Many of us are familiar with an old story:
The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law of Moses brought in a woman who had been caught in bed with a man who wasn’t her husband. They made her stand in the middle of the crowd. Then they said, “Teacher, this woman was caught sleeping with a man who isn’t her husband. The Law of Moses teaches that a woman like this should be stoned to death! What do you say?”
Jesus bent over and started writing on the ground with his finger.
They kept on asking Jesus about the woman. Finally, he stood up and said, “If any of you have never sinned, then go ahead and throw the first stone at her!” Once again he bent over and began writing on the ground. The people left one by one, beginning with the oldest. Finally, Jesus and the woman were there alone.
Jesus stood up and asked her, “Where is everyone? Isn’t there anyone left to accuse you?”
“No sir,” the woman answered.
Then Jesus told her, “I am not going to accuse you either. You may go now, but don’t sin anymore.”
I can’t help but notice on Facebook how many people are eager to stone someone—to pronounce a brutal punishment—in response to a post about someone else’s sin. But a dream last night showed me there is more to this story.
All of the accusers realized that their own failings made them ineligible to stone the woman. I, too, am not perfect, and it would be wise of me to be very slow to “throw stones.”
But that’s only part of the lesson. What I hadn’t noticed until now is that Jesus had the right to throw stones at everyone there—and He chose not to.
I need to establish a habit of asking “what would Jesus do?” before putting something online.
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