7 [Jesus] 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.” – John 8:7-11
These people who were ready to stone this woman to death had brought her to Jesus because she was guilty of sin. Jesus doesn’t deny that she is guilty. Instead, he simply asks everyone else to be honest with themselves, and then he invites anyone who is sin-free to go ahead and carry out judgment on this sinner. However, one thing that Jesus didn’t do is ask them to leave. Apparently, they just started walking away. But this story is written in such a way that suggests that some of them thought about it more than others. The older people were quicker to realize that they too had sinned. The younger people fought it a bit more. However, and this is important, every person there realized that they had sinned. Every single person. One of them was brought in as a sinner, and then a whole crowd of people walked away as sinners. However, only one person was forgiven; the person who stayed with Jesus.
I wonder what would have happened if some of the angry mob would have stayed with Jesus. Would they have been forgiven as well? What I do know is that the only place where we can find forgiveness is Jesus. We don’t find forgiveness when we hide our sin when we ignore our sin, or when we try to make ourselves look better than we are. The only way that you or I will ever find forgiveness is if we allow Jesus to be there with us… even in our sin. This poor woman was having the worst day of her life, but she stayed with Jesus and because of that, it turned into the most beautiful day of her life.
Let’s be people who stay with Jesus.
Josh Rose
Discipleship Pastor