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?” 6 They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. 7 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” 8 Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. 9 When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. 10 Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” 11 “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”
John 8: 4-11
It would have been easy for Jesus to approach the women in a very different way. He knew the kind of life this woman had lived before he engaged in conversation with her. Jesus knew that this woman had caused serious havoc to her family, and to the people around her at the time. However in this passage of scripture not only do we see the amazing love of Christ on display, we observe Jesus being more concerned with this woman’s future than her past. He encourages her to go and sin no more.
An amazing thing about this passage is that Christ wanted to let the woman off her punishment, even though she was guilty and caught in the disgraceful act! This woman had a moment with Jesus and it changed her situation – taking her from death and condemnation into new life. She would have walked away from this encounter with a fresh sense of her value and worth and a real reason to ‘sin no more’. Allowing her to let go of her past and embrace her new life in Christ.
My thought for you today is this:
Are you holding onto things that have happened in the past and losing sight of what God wants to do with your future?
As humans we often beat ourselves up about the things we do wrong. We all have situations in our lives that we hold onto and we lose sleep at night stewing over them. You can’t go back and change what happened but you can learn from your mistakes. This woman had a REAL encounter with Jesus and at that moment she began to see life differently, her future suddenly became clear. Holding onto grudges only ever steals our freedom and what Jesus sets free is free forever. (John 8:36).
LET IT GO
Father I pray that you will give us the strength to forgive like Christ and to not hold onto things that take away our freedom. Please help us today to let it go and to follow you with all that we are.
Amen.
Brendan