September 23, 2022
Daily Devotion:
“Publicly Outraged “
John 8:6-7
New International Version
6 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. 7 When they kept on questioning him, 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.”
Wouldn't you give anything to know what Jesus was writing in the dust that day? There's been much speculation, but whatever he actually wrote had an immediate effect on the men who were accusing the woman caught in adultery. Was Jesus writing the names of each of the men and perhaps the sins they themselves had committed? No wonder they fled! Not Only would it have vindicated Jesus' divinity (the issue being tested by dragging the woman before Jesus), but it would also have exposed these accusers' deplorable hypocrisy. Certainly they were already suspect for not equally condemning the man caught in adultery, but making that objection would have shifted the focus away from their own sinfulness. What they needed to see was that, while they were pointing one finger at the woman, three fingers were pointing back at themselves! Who better deserved being told off by Jesus? Unfortunately, an unintended perversity has evolved from today's passage. How many times have we heard someone say, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone"? It usually happens when people are rebuking moral judgment against a target they feel is undeserving-often themselves! This verse has become a favorite proof text for a nonjudgmental culture, despite Jesus' judgmental warning to the woman that she should stop sinning. Far from being a general prohibition against judging immorality in others, the point of the story is to temper our moral judgments with the recognition that we too are sinners. If others need our moral censure (and they do), none need it more than ourselves.
The question of judgment is: Am I privately as outraged at my own moral failure as I am publicly outraged at the sins of others?
