because it violates relationships of faithfulness, and such violation is wrong, ultimately, because God himself is characterized by faithfulness.
The morality of Scripture is a pattern of life that reflects God’s own life.
This aspect of the law is unchanging, but the law’s prescription for how the community is to embody and enforce the revealed vision of relationships may vary.
* That is, we can have a false optimism that says “God is merciful so I can do as I please” or a despair that says “there is no forgiveness for the sin I have committed.”
This story shows we should keep these two inclinations in balance.
There is no sin that God does not forgive.
Christ’s death atoned for all sin.
The only sin that remains unforgiven is the one that is not repented of.
But, on the other hand, God’s call to us is to intimacy with himself, and sin cannot be in his presence any more than darkness can be in the presence of light.
Christ’s atonement cleanses us from sin as we repent day by day, and his Spirit is working in us a transformation so that in the end we will come out pure, though not in this life (1 Jn 1:8).
But sin must be cut off.
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