And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more."
John 8:11
A woman is brought to Jesus - exposed as an adulteress and yet wrapped in her shame. The scribes and the Pharisees call for her death: "In the law, Moses commands that a woman like her should be stoned!"
A woman like her...
She who was nothing more than a sacrifice on the altar of their own hopes to catch Jesus in the act of blasphemy...
A pawn in the game they were playing, a game they were determined to win...
A woman whose death was a risk they felt was worth taking to wear the victor's crown.
A woman like her...
A woman in whom no one saw value...but Jesus.
"Let him who is without sin, be the first to throw a stone at her."
John 8:7
The awkward silence that follows Jesus' words slowly fills with the sound of stones dropping upon a dusty roadway.
First one, and then another, and another.
And before long, "Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him."
I try to imagine what she must have felt in this moment.
How the fear that she must have carried as they cried for her death would somehow melt into deafening silence - almost as terrifying.
They didn't even value her enough to take her back to the warmth of the bed they had ripped her from.
They just...left her there. Yes, alive...but also...forgotten.
And then Jesus breaks the silence.
“Woman," He asks, "Where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one, Lord,” she replies.
“Neither do I condemn you; go, and sin no more.”
John 8:11
Go - "exit this place" and...
Sin no more - "Start over. Start fresh. Try again."
Jesus - the only One without sin, the only One worthy of casting stones...didn't.
Instead, He offered her a way out.
A second chance...
A new beginning.
And like the twelve stones beside the Jordan in Joshua 4 that were piled high as a memorial marker of God's faithful love for the people of Israel - the stones that lay at her feet stood as memorial markers of God's faithful love of "a daughter like her."
A daughter He saw.
A daughter He valued
And a daughter He loved.
Maybe you've felt like the woman in John 8...used, ashamed, unwanted, unloved...forgotten.
Maybe you've wondered, "Could He ever love a woman like me?"
May John 8:1-11 stand as evidence: He can, He does, and He always will.
In Him, you will find a way out...a second chance...a new beginning...
and a place to belong for a "daughter like you."
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