Soft On Sin?
Read John 8.
Is Jesus soft on sin? Here is a story, at the beginning of John 8, that could lead us to think that. Now, granted, this story is not in the earliest texts, and in some other texts it is located in different places. But the story remains where it has been for a long time in the Gospel of John, and whether it was original to John or not, it is very much a "Jesus" story. It's something we have no trouble believing he did.
The setting is near the Temple in Jerusalem. The religious leaders have set a trap for Jesus, knowing that he will fall right into it. They bring out a woman caught "in the very act" of adultery and they present her to Jesus. She's most likely standing there, naked and ashamed because I doubt they stopped long enough to let her get dressed. Besides, in their minds she is really irrelevant to the story they are telling, the plot they are hatching. She is the pawn; she was likely set up and the guy she was sleeping with was in on it. (If he wasn't, why didn't they haul him out in front of Jesus also? Last time I checked, it takes two to commit adultery!) To the religious leaders, the woman doesn't matter; all that matters is catching Jesus in a hypocritical act.
He's been talking about loving others, so what will he do with this woman? She's obviously committed a sin. She knows it, they know it, and Jesus knows it. So do the readers. If Jesus lets her go, he will fail to follow the law of Moses. If he follows the law, all of his words about loving others will seem to be mere flowery language. When it's all over, they will have exposed Jesus as either a legalist or as being soft on sin—a fraud either way.
Yet, Jesus escapes their trap by simply refusing to play the game. First, he stoops down and scribbles in the dirt. (By the way, this is the only time Jesus is said to have written something, and no one bothered to record what it was?) Then, he invites them to go ahead and do what they law requires, with one caveat: the person who has no sin should be the first to throw a stone at her.
Jesus has beat the trap, but the question remains: is Jesus soft on sin? To read a lot of Christian social media posts or to listen to a lot of sermons and/or Christian television programs, I'm led to believe that many people who say they follow Jesus today would be in the "stone-throwing" crowd. I know a lot of people (and one of them is often in the mirror) who speak about grace but show very little of it. It's awfully easy, isn't it, to slip into Pharisee mode? Until Jesus confronts us with our own lives: if you have no sin, go ahead and throw that stone in your hand.
Several years ago, another pastor and I were chatting at an Annual Conference meeting, during which the speaker on stage was railing against a particular sin. The speaker was quite worked up about the whole thing, and my friend turned to me and said, "Have you ever noticed we seem to only talk about the sins we don't participate in? Where is the condemnation of gluttony, for instance? That's still a sin, right?" He was right. Because we think Jesus is soft on sin, we aim to help him out—as long as we're not having to deal with our own sins.
Jesus is not being soft on sin. If anything, he's being firm about it. He calls the ones who want to condemn out about their own sin. And he challenges the woman to leave her life of sin as well. He just knows what we forget: we can deal more easily with the sin in our lives and in the lives of others though the exercise of grace and second chances than we can with the stones in our hands.
Is Jesus soft on sin? Here is a story, at the beginning of John 8, that could lead us to think that. Now, granted, this story is not in the earliest texts, and in some other texts it is located in different places. But the story remains where it has been for a long time in the Gospel of John, and whether it was original to John or not, it is very much a "Jesus" story. It's something we have no trouble believing he did.
The setting is near the Temple in Jerusalem. The religious leaders have set a trap for Jesus, knowing that he will fall right into it. They bring out a woman caught "in the very act" of adultery and they present her to Jesus. She's most likely standing there, naked and ashamed because I doubt they stopped long enough to let her get dressed. Besides, in their minds she is really irrelevant to the story they are telling, the plot they are hatching. She is the pawn; she was likely set up and the guy she was sleeping with was in on it. (If he wasn't, why didn't they haul him out in front of Jesus also? Last time I checked, it takes two to commit adultery!) To the religious leaders, the woman doesn't matter; all that matters is catching Jesus in a hypocritical act.
He's been talking about loving others, so what will he do with this woman? She's obviously committed a sin. She knows it, they know it, and Jesus knows it. So do the readers. If Jesus lets her go, he will fail to follow the law of Moses. If he follows the law, all of his words about loving others will seem to be mere flowery language. When it's all over, they will have exposed Jesus as either a legalist or as being soft on sin—a fraud either way.
Yet, Jesus escapes their trap by simply refusing to play the game. First, he stoops down and scribbles in the dirt. (By the way, this is the only time Jesus is said to have written something, and no one bothered to record what it was?) Then, he invites them to go ahead and do what they law requires, with one caveat: the person who has no sin should be the first to throw a stone at her.
Jesus has beat the trap, but the question remains: is Jesus soft on sin? To read a lot of Christian social media posts or to listen to a lot of sermons and/or Christian television programs, I'm led to believe that many people who say they follow Jesus today would be in the "stone-throwing" crowd. I know a lot of people (and one of them is often in the mirror) who speak about grace but show very little of it. It's awfully easy, isn't it, to slip into Pharisee mode? Until Jesus confronts us with our own lives: if you have no sin, go ahead and throw that stone in your hand.
Several years ago, another pastor and I were chatting at an Annual Conference meeting, during which the speaker on stage was railing against a particular sin. The speaker was quite worked up about the whole thing, and my friend turned to me and said, "Have you ever noticed we seem to only talk about the sins we don't participate in? Where is the condemnation of gluttony, for instance? That's still a sin, right?" He was right. Because we think Jesus is soft on sin, we aim to help him out—as long as we're not having to deal with our own sins.
Jesus is not being soft on sin. If anything, he's being firm about it. He calls the ones who want to condemn out about their own sin. And he challenges the woman to leave her life of sin as well. He just knows what we forget: we can deal more easily with the sin in our lives and in the lives of others though the exercise of grace and second chances than we can with the stones in our hands.
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