Good morning and welcome to Friday’s podcast. If you have made it this far, well done! Next week I will be handing on the baton to Helen, so I am sure that another great week of podcasts lies in store.

REFLECTION:

Today we continue with Jesus teaching in the temple courts. Today the Pharisees are trying to catch him out, bringing him a woman caught in adultery. The reading is John 8:1-30 but I am going to focus on v 7, 10 and 11.

Now this is a deadly serious matter. If you were caught in adultery the Old Testament law (the Law given to Moses) stated clearly that the couple should be taken outside the camp and be stoned to death. Here are the Jewish leaders bringing the woman to Jesus for judgement. The Roman occupying army took a dim view of the locals putting anyone to death (that’s why Jesus is taken to Pilate). So will Jesus uphold the law of Moses and come into conflict with Rome, or will he side with Rome and let her go?

Here’s what Jesus says in verse 7,

“Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Does Jesus side with Rome or Moses? Neither! He doesn’t say that sex outside of marriage is OK, but neither does he demand that she pay the penalty for her sin.

He says to the crowd, you want to judge her, first judge yourself! If you have always got it right… go ahead. Put her to death. If not, drop your stones and walk away!

So how about us? Do we ever point the finger? Do we ever accuse others? Are we quick to report others failings, when we ourselves have reason to hide?

Jesus says in Luke 6: 37,

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”

Jesus is big on this not judging others thing. I wonder when we last stumbled down this particular rabbit hole?

You see, we are all expert judges. We operate in a world where there are rules and if people break the rules people need to be punished. Its how the world works and its how we are wired. But when Jesus died on the cross he took all the punishment that is due… all of it… every last tiny weenie drop of punishment that the biggest, baddest, nastiest person deserves, upon himself… and was punished for the lot. He didn’t drop anything, there weren’t one or two things that slipped off of his shoulders. He took EVERYTHING. I think I’ve made my point! As one author writes, “in Christ we are unpunishable” (Danny Silk, Culture of honour). No, it’s not fair… it’s grace.

We live in a culture that LOVES a scandal. We watch the news and we pass judgment, we spend a happy hour scrolling through social media and there will be a headline, there will be an outcry, a comment, a post… and we judge. We all do it, we have grown up in a world which has encouraged us to hone our judgment skills, sharpen our knives, we are ready to judge, ready to condemn… I know I do this… how about you?

How about that colleague at work? He’s a bit rubbish! He doesn’t measure up… That person is really unpleasant… a nasty piece of work! They drink a lot. There they go again, messing up another relationship. That’s no way to talk to a child… they look funny, they’re not very clever, I wouldn’t do it like that …

It goes on, and on and on. We make little judgments, we reject people – but we are ever so nice about it… we would never say anything… we would never be rude. We will just keep our distance, we don’t want to be around people like that. We won’t talk to them… not in a bad way… we just won’t include them.

It’s not very loving is it? It’s not the picture of the kingdom of God that Jesus paints.

Jesus says if we judge… we get judged. If we accuse… we stand accused. But if we forgive we are forgiven; if we extend grace we will receive grace.

We simply need to love! It’s grace, not accusation, that leads to repentance. It’s truth,