Conditions of Birth ...

There is no greater joy in the mob, than to condemn sin in others, particularly a public sin.  The mob is not interested in redemption; nor is it interested in forgiveness.  The mob claims interest only in justice.  But more often, the mob is only really interested in vengeance and humiliation.  If this were an old west movie, and the town’s people were chasing some criminal, it might be more tolerable.  But when the mob is a religious one, the first goal is to make everyone aware of the sin of its target.  The second goal is to see that the sinner is punished appropriately for what they have done.  The mob holds itself guiltless no matter the truth.  The mob holds itself as arbiter of the will of God.  The mob believes its actions are only just and deserved, and perhaps it even has a point.  But this is not the story of our God, or the story of His plan, for His plan redeems that which does not deserve redemption.  Our God forgives that which should not be forgiven.  Our God transforms the life of the guilty sinner into one of passionate love for others that makes obedience not only possible, but the lowest rung upon which to measure success.

Our modern Christians too often equate with the mob.  Our American idealism understands frontier justice, even if we personally do not participate in it.  We look on public sinners like Anthony Weiner and decide that his repeated behaviors are proof that he is not really sorry, and will do it again, the minute he has a chance.  Getting caught appears to be the only thing he is sorry for, as many a sinner will be in “the day of punishment at the end of all things”.  If mob justice were to arise, even our modern Christian churches would somehow sympathize.  We do not appreciate those with sexual sins.  We appreciate even less the ones who get caught and parade their weaknesses in public.  And when the sinner impacts the life of a child, our tolerance completely vanishes, and only our sense of justice emerges.  And so even where there is no pitchforks and lanterns on the streets, there is still an equal sentiment in the hearts of those watching the news in their living rooms, who call themselves followers of Jesus.

So what is the just punishment for sexting with anyone, let alone a minor, from a religious perspective?  The quick answer is a pending trip to the fires of hell, but that seems rather far off, and not immediate enough to satiate the crowd here.  In Biblical times there was no concept of sexting.  Photography itself would take many centuries to appear.  And electronic transmission of images in an instant across thousands of miles was just conceptually unheard of in the days of Jesus.  But exposing oneself to others in person was something they have had since before the flood.  And women who did not turn away from such exposure but rather turned towards it with thoughts of their own, is also something that has existed since before the flood.  So while the methods may differ, the sexual sins are based largely on the same inner thoughts and outer actions. 

For a member of the right religion (the Jewish faith) to find herself pregnant prior to marriage was a pretty terrific and dangerous sin for her.  Since the Jewish faith was very much a male dominated society, the penalties for the men seemed to have largely dissipated, but the penalities for the women in such conditions were as sharp as they ever were.  The woman would be stoned.  Now for your average woman who was not officially known as a prostitute, options were limited.  A fiancée such as Mary was, engaged to a good man like Joseph, had few if any.  From the mob’s point of view, if Mary was caught cheating on Joseph, stoning would be in her future.  If however, Mary and Joseph just jumped the gun a little on the wedding date, and got pregnant a bit earlier than was planned, this could be forgiven as long as neither party was cheating in any of this.

But Matthew had a problem.  Matthew was writing his gospel from a very traditional Hebrew perspective.  His audience would care very much about the conditions of the birth of Jesus.  They may have accepted His ancestry as being from the lineage of David and Abraham.  But there were a lot of questions swirling around the birth of Jesus Himself.  Was Mary a slut or not?  Joseph was obviously a good devout man, but the Pharisees made a ton of innuendo about Mary being a full-on-slut, caught with her pants down so to speak, and Jesus being born a bastard at best.  How could a bastard ever be the Messiah?  The penalties were clear, and the mob was ready to pounce.  This was the mindset of the audience that Matthew was determined to share the Gospel with.  Matthew must unite Old and New Testaments.  If He could not, the one or the other was a lie.  Could God lie?

Matthew lays out the conditions of birth picking up in chapter one and verse 18 saying … “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.”  Matthew dives right in from his audience’s perspective, the problem was clear.  Mary was engaged to Joseph.  But before the two of them could come together as husband and wife (in effect before Joseph “knew” Mary in ancient terms).  Mary was found to be with child of the Holy Ghost.  Mary was pregnant.  Mary was showing.  It’s not like Mary could go around her home town advertising that the Holy Spirit had come to her explaining all this in advance.  Who would believe her?  Who would believe any girl who claimed to not only have heard the voice of the Holy Spirit, but was getting pregnant from the Holy Spirit?  That was crazy town talk.  So she kept silent.  The gospel was shared with Mary, but fear kept it locked up inside, until the evidence of the gospel could not be overlooked.

