Our Pastor yesterday was sharing with us as he continued the topic of ‘knowing Jesus’.
A few more of the attributes of Jesus we don’t often think about are Grace and Justice.
He was full of grace, and compassion, and kindness and forgiveness.
He was also full of Justice for He was fully God and could not tolerate sin and evil.
Pastor said, “If you read the interactions of Jesus He deals with women much differently than He deals with the men.” The reason for that was the fact that women were low in status and had little value in that culture. They were devalued and when he ministered to them he collided with the theology of the day. (And he knew that)
He saw they had value.
He saw they were needing His touch and He saw they were searching from their heart.
That brought great chaos to the leaders of the day for He was not supposed to talk to women or heal them (remember the woman who grabbed the end of his garment?) Women were valued in the presence of Jesus and that made the rulers of the day upset with him.
In John 8:2-10 Pastor said Jesus was ambushed into a situation so that the leaders of the day would see what Jesus would do and build their case against him.
At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts; where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and ask her, “Woman, where are they? no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” (Pastor said there should be a question mark there because in reality the only one who stood there without sin was Jesus and he could have thrown the stone at her and he knew that)
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
GRACE…was shown to her.
The leaders of the day wanted to ambush Jesus into judging her and in the process they became the judged. Jesus declared the truth to them and he revealed to them their hearts intention of judgement. They had to have set her up in order for them to know she was in adultery so they were more guilty than she was to catch her in the act. Just as they set Jesus up they set her up too. Pastor said, “Jesus was teaching and all of a sudden in walked these men dragging a half dressed woman wrapped in bed sheets caught in the act.” How would they know without being a part of it?
Pastor said, “Don’t we wish we could know what he wrote? It must have been revealing enough for all of them to leave.” Jesus exposed their hearts of stone and condemned the ones who were accusing. Did he write down specific names… did he write down specific sins only those who read would know about? They left…one by one.
They left…one by one… which tells me he dealt with each heart individully.
Grace was shown to the woman standing near him in a bed cloth…
transparent with her shame exposed. Grace was shown to her heart.
Grace mixed with love was shown to her with compassion. Jesus said, “leave and not only leave here but leave the life you have been living. You don’t need to live that way.”
Justice was when Jesus found the temple being used wrongfully in the selling of animals and exchanging of money. Jesus was angered and drove them out removing them with force and strength. In John 2:13-20 He was God refining and cleaning out the ones who were abusing the temple for wrong purposes. He made a whip and used his anger… the anger of God against sin and forced them out of the temple. (Pastor said, “I don’t think he used his inside voice.”)
Jesus was not just a quiet gentle person.
He was God full of Grace and Justice and He used His power when He needed to.
The ending question was this:
What part of your life do you need refined and cleaned by a grace filled powerful God full of justice and strength?
Pastor said, “Jesus became the voice for the voiceless.”
The women of the ‘day’ had no voice. They had no purpose and no value. Jesus did not stay within that law he stayed within the soul searching God laws that asked questions.
Questions of the heart.
He showed compassion when it was against the rule of the day.
He challenged those who challenged him and gently cared for those who sought him out.
He was an advocate and a Judge.
Will you also make him your Lord and Savior so he can gracefully move into your heart and show you what needs to be refined and cleaned?
This is just a little something to think about today.
God in His Holiness was gentle enough to have grace towards a women standing before him in shame wrapped in a bed sheet.
What are we wrapped in?
