Rev. Richard P. Smith
March 13, 2023
John 8:8-11
When they kept on questioning Jesus, 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.’ When they heard this, they began to go away one by one, beginning with the woman standing there. Then Jesus straightened up and asked her, ‘Woman, where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?’ ‘No one, Lord’, she answered. ‘Then neither do I condemn you’, Jesus declared. ‘Now go and sin no more’.
The first part of this scenario with Jesus sets a significant spiritual challenge for all of us. Given our own shortcomings, we are not given the privilege of judging others. We may raise legitimate concerns about certain moral behaviors, but we are not allowed to pass judgment on another person. That belongs to God.
The second, and equally enlightening part of this scene, finds Jesus engaging the woman and saying, “Now go and sin no more.” Did you get that?…Jesus expects her to go and do better morally and spiritually.
The message here is that we’re not allowed to stay the way we are. We’re all welcome, but we’re also expected to own up to the part of us that needs changing and seek to do something about it. We’re called to do better, to try harder, to become the persons Jesus would have us be. Remember how the Apostle Paul puts it in Philippians 3:12: Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
God doesn’t expect perfection. But He does expect us to press on in faithfulness and obedience; to do better morally and spiritually; to grow beyond the faults and flaws which haunt us and betray our faithfulness to Him.
The key here is that corollary to God’s expectation of change is God’s promise of support. As we open our hearts to God’s Spirit and his ongoing Presence – through prayer, worship, reflection, study — we plug into spiritual empowerment which enables us to grow and spiritually mature; to indeed become more of whom God wants us to be.