Just me thinking out loud here...don't throw anything

There are stories in the Bible that I love to ponder, question and wonder about the little details that are not mentioned in the story.  But then again, I may view the Bible a bit differently than some people do.  Yes, I do believe it is the inspired word of God, without a doubt, but there are some things I place more weight on than others.  The prime example is "Did Jesus say it?"

I admit to placing much more stock in something Jesus is documented as saying, especially when paralleling the Old Testament to the New Testament.  I believe that much of the Old Testament is a historical account and a showing of the times.  Let's face it, there are things in the OT that are no longer done in this day and age.  For example, there were slaves all over the place but we no longer find slavery an "acceptable" thing to do and it isn't.  But if you want to take every single word in the Bible at face value, you would have to say that you believed in slavery and my guess is that if you do, you don't want to say that out loud.

Another belief for me is that you can find any passage in the Bible you desire to suit your current need.  Someone looking on whether or not it is biblically appropriate to seek revenge on someone who has wronged you, can either see "turn the other cheek" or "an eye for an eye."  We can read whatever we want to read into scripture.  The Bible contradicts itself on several occasions, but come on, it was written by how many different people??  Biblically, did Judas die from hanging himself or from falling and having his insides burst open?  Matthew gives one account and Acts gives another.  In Googling for answers, there are those who explain it as he hung himself, the rope broke,  and then he fell and his insides burst open. Okay, so that is one way to put the two accounts together, but is it correct?  Only God knows for sure what happened.  So again, we can read into it whatever we want.  The point is that Judas knew he had betrayed Jesus and took his own life. 

If I could go back in history and meet any one person, I would love to meet the woman who committed adultery in the book of John.  I love to speculate on this story and about what it can possibly mean for us today. 

This woman is caught in the act apparently, and dragged before Jesus by "teachers of the law and the Pharisees."  My first thought was, where is the man she was cheating with?  After all, it does take two.  Did they just leave him alone because he was male, or did he go and hide some place and just leave her to take the heat alone?  Seems pretty low to me.

I have to wonder too, if the teachers of the law and the Pharisees were all men or were there women present as well, ready to cast stones upon her.  As a female, I'd have to think that there would be a part of me very sympathetic towards another woman who had sinned and was facing death.  But either way, here are all these self righteous people standing there with stones in their hands, wanting to kill her for her sin.  I can only imagine how she must have felt.  Ashamed.  Afraid.  Waiting for the first infliction of pain on her body and then knowing that more and more pain would follow until she could feel no more.  Can you imagine the terror?  Was she trembling or standing tall in defiance?  The Bible doesn't say, but it is very clear on Jesus' position.

He knelt down and stated that anyone in the crowd who has never made a mistake, broken a rule, told a lie...anyone who has never sinned  can throw the first rock at her.  He was stating that only the person in the crowd who had never even had a sinful thought could raise a hand to hurt her.  This is one of the single most powerful pieces of scripture for me, because no matter how many ways you can interpret different passages in the Bible, this one is cut and dry for me.

Jesus knew that he was going to take every sin of the entire world onto his own shoulders and die for them.  He knew that there was nothing so bad, that his sacrifice would not wipe it away and in that moment, he was telling us how to treat each other.  Not just for that moment but forever.  He was saying, "Look at your own heart before you accuse another and only if you can find no fault with yourself, can you judge someone else."  I would venture to say that there is not a one of us who can look at ourselves and know that we are perfect.  In the darkness of night, when no one can see us, God knows everything we have done.  We can't hide from it.  Oh sure, we can hide it from the rest of the world.  We can keep our guilt and our dark secrets locked away in our hearts and never utter them aloud, but God knows them.  And he knows that there is not a one of us who does not have sin in their heart. 

There are other places in the Bible where adultery and its consequences are treated much more negatively, but to the best of my knowledge, the passage in John was the only time Jesus made mention of it.  I'm not saying that adultery is right, because it is not, but I am saying that Jesus was telling us not to judge one another on our sins.  And because Jesus said it, I put more stock into it.  His heart was pure love; he was God made man.  Please understand, that this post is not about adultery.  It's about judgment and forgiveness and making sure that we take good, long looks into our own hearts, before we speak stone cold words of judgment.  Even when Jesus tells her "Go and sin no more" he knows that is not possible.  Oh sure, maybe she never again committed adultery, but not sinning at all was just not do-able.

I just think that this passage shows us the level of God's forgiveness and grace.  It is one of my very favorites and when I get to Heaven, I hope I get a few minutes to talk to her.