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John 8:4-7
They said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman was
caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses
commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’ They said
this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him.
Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they
kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, ‘Let anyone among
you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’
Just thinking out loud
I always wondered why
Jesus wrote in the dust. Maybe the gesture has no particular meaning, and there
is nothing to be understood from his moment of playing in the dirt. Maybe it is
just the artifice of a skillful storyteller who extends a dramatic moment to heighten
suspense.
But the gesture is
there, and the storyteller obviously thought it important enough to share. Why?
Was he writing her sin
in the dust, knowing it would soon be kicked away by tramping feet and falling rain?
Was he revealing that sin and guilt are as ephemeral as letters in the dust, especially
in the presence of the great grace that is in him?
Was this a prophetic
act reminding the woman’s accusers that they, like all human beings, are made
from the dust—dust in the wind, destined to be blown away by the inexorable
passage of time?
Not a cherry thought. But
if so, Jesus’ dusty doodling remains a helpful reminder that accusers are just
like the person they accuse, just as mortal, just as finite, just as broken,
just as needy.
One more thought: Perhaps
he was showing them that in stoning her they were trying to deny their humanity
and mortality, their sin and failures, trying to convince themselves, to
pretend, they were above the run of normal human beings. Lots of people believe
that delusion.
All of this may be
true, but perhaps it is best to cease speculating and focus on what is clear:
Jesus radical and extraordinary acceptance of broken, sinful people. Every one
of us.
And that is a cherry
thought.
Pr. David L. Miller
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