David’s Daily Devotion for Mar. 17

March 17, 2023 - Good Morning!  It’s Friday, March 17.

Tomorrow, the Women’s Ministry of First Baptist Center will host their annual Joy Seekers Women’s Conference.  Today, we complete a short series about people in desperate situations who encountered Jesus.  Today, we focus on the story from John 8 about the adulterous woman.

We find Jesus in Jerusalem, hounded by the Pharisees, who try to get the temple guards to arrest him.  Failing at that, their treachery takes a dramatic and deadly turn.  As Jesus is teaching in the temple, a woman, caught in adultery, is brought before him.

The religious leaders have no compassion or respect for this woman, parading her in front of the large crowd gathered to hear Jesus.  She is just a pawn in their game, a tool that they use to trap him.  They threaten her with stoning, and ask Jesus what he thinks should be her fate.  They have planned well.  If Jesus says she should be released, then he will be accused of going against the Law of Moses.  If he says she should be executed, he will be the enemy of the Romans, who saw themselves as the only rightful executioners.  Jesus had been trapped into a no-win situation.

How did he respond?  What did he say?  Well, at first, nothing.  Instead he stooped down to write in the sand.  Theologians have debated for centuries about what he may have written.  An interesting theory is that Jesus wrote the names of the Pharisees, with their secret sins beside their names.

When Jesus did speak, he responded with these famous words.  “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone”.  The men slowly began to leave, dropping their stones as they went.  The only person who remained was the one who was in the desperate situation.  The woman.  Jesus treated her as a person, not a pawn.  He showed compassion, as he told her to “go and sin no more”.

Meet you back here on Monday,

Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org