John 8:1-36
First off, I’m going to try
not to talk as quickly as possible to say everything that I want to say. Some
stuff is just going to be left on the cutting room floor. If I don’t answer your
burning question about the text now, please ask me later. That’s my little PSA.
Here we go…
Verses 1-8 might appear in brackets or have little
footnotes in your Bible. The reason they are marked differently is because they
do not appear in some of the earliest copies of John. People who were putting
together the Bible found this story in some translations of this gospel, but
not in others. Furthermore, the story has words and phrases in it that are not
anywhere else in the gospel- making it seem like the work of a different
author.
However, it was ultimately included and placed here
because of the flow of the incident between Jesus, the authorities, and the
woman accused of adultery and then the conversation about judgment that comes
next. Incidentally, Mosaic law (the law of Moses) says the man and the woman caught in adultery are to
be stoned.
In fact, the law is much harsher about the man’s
actions because women are property, like livestock, crops, children, and
animals. A man had a right to the safety of his property, which means another
man who threatened that safety was disturbing civic order. Therefore, he had to
be put to death.
That being said, when we read through this passage
in its entirety, I want you to keep something in mind about the gospel
according to John. In the Fourth Gospel, sin
isn’t about action (done or undone), it’s about the failure to believe in
Jesus. In particular, it is about the willful failure to see God in Jesus and
to understand what God is doing through the Messiah who is right in front of
one’s eyes.
It is easy for us, who have the whole story, to ask,
“Why didn’t they believe him? Why didn’t they trust God?” It is easy for me to
tell you to trust Jesus in your
day-to-day life. The words are always easy, but the doing is a whole different
matter.
At any point in our lives, if we are going to talk
about something we should do, we must
also talk about why we don’t do it. What
gets in the way? People haven’t changed that much in 2000 years. We want
abundant life, the kind of freedom that Jesus promises, but there are things
that get in the way.
Who here likes being uncomfortable? Anybody enjoy
struggling? Who looooooves new things and the uphill effort to learn how to do
or use them?
Trusting in Jesus, then and now, takes courage.
Courage is less a personal adjective (something you have or are) and is more
something you do. What if we said, you
couraged through that, instead of you
showed courage.
Our shame, our fears, our dislike of vulnerability
get in the way of our couraging through daily life. Most of us are embarrassed
by what we don’t know about the Bible, what our devotional life is like versus
what we think it should be, our hesitation to do what we’re sure everyone else
does so easily. Shame.
Most of us live with real fears- fear of failure,
fear of rejection, fear of dying, fear of change. Fear. Very few of us sign up
for new relationships, for sharing our deepest selves, for being honest, even
with one another, about our struggles. Vulnerability.
The people who are encountering Jesus in this story
and who fail to believe in him also have shame,
fear, and vulnerability. In order
to understand Jesus as God’s anointed, as the Son, as God in front of them,
they would have admit to how they misunderstood some of the prophets. They
would have to be honest about where they had fallen short according to the law.
They would be looking God in the eye and admitting their struggles with sin.
All of that stuff gets in the way of trusting Jesus.
If
sin is the failure to trust in Jesus as the Son of God, its deep roots are
shame, fear, and vulnerability. Its rotten fruit is isolation, grief, anger,
blame, sarcasm, mistrust, and anything else that gets in the way of our
relationship with God and with one another.
That
is not God’s desire for us. Not for you. Not for me. We have to talk about
these things openly and honestly because they are what gets in the way of what
God does want. God wants us to be
free.
The
reality of Jesus, as revealed in this gospel and through the Holy Spirit, is
that by trusting his words, we are trusting God. We are trusting that God wants
life for us and for all people. We are trusting that God loves us too much to
want us to dwell in darkness. We are trusting that our poor choices do not
define us and can be overcome. We are trusting that the way others perceive us
is not a shackle to how we must act forever.
Our
shame, our fears, our vulnerability- they become the rocks we hold, the rocks
we are ready to lob at others to keep them at a distance, the rocks that keep
us distracted from relationship. Make fists with both hands- like you’re
holding rocks. What can you do with your hands now?
We
have to let go of the things that are holding us back, so that we can move
forward. In order to have our hands ready to engage, to be in relationship, to
do God’s work in the world for ourselves and for others, we have to let go of
the rocks of shame, fear, and vulnerability that we tend to throw at others and
use to hit ourselves.
Shame, fear, and vulnerability can enslave us. We know
what Jesus said about that, “Everyone who commits sin is a slave to
sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a
place there forever. So if the Son
makes you free, you will be free indeed.” Freedom is at hand. The Spirit can
help us drop what’s holding us back. We can’t do it on our own. And we don’t
have to.
Amen.
Much of this was inspired while reading Brene' Brown's The Gifts of Imperfection.
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