Revolution: The Scandal of Love (Jn. 7:53-8:11)

Time magazine and CNN collaborated recently to create a list of the “Top Ten Scandals” from 2008.[1]  Here are five of them:

1.      New York Governor Eliot Spitzer resigns after his infidelity is discovered.

2.      AIG leaders receive an $85 billion bailout then take a lavish $400,000 retreat.

3.      Former senator Bob Edwards cheats on his wife of 31 years. 

4.      Seventeen Gloucester High School students get pregnant as the result of a pact.

5.      Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick resigns after his affair with a former aide is discovered.

Every year notable people make scandalous moral and spiritual choices.

 

 

But it’s not just those in the headlines who make poor choices.  It’s also people who live, worship, work, or study near us.  There are people connected to our lives who make scandalous moral and spiritual choices.  There are people in our families, our neighborhoods, our workplaces, and our schools who wind up doing the worst things and then are found out.  And that person and their poor choice becomes the topic of conversation at the mailbox, on the school bus, in the break room, or in the Sunday School classroom.  It might take a few minutes but many of us could probably identify someone connected to our lives who made a scandalous decision.

 

For example I remember a girl at my small-town high school I’ll call Kat.  She was in my class for several years.  Stories were constantly told about poor choices she was making with her body.  Rumors were regularly spread about her promiscuity.

 

I also remember a young kid who sometimes attended the first church I preached for.  He wasn’t a member but sometimes he attended.  One week his parents contacted me and told me he was in juvenile detention.  I can’t remember what he had done.  But it was enough to warrant legal action.  There are people connected to our lives who make scandalous moral and spiritual choices. 

 

The woman in our text had certainly made poor choices.  First, a brief side note.  Your Bible may indicate that early manuscripts do not contain this story.  That’s referring to the fact that we don’t have the original documents which the author of this Gospel wrote.  We have copies, or manuscripts.  And the earliest manuscripts do not contain this story.  However, many scholars believe this event did take place and that this retelling of that event is accurate.[2]

And the woman in this story made some scandalous choices.  We learn two things about her.  First, in John 8:3-4 we learn that she has been caught in the act of adultery.  She has made a scandalous choice to commit adultery.  Many of the top ten scandals from last year involved adultery.  And if adultery was scandalous in 2008, it was far more so in Jesus’ day.  Adultery was so controversial that the spiritual laws that governed the people described it as a capital crime.  You didn’t just get asked to resign if you committed adultery.  You were asked to die.  Here are two statements from the Old Testament:

 

^10?“ ‘If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife?—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death. (Lev. 20:10 TNIV)

 

^22?If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept?^? with her and the woman must die. (Deut. 22:22 TNIV)

 

This woman has committed an act so abhorred that she deserves death.

 

But this woman not only made a scandalous choice to commit adultery.  Second, we learn that she made that choice more than once.  Jesus describes her in John 8:11 as having a life of sin.  That line suggests this wasn’t the first time this woman was unfaithful.  This wasn’t the first time she wrecked a home.  It’s one thing to get caught in the heat of the moment and make a one-time mistake.  But she had broken faith again and again.  She’s made the top ten scandal list several years running.

 

And today she’s been found out–again.  Oh, the whole town probably knows about her.  She’s probably a regular topic of conversation at the well or the marketplace.  But today she’s been found out again: 53 Then they all went home, 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.  (John 7:53-8:9 TNIV)  While Jesus is teaching a group of the Pharisees and teachers of the law—conservative Bible scholars—approach Jesus with a woman.  The woman.  Did everyone know exactly who she was when they saw her dragged in?  Probably.  But in case Jesus doesn’t know, they tell him: Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.  She has made a terrible decision.  And they want to know what Jesus is going to do with her.

 

Before we reflect on what Jesus did with her, let’s reflect on what the religious people did with her.  Did you notice that not once did the religious people talk to this woman?  They only talked about her.  They make her the topic of their conversation when they ask this in verse 5: In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?  This sounds like a legitimate question.  We are told, however, in verse 6 that the question is a trap.  Here’s how it functioned as a trap. [3]  If Jesus said “We should follow the law and condemn this woman to death,” he faced at least two difficulties:

·         First, Jesus has earned a reputation of standing up for the outcast.  If he agrees to the death sentence, it will put him at odds with those who expect a merciful ministry from Jesus.

