30 December 2010

Psalm 20, 21; Isa 25:1-9; Rev. 1:9-20; John 7:53-8:11

This is truly a time to worship for indeed the Lord has done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure. From before He brought forth life on this earth He knew that we would need a savior and so the plan to send His Son is older even than creation. We celebrate His omniscience, the fact that He knows all things even before they can be known by mankind. We celebrate it because we know that even knowing all things, what we would do, what we have done and what we will do, He loves us enough to have made a plan for us to escape the punishment for our sins and then He carried out that plan. As Isaiah has written, let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

It seems likely that the religious leaders had a plan to trip up Jesus and it involved catching this woman in a compromising, sinful action. It seems unlikely that they would coincidentally have caught her and it is truly strange that no man is with her in this kangaroo court of a trial. It isn’t possible to commit adultery without an accomplice. It is quite unlikely they would have carried out the prescribed punishment of stoning her, there are few if any examples of the law being fully carried out and in the time of Jesus the Jews would not have taken such action without Roman permission. (Remember they had to get the Romans to carry out the sentence in Jesus’ case.) Apparently Jesus had gotten the reputation for being somewhat light on the question of sin and the law, and here they attempt to get him to deal with an issue that is incredibly straightforward, you can’t get around this one. Jesus, however, apparently knows something they don’t. We have no idea what He has written in the dust this day but that combined with his words regarding the one without sin leaves them all with no choice but to walk away. He alone is without sin, so He could have been the one to cast the stone and free them to follow but He does not. He forgives but does not excuse. He calls it what it is, sin, and says do it no more. She has not gotten away with anything, she is held accountable for her actions.

John sees Jesus again. He has seen Him in the Transfiguration and in the Resurrection but nothing prepared him to see this vision of the completely glorified Jesus. The Jesus who had been his friend, who had loved Him and who had been both his master and the one who had served him, who had washed his feet, now stands in heaven as the Alpha and Omega, the judge of all things. No matter how good John’s theology, particularly his Christology was, he could never have been prepared to see this vision and he falls at his feet as though dead. He knew what Isaiah felt like in the temple in Isaiah 6 and like the woman caught in adultery knows what it looks like to have received back his life when he is unworthy to do so. He has seen the holiness and righteousness of God and the life has drained out of him until Jesus tells him to rise. We need to be reminded that Jesus is our friend but He is more than that, He is indeed our savior and our righteousness and we need both.

Be exalted, O LORD, in your strength!
We will sing and praise your power.