Condemnation or Mercy?

 “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.””

‭‭John‬ ‭8‬:‭7‬ ‭ESV‬‬

When we sin, we tend to think that we are deserving of forgiveness. We tend to think we are deserving of mercy. And we tend to believe that others owe this to us.

We, however, are quick to criticize. We’re quick to rebuke. And we’re quick to condemn.

This is true of all of us. It’s true of the righteous and the unrighteous. It’s true of the rich and poor. And it’s true of men and women.

We are quick to see the sin in others. We are quick to point out their shortcomings and flaws. And we’re quick to demand that justice be served. 

We want to see the sinner receive his due. We want him to receive what he has coming to him. Anything less, we believe, is unfair.

What we fail to remember, in those moments, is that we too are guilty. We fail to understand that we too are sinners. And we fail to acknowledge that we too deserve the penalty of our sin.

Jesus was making this plain to the crowd which had brought to him a woman caught in the act of adultery. As they did so, they reminded him of the Law, and what it said in such a case. Such a woman, they pointed out, was to be stoned.

Their motives, however, were not pure. They sought to test him. They sought a way to accuse him, regardless of the answer he gave.

Jesus, however, did not contradict the Law of God. Nor did he insist that they violate the law of Rome, which forbade such executions. He said that, whoever was without sin, should cast the first stone.

He was telling them, in this way, that they were all sinners. And he was reminding them that they all deserved to die. Each and every one of them were deserving of the consequences of their sin.

Hearing this, they all began to go away. One by one, they left. And, soon, no one remained to accuse her.

This is the reminder that Jesus gives to each of us, as well. We are all sinners. We all deserve judgment. And we are all in need of God’s mercy.

More than that, we should desire mercy not only for ourselves. We should desire it for each and every sinner. We should long for all, even those guilty of the most heinous of sins, to receive the blessing that Jesus came to provide.