·         Second, initiating a death sentence could put Jesus at odds with the Romans who ruled Israel.  Generally, only they could pronounce death sentences.

 

But if Jesus said “We should ignore the law and forgive this woman,” he faced at least two difficulties.

·         First, he would be perceived as a teacher who cared little about the most important Scripture in the land, the Law of Moses.

·         Second, this would open the door for the religious people to charge and try Jesus for disobedience.

And throughout this thorny debate the religious people talk about the woman but never to the woman.

 

Their impersonal treatment of her is heightened by the fact that that they’ve not dragged the guilty man before Jesus.  The law demanded that both parties—woman and man—be punished.  Where is the man?  Why haven’t they dragged him before Jesus?  Clearly they have ulterior motives.  In verse 7 when Jesus says, Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her he is not saying they have to be sinless in order to carry out the sentence.  He is pointing to the Old Testament requirement that those who charge someone with a capital crime must not be guilty of the same crime or must not be deceitful in bringing the charge.[4]  That that they each drop their stones and leave shows that they have all been deceitful in bringing this woman before Jesus.  Their concern has not been for God or for the community.  Their concern has solely been to trap Jesus.  And all along the woman is used as a pawn in their game.  That’s the sin that disqualifies them from throwing the first stone.

 

How did the religious people treat this woman?  They treated her as property.  And that’s often how religious people treat those who make scandalous decisions.  They treat them as property.  Property to be used to fight perceived threats to their religious institutions.  Property to be wielded in the battle against moral and spiritual decline.  Property to be used to prove the rightness of one party’s interpretation of Scripture.  Property to be used to maintain one party’s power.

 

It would be ridiculous to paint us modern religious people with the same brush this story paints these ancient religious people.  Yet, there are ways in which even we treat scandalous people as property.  Like these ancient religious people, we too are concerned about threats to our religious institutions, like the way people keep trying to push God and the church out of the culture.  Why just last week news was coming out about a group trying to eliminate “so help me God” from the oath Barak Obama will take at his presidential inauguration.  We too are concerned about the moral decline of our culture and all those people whose scandalous choices contribute so greatly to that decline.  But all of this concern sometimes leads even us to treat scandalous people as property.  That is, we rarely talk to these people.  But we frequently talk about them.  We rarely talk to the people in our neighborhoods, workplaces, or schools who make bad choices.  But we do talk about them.  When we are in the break room, we talk about them as examples of the moral decline in our city.  At school, we talk about that student who did so-and-so as an example of just how non-Christian things really are becoming.  There are even religious institutions today who tell stories on TV or radio of scandalous people in order to prove just how bad things are getting in this country.  We do talk a lot about people.  There is a sense which even we treat them as property.

 

But notice how Jesus treated this woman: 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.” (John. 8:10-11 TNIV).  Jesus does not wink at her sin.  But neither does Jesus treat her as property.  Jesus treats her as a person.  He treats her as a person worthy of scandalous love.  What Jesus does here in public is as scandalous as what the woman has done in private.  Having proven the maliciousness behind her accusers, Jesus now speaks to her.  The religious people have only spoken about her.  Jesus speaks to her.  Jesus treats her as a person.

 

His scandalous love manifests itself in two ways.  Jesus treats this woman as a person to be given scandalous love in the form of acceptance and direction. [5]  Jesus says, Then neither do I condemn you.  If there was any one in that culture worthy of condemnation it was her.  But Jesus says, Then neither do I condemn you.  Some scholars, searching for why this story found its way into John’s Gospel, suggest that it was finally included because it is the perfect illustration of one of the most important verses in John’s Gospel, John 3:17: For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. [6]  Jesus’ orientation toward people was fundamentally positive.  He did not come to point out everything wrong.  He did not come to condemn.  That may be news to some of you.  Jesus came to save.  He came to heal.  He came to restore.  Thus, he refuses to condemn this woman.  In fact, he will take upon himself her condemnation.  Jesus never says she is not deserving of death.  He will uphold the law.  But he will do it by dying in her place.  In this one short line—Neither then do I condemn you—Jesus gives radical acceptance.

