Dirty Grace
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// INTRO
// INTRO
The Adulterous Woman
53 They went each to his own house, 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
History of this Passage
** This passage is marked as not included in ancient manuscripts **
The majority of ancient Greek manuscripts omit this section
Many later manuscripts mark this section with asterisks
One group of manuscripts inserts it after
A few have this section after , and one has it after
All this shows that ancient scribes were ignorant of its exact position, but were anxious to retain it in the gospel records. They knew it belonged, but they didn’t exactly know where.
The Background
The Background
Goal of this Interaction with Jesus: to trap Jesus
the goal was for the scribes and pharisees to trap Jesus so that they could charge him with a crime. In the midst of this, they use this woman as a pawn to trap Jesus.
Adultery was committed by a woman AND man.
where was the man involved in this crime?
why was the law only applicable to who they wanted it to be?
The punishment for Adultery was to be put to death (man or woman) - because the Jews were under Roman Law, they couldn’t carry out the duty of putting someone to death without Roman Consent.
Did they really execute people for adultery in Israel? It is true that adultery was a capital offense under Jewish law, but the rules for evidence in capital cases were extremely strict. The actual act had to be observed by multiple witnesses who agreed exactly in their testimony. So, as a practical matter, virtually no one was executed for adultery, since this is a private sin.
This is the same reason they couldn’t put Jesus to death. this is why when they finally got approval to put Jesus to death the only thing they could come up with was that he was a public menace and was causing an uprising to take place.
Jesus ignores the crowds and begins to write on the ground:
the names of the men
the sins of the men
a simple “line in the sand” - who’s going to cross the line first
the phrase “he without sin throw the first stone”
As Jesus is writing they continue to ask his opinion - because it’s a setup
7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Jesus responds...
He was really said, “All right, let’s execute her. But let’s do it right. One of the witnesses has to have a hand in her execution. So who among you is the one who witnessed this crime, but only brought to Me the woman, not the man?”
Jesus makes this plain - if you are witness who can bring judgment to this woman, but somehow you didn’t get the man involved, go ahead and step forward and throw the first stone. Whoever that person would be, would equally be guilty of sin, hypocrisy.
The Woman is left alone with Jesus
10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
NOTICE THE WORDING: there were many accusers there, but no one was left to condemn
There are going to be people in your life that will talk, talk, talk. Many that will use words against you can try to bring you down. The reality is though, none of them have the authority to condemn you.
God is the only judge able to condemn
7 but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another.
23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,
Dirty Grace
Dirty Grace
it would be very easy to take this passage and say that Jesus doesn’t care about sexual immorality - but then you would be missing the point of the whole lesson
Insert your sin in for the woman
The deceiving dude
The lustful guy
The envious lady
The tempting teen
The disrespectful daughter
Every one of these is a sin and it separates us from God
Scissors cutting the phone line <picture>
Grace comes along and repairs that damage and gives us access to God that we never had or deserved before!
Grace is the unmerited (didn’t have to work for it) favor (approval and blessings) of God
The Question we must answer then...
The Question we must answer then...
are we able to handle Dirty Grace?
It depends on where you’re standing - if you are in the woman’s shoes, all day, I need that grace. But if you are in the accusers shoe, is God’s grace enough for them?
the guy that constantly cusses and talks perverted at school
the guy that teases and bullies you
the girl that body shames you
the girl that comments poorly on your social media
the sibling that gets on your last nerve
the parent that pushes you too hard
When Jesus died on the cross, it was a very dirty thing - there was nothing physically beautiful about it.
The beautiful and redeeming part of Jesus death on the cross was the fact that it meant our phone line to God was now fixed. We now have access to God like we never had before.
Jesus on the Cross <picture>
What do I do with that?
What do I do with that?
we turn away from our sinful life and aim for the abundant life that Jesus promises us.
life is not supposed to be a bunch of rules and regulations. the reason the rules are there is to make is plain what the standards are for that group.
The reality is that, if everyone loves God with all their heart and loved people as they loved themselves, there would be no need for rules (thus, Heaven)
Jesus tells the adulterous woman, no one has condemned you, neither do I...now Go (do something with your life) and sin no more.
the idea of sinning no more is so common when Jesus would heal people. He would heal them of their sickness or disease and then tell them to go and sin no more.