Glass Houses

.
I was reading in the book of John were the leaders brought a woman to Jesus that had been caught in the act of adultery and wanted Jesus to pass judgment on her. They quickly remind Jesus how the law brought to them by Moses states that such women are to be stoned to death.

Jesus knew that they were actually doing this so they could accuse him of not following the law of God. Jesus appears to ignore them and bends down to write something on the ground with his finger. Oh, how I would love to know what he had written.

They began to question him and harass him for an answer. Slowly Jesus stands back up and says “If any of you are without sin, let him throw the first stone at her.”
Then he bent back down and continued writing on the ground. I can visualize the crowd moving around behind Jesus so they can see what he is writing in the dirt. After reading it they slowly began to leave one by one, until all of the crowd had walked away leaving only Jesus writing in the dirt and the woman awaiting her judgment.

Jesus again stands up and asks the woman, “where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one sir.” She said. “Then, neither do I condemn you. Now, go and leave your life of sin.”

If you think about it, everyone there was guilty of sin. From the woman awaiting judgment, to the men who walked her to the judgment seat. But out of the entire crowd, the woman was the only one who was sorry for what she had done and stood awaiting the punishment she deserved. All the others sneaked away while Jesus wasn’t watching.

As I thought longer on this I realized their was someone there without sin who could have chosen to throw the first stone, but he chose to show compassion and love rather then condemn.

John 3:17 says: “For God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him”.

My pocket full of stones that I carry in case I am called to pass judgment, suddenly seems heavy and my hesitation to show compassion and forgiveness now stands as witness of my true self.



How quickly we see the faults of others, how easy it is to see the problems in other people’s lives. We watch as people struggle and the whole time we work to keep our sin well camouflaged. Tucked away in the secret chambers of our heart. Hoping no one finds out we also struggle.

I think we have believed the lie that God is a God of judgment and not a God of love.
We tend to forget that it was God that sent his son to pay the price of sin once and for all and to buy us a way out of this doomed existence. Romans 6:23 tells us: The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.
In other words, I have earned death by the way I have lived but through the death and resurrection of Jesus, I have been given pardon. Forgiven and justified.

Jesus sees me as I am and chooses to show compassion rather than condemn me.
For this I am forever grateful.

Remember to always ride the narrow road and stop in and see us again.

Your Riding Companion, Larry (Skeeter)