 

Imagine the happy scandals that would result if the Highland church decided to do the same.  What if you were the one person at work who, when someone in the break room told you about that coworker who just had an abortion, actually went and talked to that person face-to-face?  Not in the spirit of condemnation.  But in the spirit of Jesus.  What if you were the one person at school who, when someone in the hallway told you about that student who just got expelled for cheating, actually texted that student?  Not in the spirit of condemnation.  But in the spirit of Jesus.  What if you were the one person in your neighborhood who, when you heard from someone else that the couple three houses down was divorcing, walked down and knocked on their door.  Not in the spirit of condemnation.  But in the spirit of Jesus.  Imagine the lives that could be changed by a church filled with such scandalous love.

 

But Jesus’ scandalous love consists not only of acceptance.  It also consists of direction.  With his line Go now and leave your life of sin Jesus was providing needed direction to this woman.  He would not fathom allowing her to continue this behavior which was so destructive to her and to those around her.  Jesus knew there was a better life.  And he directed her toward this life.  He accepted her just as she was.  But he directed her to become just as he was. 

 

No doubt others in her life had tried to provide direction.  But I imagine that she heard Jesus’ direction in a way she had never heard direction before.  I imagine that she heeded Jesus’ direction though she had ignored all other direction before.  Why?  Because she realized Jesus’ direction was motivated by mercy.  Here was a man who had treated as a person.  Here was the only man in her life who refused to use her.  Here was a man who accepted her.  And when he said Go now and leave your life of sin, it was compelling.

 

Imagine how receptive people in our workplaces, schools, and neighborhoods might be to our spiritual direction if it was preceded by this kind of acceptance.  Like Jesus, none of us should be satisfied to only love and affirm people.  We too should want to direct them into a more fulfilling and Christ-like way of life.  But if our direction were preceded by this kind of acceptance, it would be heeded.  And lives would be changed.

 

I believe that most of us want to make the kind of impact that Jesus made on the life of this woman.  I believe most of us want to see people who have made poor choices being led compassionately to an encounter with Jesus that changes their lives.  That’s what Revolution is about.  In October we launched Revolution.  Revolution asks you to make 1 of 4 commitments on a quarterly basis.  These commitments can help you to be used by God to lead others to Him.  The Revolution brochure is in your Link this morning.  I hope you will prayerfully read over it this week, commit to one of the four habits this quarter, and then share your commitment with your Reach Group.  I hope you will especially consider commitment #3: Table.  Table is a simple and practical way that you can do for sinful people today what Jesus did for this woman.  Table asks you to demonstrate acceptance by inviting someone who has made poor spiritual choices into your home once a month for a meal or some other monthly activity.  There are few things that communicate acceptance like having someone into your home for a meal.  Then, Table asks you to demonstrate direction by starting a spiritual conversation with that person.  That’s it.  During this quarter, invite someone who has made poor choices into your home once a month for a meal and start a spiritual conversation with that person.  It is a simple way to begin doing what Jesus does in this text. 

 

I recently read about disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker.[7]  At one point Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker were at the top of television ministry.  They had helped make Pat Robertson’s show, “The 700 Club” one of the most successful television ministries in America.  Then they launched their own with their show “The PTL Club.”  Some twelve million viewers watched the show.  The Bakkers built Heritage USA, then the third most successful theme park in the United States.  At one point those viewers were donating $1 million per week to the ministry.  But behind the scenes another story developed.  Jim Bakker was using millions of dollars of those donations for personal use.  He kept two sets of books to hide his accounting regularities.  And though married, he had a sexual affair with another woman and then tried to pay her hush money.  Eventually, he was found out, tried, and sentenced to 45 years in prison.  Jerry Falwell, another television preacher, called Bakker a liar, an embezzler, a sexual deviant, and “the greatest scab and cancer on the face of Christianity in 2,000 years of church history.”[8]  But when Bakker made parole five years into his sentence, a Christian family reached out to him.  It was the family of Ruth and Billy Graham.  They officially sponsored Bakker and paid for a halfway house for Bakker to live in.  They gave him a car to drive.  The first Sunday of Bakker’s parole, Ruth Graham called the halfway house and invited Bakker to attend church services with her. When Bakker arrived at the church building, he was seated with the Graham family in full view of the congregation.  Afterwards, Ruth hosted Bakker in their home for dinner.  She hosted the greatest scab and cancer on the face of Christianity in her home for dinner.  And it became a life-changing experience of grace.  May we too be filled with such scandalous love.

 

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