Laws Over People

SLIDE 1-2 Turn to Matthew 23. This morning we are finishing up our series on Righteous Indignation. We’ve been looking at passages from the gospels where Jesus was mad. What made Jesus mad was when people — especially people who claimed to serve God — denied others that same privilege. For example, Jesus said in:

Matthew 23:13 Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

Specifically, we’re told three times that Jesus was angry. Then, there are several other places where it’s obvious that he’s not happy. One place is in the verse we just read from Matthew 23 where Jesus pronounces seven woes on the scribes and Pharisees. In the Greek a “woe” is a word designating a strong condemnation. In this instance Jesus was mad because the religious leaders were interfering with others coming to know God.

Jesus also became mad when the leaders were more interested in the rules than they were in the people.

Matthew 23:23-24 23 Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

SLIDE 3 This verse might be funny if it weren’t so sad. God commanded that they tithe or give ten percent of what they made to him. Jesus said they were so meticulous at giving God the prescribed tithe, that they even tithed the mint, dill, and cumin. I don’t know how you would even do that. Have you seen a dill seed? They’re not tiny, but they’re smaller than a sunflower seed. Imagine trying to count those out so you can be sure you give God 10% of them. While they made sure they didn’t miss a single dill seed they were completely missed what was even more important: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. They carefully strained their water so they wouldn’t accidently swallow a gnat, but don’t have any problem swallowing a camel.

Of course Jesus wasn’t being literal there, he’s making a point. The law forbade them from eating certain insects. If you’ve ever been on a picnic you know how difficult it can be to keep insects out of your drink. I hate to think about how many gnats I may have swallowed over the years because they flew into my soda can while I wasn’t looking. These leaders, in an effort not to swallow an unclean gnat, would take a cloth and strain their drinks to make sure there were no gnats in the drink.

They were trying to make God happy by tithing everything that grew in their gardens down to the spices and laboring to make sure they didn’t accidently swallow an unclean insect all the while ignoring the larger commands of taking care of others.

When I was in Bible College, we had regular room inspections. The resident assistant would come around once a week and make sure our rooms were clean. Thankfully, they didn’t open drawers or look in closets. They judged the cleanness of the room only by what they could see. When we saw him coming, if there was anything we hadn’t taken care of we would quickly throw it into our closet and shut the door. It worked. I had one roommate who never would have passed if he hadn’t been able to quickly throw his stuff into his closet. And often, he needed mine as well. As long as the room “looked” clean once a week, we passed inspection. While that worked for our room inspections it never would have worked at home. When my mother inspected our rooms after telling us to clean them, she would look under the beds, in closets, and in the drawers. She was never happy when we just tried to hide everything. There was a place for everything and everything should be in its place. It didn’t matter that the bed was made if there was a pile of clothes and toys shoved under the bed.

I think that’s a good picture of what was going on with the teachers of the law and the Pharisees. They were trying to please God by making one part of their lives look good while completely ignoring other parts of their lives. They were tithing their spices but forgot about God’s command to help others. They got rid of the gnats but paid no attention to their neighbors. They emphasized those commands while ignoring the command to love their neighbor.

SLIDE 4 I saw came across this church sign on the internet: “We love hurting people.” Do they love to hurt people or do they love people who hurt? I think I know what they were trying to say but it didn’t come across very well. They should have thought about that one a little more. SLIDE 5 I think Jesus would probably have said the sign summed up quite well the way the teachers of the law and Pharisees dealt with people. They hurt them.

Nowhere was this seen more than in John 8, the story of the woman caught in adultery. Let’s start reading our story with verse 2.

John 8:2-6 2 At dawn [Jesus] appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.

In verse 6 we’re told why this really took place. The woman wasn’t brought to Jesus because they were concerned about the law, but because they wanted to find a way to trap Jesus. They told Jesus that they had caught her in the act. To be caught in the act, there had to have been someone else with her. Where was he? They weren’t interested in him. They weren’t really interested in her either. They just wanted to trap Jesus with the answer he gave them and they just figured it didn’t matter how Jesus answered, they would be able to use it against him.

It’s like the old question, “Have you stopped beating your dog?” If you answer yes it sounds like you used to beat your dog. If you answer no, it sounds like you still beat your dog. It’s a no win situation.

Had the woman been caught in the act of adultery? There is no reason to doubt that she wasn’t. Were they right when they said her sentence should be capital punishment? Yes. SLIDE 6

Leviticus 20:10 If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death.

SLIDE 7 There were only a few sins that called for death in the Old Testament and adultery was one of them. However, if they were so interested in keeping the letter of the law, where was the man she had been with? The law held him just as guilty if not more. But somehow he was nowhere to be seen.

The punishment for some sins was worse than others because some sins are worse than others. You cannot equate murder with stealing a candy bar. Our punishment for the first offense should not be the same as for the second. However, everyone has sinned. Paul wrote in Romans: SLIDE 8

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

And then, a few of chapters later, Paul wrote: SLIDE 9

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death. . . .

SLIDE 10 That means that before God all sins are deserving of death. Therefore, I don’t have the right to gloat over someone else because I think their sin is worse than my sin. We’ve all sinned and as a result we all deserve God’s punishment. But again, the religious leaders weren’t really interested in the man or the woman; they were interested in Jesus and what he would do. What did he think should happen to the woman?

This question had to have been a little more personal for Jesus. Everyone questioned the legitimacy of his birth. They believed that his mother Mary had committed adultery and became pregnant with him out of wedlock. Whether it was with Joseph or someone else didn’t matter. We know it wasn’t true, but they didn’t. It appears they even referred to Jesus as being illegitimate at one point in his ministry.

