Daily Devotions
John
An unnerving silence
Text: John 8 : 1 - 11
AN UNNERVING SILENCE
The silence of Jesus must have been electrifying. The woman in question must have felt sheer terror. Everything depended on what Jesus said. Would He condemn her? Would He bid the crowd to pick up stones to hurl at her? That was what the Mosaic Law had prescribed (Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22).
The crowd waited with bated breath to see how Jesus would respond. Had The Jews finally found a way to defeat Jesus? Had they succeeded to humiliate Him? How would Jesus respond?
The Jews however were very confident that they had finally trapped Jesus. How could Jesus have replied? They must have considered all the angles and figured that He had no reply to offer. It was as if they had checkmated Jesus. Thus The Jews pressed Jesus for a reply. John noted,
“So… they continued asking Him…”
John 8:7
AN UNEXPECTED REPLY
John captured this scene carefully and with great beauty and skill.
“He raised Himself up and said to them,
‘He who is without sin among you,
let him throw a stone at her first.’
And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.”
John 8:7-8
Everyone must have been astonished by what Jesus had just uttered! He had raised a question that no thinking person could ignore. Was it sin that The Jews wanted Jesus to deal with? Then they must first hear what He had to say about sin!
Yes, the Law of Moses must be upheld for God Himself gave it. Yes, the woman had sinned and had broken the law! She did deserve to be punished!
But what made the Jews so sure that they were not deserving of punishment from God for all the sins that they had committed in their lives? If they were to be judged for their sins, would they have fared any better?
The words of Jesus were indeed “spirit and truth” (John 6:63). The words that Jesus uttered went forth with tremendous power.
THE POWER OF JESUS
The Jews wanted a reply from Jesus. They were so sure that they had now cornered Jesus. They were wrong. They had badly underestimated Him once again. They had not reckoned with the power that Jesus wielded as He spoke. John noted the effect this power had on the hostile crowd. The words of Jesus could bring hope and faith in the hearts of those who listened humbly. But the words of Jesus could also bring about a great conviction within the heart.
“Then those who heard it, being convicted
by their conscience, went out one by one,
beginning with the oldest even to the last.”
John 8:9
Suddenly the consciences of the crowds acted up. The power of the spoken word broke through the hypocritical religious veneer of The Jews. The power of God was brought to bear on all concerned.
Perhaps images of past sins flashed through the minds of the oldest Pharisee. Had he been totally sinless? Had he not sinned grievously when he was younger? What about all his colleagues? Were they guiltless too?
The power that convicted the hearts of The Jews was too powerful to resist. They too were sinners before God. Had the Jews suddenly felt that they had stood in the Presence of One who was perfectly holy? We are reminded of how the prophet Isaiah was ushered into the Presence of God. As he sensed the holiness of God, his very soul cried out,
“Woe is me, for I am undone!
Because I am a man of unclean lips.
And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of Hosts.”
Isaiah 6:5
The Jews had rudely barged into the Presence of Jesus with total disregard for Him. They had interrupted the lesson that He was teaching the crowd. Part of that lesson involved some writing on the ground. That was the way teachers taught in those days. The ground was the chalkboard (whiteboard) of the teacher.
They had not fully comprehended just who Jesus was. They had heard Jesus teaching that God had entrusted and empowered Him to be Judge Divine (John 5:19-30). They brought the woman caught in adultery to challenge and to mock Jesus and His claim to be a Judge. They had not included an important truth. They had not known just how holy Jesus really was.
Perhaps Jesus allowed them to catch a glimpse of who He really was without saying a word. They had come into the Presence of One who was as holy as The Lord of Hosts Himself. Confronted by the holiness of Jesus, suddenly The Jews felt the weight of their sinfulness, just as Isaiah did.
As quickly as a crowd had converged upon Jesus, that same motley group of hypocritical accusers melted away.
“…And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing
in the midst.”
John 8:9
The trap that was laid for Jesus was now well and truly sprung. The Jews were once again soundly beaten by Jesus. This time, not only did they go away smarting with embarrassment, they went away feeling guilty because their sinfulness had caught up with their conscience! Who was this man called Jesus? They still hadn’t a clue!