Red Letters – Words in the Dirt – April 22

RED LETTERS
April 22, 2021

Words in the Dirt

John 8:10-11, ‘Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers now? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

I wonder of the thoughts that went through her head as she was drug in front of the crowd to face her accusers. I wonder was she clothed? They caught her in the ‘very act of adultery’ so perhaps her accusers would not allow her dignity to gather herself. I wonder, if she was caught in the very act of adultery, where is the person with whom she was caught. It takes two to tango, right? I wonder what it would feel like to be stoned. Few punishments to me seem so graphic and horrific. I wonder if she knew that she was just a means to satisfy an end. Had the religious leaders of that time not desired so deeply to trip up Jesus, would they have even made a public spectacle of her? I wonder what she felt when her accusers slowly turned and walked away. I wonder about her when Jesus wiped away this smudge from her life.

Most of all, I wonder what Jesus scribbled in the dirt. It will be one of my first questions to ask Him when I get to heaven. I wonder did Jesus write her sin in the dirt and then remove it with a brush of His hand as a visual reminder to this woman that the condemnation was no more. Perhaps He wrote the sins of her accusers and left the words engraved in the ground while wiping hers away. I’d like to think that is so. I think a chalkboard is such a cool thing. How magnificent to be the keeper of the chalk, the executive eraser-er. Whatever happens that gets written down, notated, is temporary, changeable. It can be replaced, rewritten, added to, eradicated. I think what a relief that in one swipe, what was once inscribed, can be deleted and generally not a trace remains. All my mistakes, swoosh! Gone. That is what Jesus did for this woman and also what He has done for me.

I can imagine the slash of the first stone. The pummeling then as smaller stones hit the mark and then fall to the ground. One by one, rocks get larger and smash against flesh, one after another, the thunk, the cries, the blood, the end. The scene that could have been…the story that would never have been written in God’s Word due to the defeat and deflection of a ‘Woman Caught in Adultery’, someone identified only by what she had done not by who she was. But Jesus showed up and stooped low to give her grace, to stand in the way of stones in case they had been thrown.
I wonder what it felt like to hear the words with which Jesus defended her. “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then one by one, they laid down their stones and walked away. In truth I think I know because I think I have heard similar words that He spoke on my behalf.

“Forgiveness is free, but it is not cheap.” (Warren W. Wiersbe)

I’ve been reading RED LETTERS all my life, but never with my heart.
During the month of April, let’s JOURNEY where JESUS journeyed,
and listen with our hearts to all He came to proclaim.