...provides an opportunity to step into the gospel stories and encounter Jesus and the people He converses with. Here we make a space within ourselves to notice our own reaction to the story being shared. How are you responding? What emotions are stirred and what might God be asking you to address in the context of your own life as a result of immersing yourself in this dialogue with Jesus?
Jesus Forgives an Adulterous Woman … John 8:1-11
The Pharisees gripped the woman firmly and violently thrust her towards the man they called Jesus. The crowd around the teacher withdrew in surprise as the adulteress was forced to the ground. She winced in pain. On bended knees and acutely aware that she was only scantily clad, she hung her head in shame, dreading the outcome of this scandal.
‘Jesus,’ they gloated, ‘we caught this woman in the act of adultery. The Law of Moses commands us to stone such a woman for her foul behaviour. What do you say?’ A growling hunger to trap Jesus in his own words and bring him to trial lay at the heart of their interrogation.
Yet Jesus knew their hearts and could not be tricked by their deceitful intent. He lowered his eyes to the ground, knelt down and began to draw in the dirt. Yet they continued to barrage him with questions and the tension rose in their voices. The crowd grew anxious to hear the outcome of this woman’s plight.
In his time, Jesus rose in stature and with the voice of one in authority and control spoke.
‘If anyone of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’
Shocked, they fell back with deep conviction. Who amongst them was without sin? The young men looked smugly at Jesus, but now as the older ones of the group stepped aside and retreated with shame and remorse burning in their hearts, the youngest members of the Pharisee sect also walked silently outside the temple court. They had no answer to give the man who had again outwitted them with his honesty and simple, but confounding answers.
Jesus drew his attention from the defeated Pharisees to the beautiful woman broken in spirit and weeping softly before him.
‘Woman,’ he said gently, ‘where are they? Has no one condemned you?’
‘No one sir,’ she replied.
‘Then neither do I condemn you,’ Jesus declared. ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’
In this brief encounter with her Saviour, she was forever changed. Here was the only man who had given her dignity, who had made her feel special, made her feel loved, made her feel clean. He had filled her emptiness, satisfied her longings and in a moment had made her whole.
She would gladly leave her sinful life of shame, and live instead to follow the teachings of the only man who could give her what she had been searching for all along – unconditional love.
Who did you imagine yourself to be in this story?
How did Jesus appear to you in this story?
What particular attributes of Jesus’s character have you been reminded of at this time?
What might God be inviting you to embrace or let go of?
Jennifer Woodley
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