So what would Jesus say? If Jesus said to stone her, he would have violated Roman law which forbid the Jews from executing anyone. It’s the reason they took Jesus to Pilate to be crucified. If Jesus had said she should not be stoned, he would appear to be condoning adultery and violating God’s law. And that’s how they would trap him. But there was another answer they hadn’t thought of.

John 8:7-9 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.

At first, Jesus just wrote on the ground. This the only place we have record of Jesus writing something. The word means to make a list or to write against. Who was he writing against? It wasn’t the woman. Some have suggested he was writing out the Ten Commandments, comparing him to God writing the commands on stone for Moses. Others have compared him writing on the ground to God writing on the wall for King Belshazzar in Daniel 5. There were only four words: Mene, Mene, Tekel, Peres. Daniel interpreted the words for the king saying they meant that God had numbered the king’s days (Mene), God had judged the king and found him wanting (Tekel), and thus his kingdom would be taken from him (Peres). Maybe Jesus wrote those four words against these men. It would certainly seem fitting. It’d be great to know what he wrote, but weren’t not told. There have been lots of speculations but that’s all they are. We just don’t know.

Perhaps we aren’t told what Jesus wrote because it didn’t really matter. What matters is what Jesus said. At first, Jesus remained quiet, but when they kept pushing him for an answer Jesus finally said, “Let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone.”

Jesus didn’t say that the penalty of the law should not be carried out; he just said that it should be done by those who had committed no sin. Thus, Jesus upheld the Law of Moses without breaking the commands of Rome. Jesus didn't say that the woman should be free from the penalty of the law, what he did do was to accuse every one of those men of having sinned themselves.

Sometimes this verse is used to excuse sin. The attitude is that we are free from blame because everyone else has done things that are wrong. But this verse does not excuse sin. Rather, it condemns those who are guilty even though they have never been caught. The religious leaders understood what Jesus was saying which us why they slowly walked away.

I don’t think we could have predicted their reaction. I say we wouldn’t have predicted it because I’m not sure that would be the reaction today.

Several years ago, there was a survey asking people who they thought deserved to go to heaven. There were several names on the list including Mother Teresa OJ Simpson. Nineteen percent said they thought OJ Simpson deserved to go to heaven while 79% said Mother Teresa should. What’s funny is when the people were asked if they thought they should go to heaven 87% said yes. More people thought they should go to heaven than thought Mother Teresa should. How does that happen? They thought that Mother Teresa was good but not as good as themselves.

The reason people answer that way is because of the way people see sin and they never see their own sins being as bad as someone else’s sins. Obviously your sins are worse than mine. But that’s not what Jesus says.

We may think we’re fine because we never killed anyone, but Jesus said that if we’re angry with someone we are guilty of murder. We may never have committed adultery, but Jesus said if we’ve ever lusted after someone we are guilty. We are guilty before God because in our hearts we would have committed the sin given the right circumstances. These teachers of the law and Pharisees were missing this. As a result, faced with their own sin they all walked away. One by one they left until the woman was left alone with Jesus.

The teachers of the law and Pharisees had been more interested in counting out their dill seeds than they had been in this woman. They had been more interested in trapping Jesus than they were in the woman. When they realized their plan wasn’t going to work they left.

John 8:10-11 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

To address her simply as “woman” might appear to be a little cold, but it wasn’t. Remember, this is how he addressed his mother Mary more than once and we know he loved her. The last time was while he was hanging on the cross. Jesus wasn’t being disrespectful to this woman; he was probably showing her the most respect she had received in a long time.

Jesus asks the woman if there is anyone left to condemn her. That’s a legal term. Are any of them remaining who wanted to press charges? No, they’d all left. So, Jesus said that he didn’t condemn her either.

If you were following along as I read from John 8 you may have noticed a little note inserted after verse 52 in chapter 7. In my Bible it reads: SLIDE 11

The earliest manuscripts and many other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:53–8:11.

SLIDE 12 We do not have the original copy of John’s manuscript; all we have are copies of copies. While scholars are very certain about the reliability of those copies, many believe someone intentionally left this story out when it was being copied. Saint Augustine, a well-respected early church father, explained it this way. He said the story was left out in order to avoid a possible scandal. What was the scandal? It was that Jesus wouldn’t condemn this woman who had been caught in this sin. The scandal was God’s grace. Grace is scandalous. This story makes Jesus look like he is condoning sin. However, while Jesus didn’t condone her sin, he didn’t leave her thinking he was ignoring it. Jesus told her to go home and to leave her sin. She is to go home and sin no more.

The Bible doesn’t say this but I think this whole scene made Jesus mad. I think it irritated him because once again the religious leaders were missing the main point; they were missing God’s grace. The Old Testament is often referred to as the Testament of law while the New Testament is the testament of grace. But God was a God of grace in the Old Testament as well. I’m not going to take a lot of time reading all the verses to prove it but here’s what God said about himself to Moses while Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the law: SLIDE 13

Exodus 34:6-7b 6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, SLIDE 14 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.”

SLIDE 15 God is a God of grace in the New Testament but he was also a God of grace in the Old Testament. God is willing to forgive in the New Testament but he also forgave in the Old Testament. We have all sinned. We have all fallen short of God’s glory. We all deserve his punishment but God is ready to offer us his grace. While the religious leaders were busy focusing on the law they missed God’s grace.

Whatever happened to that woman? We don’t know. There have been some who have speculated that this unnamed woman was Mary Magdalene. I guess it could have been, but there is no biblical or historical reason to believe it was. I wish she had a name but John doesn’t give us one. We only know her as the woman caught in adultery. After she left Jesus she sinned again just as we all sin. But on that day Jesus showed her grace and gave her an opportunity to start over.

The Bible tells us that God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. God never changes. That means that God is still a God of grace today. God is ready to forgive those who come to him in repentance. He is ready to give everyone who comes to him a fresh start.