Middle of the Mess

Have you ever made a big mistake? Watch this video

Whenever I see these videos I always think first off ouch, but secondly I wonder what the punishment was?

Because if I had to guess these guys were probably fired, they might have had to pay some sort of fine, or not be able to use that machine again.

Because whenever theres a big mistake there are usually big consequences,

And where I want us to set our minds this morning, because all of us make mistakes.

And occasionally these mistakes are very intentional and sometime very messy

And the question becomes what happens when we catch ourselves the middle these messy situations where we have intentionally or at least we were not thinking a ton and got ourselves in the middle of a really tough situation

What happens when we say something gossipy and it causes a lot of damage,

What happens when we let our anger get the best of us and just chew someone out

What happens when we make a huge mistake that could potentially ruins our life?

What happens when we make a mistake that could cause a ton of damage to our family?

And so today what we are going to do is we will be looking in the passage John 8:1-12 and we are going to be looking at a person that gets caught in the middle of the a big mess that they made.

And so we will be starting in John 8:1-6 because it says this:

1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

2 At dawn he 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. …

So look what is happening because Jesus is walking into the temple to teach and as he is teaching, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees interrupt Jesus and bring this women who we do not know a ton about other than she had just made a big mistake.

Where she had been caught in adultery,

And this is a big deal in our culture, but it was even a bigger deal in the Jewish culture.

Because the Jews had a really high view on family and this was something that destroys a family really quick

And before anything (this is not the heart of the message, but its a truth that needs to be paired with it) I just want us to understand that the mistakes we make in life have real consequences,

I mean imagine if after church Joe and I were really mad at each other, because I didn’t like how he led one of the songs, and he was mad and me because he thought my sermon was terrible.

And so we go out into the church parking lot and break out into a fight.

There would be a few things that would happen first off Joe would probably win.

But secondly, the police would probably get called,

Joe and I might get jail time

Joe and I’s relationship would be very different afterwards

And I would probably loose my job

Because our poor decions have real consequences.

I mean if you lie to someone, that person is probably going to have a hard time trusting you again.

If you lash out and you say Im sorry, people might still walk on eggshells around you

And this women (in the story) has made a choice that could potentially ruin her life and have a really negative impact on her family.

But something else that is interesting is while in Jewish culture adultery was very serious,

A lot of scholars belive that the Jewish people had not actively practiced stoning people for this for hundreds of years.

And so while the this woman was caught in adultry and it was serius, the Jewish leaders are actually doing somthing really destructive here.

Because its not that they are here going I want to follow God as faithful as possible, and stoning this woman is the best way to do it.

But they are weponizing this old law that they had most likely not practiced for hundreds of years so that they could prove a point.

And this is really relevant for us because I cannot tell you how often I see Christians finding just the weirdest scripture and it gets taken out of context, and they use it because it proves they are right or because they can use it against the person they view as the enemy, whether it aligns with the person of Jesus or not.

Because to often when this happens we are not going wow I want to help this person, but we have a scripture in one hand and a stone in the other.

And we use it on the person thats on the opposite side of the political isle

We amay even use it to cover our mistakes, and push the attention to others.

And I just have to say this really bad, because this causes so much damage.

And not just that but its almost the opposite of what we see Jesus doing.

BecauseI think the first half of this passage does a good job at painting a picture of what we tend to do, but this second half paints a picture of how God responds. Look at the second half of verse 6 through 11. it says this:

… But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 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. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

11 “No one, sir,” she said.

You know its really interesting because this really dramatic scene is unfolding, and it says Jesus begins to write something on the ground with His finger.

And I don’t want to spend too much time on this, but we are not told what Jesus began to write.

Some people think it would be aa Bible passage, others think Jesus could be naming some of the sins that the people commited who were wanting this woman stoned… no one knows.

But as Jesus is writing. He says Let anyone who has not sinned throw the first stone.

You know I think Jesus understood a lot of times in our mistakes we are really good at naming others mistakes that we miss the most obvious ones that are a part of our lives.

And Jesus is saying okay, you want to condem this woman, but your lives are just as messy?

Its kind of like if you have ever randomly dropped in at Arika and I’s house it is messy. I mean toys are everywhere, their are broken crayons,

And so whenever Arika and I go to someones house, we never go wow that house could use cleaned, or wow their kids rooms were really messed up, They do not even make their bed!

I mean it would be ridiculous if we were going can you believe that toy was out? because our house is usually not the cleanest.

And in this passage Jesus is going okay go ahead and judge this women, but only if you have your life completely together.

If you have never sinned, come up and throw this stone.

And I love what it says because you can picture one by one each person dropping the stone and walking away,

And this is the part that in my opinion is the most powerful because as they walk away it gets to the point where its just Jesus and this woman left.

And Jesus is sinless right? So if one person had the right to throw the first stone it would be Jesus,

but instead he comes to the woman and says where are all the people that were here to stone you? and He says this last part in the second half of verse 11:

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

You know the beautiful part of this story is that while everyone was yelling to condem this woman, Jesus came in and said no I will not condem you.

I mean this might be a shocker, but occasionally Liam and Finn don’t listen to Arika and I (Eden always will though)

And they have gotten into this new habbit of jumping off of high things in the house

And we tell them know, but sometimes they do it while we are in the other room.

And occasionally when that happens they get hurt.

And I never walk in to the room and go “Ha serves you right you little brat!”

But I am going buddy what happened? Are you okay, I told you that was a bad idea. And its never been where they have not broken anything (yet) , but I am sure if they did, my heart aching because of the pain they are in.

And I think this is where we see Jesus, He is looking at this woman like His child and He sees the embaresment she feels, He sees that she has just made a terrible choice that will probably tear apart her family, He sees that she probably thought she was going to get killed a second ago

and He is looking at her how a parent looks at their kid after making a really poor choice?

And instead of condeming her and throwing a stone we see Him coming to her and forgiving her.

And he finishes by telling her go and sin no more. And this is really powerful because He is telling this woman about what His grace does.

You know Gods grace covers us and I praise God for the ways that His grace covers us, but it does not just cover us it changes us.

Think about when you were a kid and were riding your bike and you fall down and scrap up your knee.

you can cover it, put a bandaid on it, and no one will know. It is out of sight out of mind

And thats the oppisite of what grace does

Because the issue is the wound never got cleaned, and so what happens is the dirt and rocks are still in the cut, it never got cleaned and it will probably get infected, and will get worse and eventually could even kill you.

But what God’s grace does is we take off the thing we have covering our infection and we show it to the doctor.

We see Here is my infection, here are the things that are tearing my family apart, that are ruining my marriage, the things that no one knows about,

And we say here you go, And God comes in and begins the healing,

And this morning as we get ready to close I imagine maybe their are some of us that are caught in the middle of a mistake this morning.

Maybe its from something that happened awhile ago, maybe its from something that happened recently.

maybe its something you wrestle with everyday of your life, and the infection has just been growing and getting worse and you have no idea what your going to do.

You like you cannot get past it,

I think the beauty of this passage is that regardless of the mistake or (or more accurately) the mistakes you have made you are never to far from the reach of Christ

And this morning I believe God, is coming to you like a loving father with His arms stretched wide.

And He is calling us to rise out of the old way that we live and into the newness of Christ.