Matthew continues in verse 19 saying … “Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.”  The problem continues.  While Mary knew the gospel of the Messiah was now developing in her womb, not even her fiancée knew it.  Joseph could see the evidence of pregnancy.  Joseph could see the evidence of her unfaithfulness.  Mary must have cheated on him as that was the only way this condition could have emerged.  Some men would have led the mob with pitchforks and stones.  Some men would have slinked away and let the mob do its own justice unable to watch the outcome.  But Joseph was of a mind to forgive Mary, preserve her life, but put her away, and never trust her again.  Joseph would preserve the life of mother and child that was not his, but the life he had planned was over.  This was to be private pain for Joseph, private distrust, private betrayal.  He must take responsibility for this sin he did not commit with the outside mob, but the life that was destroyed on the inside was his.

Matthew continues in verse 20 stating … “But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.”  The Gospel was now declared by an Angel of God in a dream to Joseph.  There was no arguing.  There was no doubts.  Mary had not deceived or betrayed him, Mary was faithful to Joseph.  This baby was conceived by the Holy Spirit.  But wait a minute.  If no man was the father, that left only one choice for who was the father.  It had to be the Father God.  If the Father God was the father, then this son would be a Son of His.  Joseph would be raising God as his own son.  The life Joseph had thought to preserve was now the only life that could preserve his own.  The forgiveness Joseph was of a mind to grant Mary and her baby, could only be granted by the baby to Joseph.  The responsibility was enormous.  He was not equipped to raise God.  What do you even call God?

Matthew continues in verse 21 saying … “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.”  There it is.  There is the Gospel in a single sentence.  Call Him Jesus.  The Mission of this Messiah, of the only and true Messiah, will not be the ascendency of His own power.  It will not be a mission of condemnation for those who are plainly guilty.  Instead, this Jesus, will save His people from their sins.  It remains so today.  We are not called only to forgiveness.  We are not called only to grace.  We are called to be transformed by a love that creates passion in us for others and none for ourselves.  We are called to be saved from our sins, freed from them, freed from our slavery to them.  We are not saved from the devil.  We are saved from ourselves.  We are saved from the creatures we have become.  Salvation is salvation from us.  This is the mission of the Messiah, of our Messiah, and of theirs.  There is no mob in this message.  There is no justice in it, only mercy, for mercy has outdone justice due to love.  And none are immune from it.  Even those caught in repeated sin, horrific sin, public sin.  All can be saved from who they are.  All they need is Jesus.

These were the conditions of birth.  This is how Jesus came to be.  These are the facts of it.  But how does this tie back to what was foretold?  Matthew continues in verse 22 saying … “Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, [verse 23] Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”  These are not just the words of Matthew spoken after they have occurred.  The God of our scriptures was the same God from before the arrival of Jesus.  Matthew quotes the very prophet Isaiah to his audience.  Isaiah was given the foresight to prophecy these words centuries before they would be fulfilled.  But they were fulfilled in Jesus.  This Gospel of the Hebrews will be a series of prophecies of Old fulfilled in the New, fulfilled in embodiment of Jesus Christ.

The audience of Matthew might be willing to argue with Matthew.  They may not like his words, or his former profession.  But Isaiah was revered.  Isaiah was sacrosanct.  No one dare argue with Isaiah, and Isaiah said it would occur just like it has occurred.  The Pharisees were wrong.  The leaders of the right religion were wrong.  Isaiah had said it, and it occurred.  Mary was not a slut, she was honored and her virginity intact at conception.  God is with us.  God, the very God of the entire Old Testament was with us.  Here with us.  How could it get any better than this?  And the religious leaders of the right religion pissed it away.  They did not only squander the opportunity.  They attempted and succeeded (for a moment) at cutting it short by killing the very author of their own religion.  This is what control does to a Jesus who asks us to abandon it to Himself.

But this condition was not just to be documented for conception, Isaiah words were to last for the entire pregnancy and carry even more weight.  Matthew continues in verse 24 saying … “Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: [verse 25] And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.”  Joseph did as the Angel instructed.  He not only forgave Mary who needed no forgiveness, he embraced her as his wife as a full partner in the life he had envisioned.  But he also preserved her virginity until AFTER the birth of Jesus.  Only then did He come to “know” Mary as her husband.  Mary was not a slut.  Nor was she some sort of aberrant depiction of the goddess Diana, or some moon goddess, or some picture of perpetual virginity.  She was his wife.  After a virgin birth, she was his partner, and the object of his sexual expression.  And they had other children who were siblings of Jesus.  They were a family.  A human family tasked with raising God among them.

There would be no mob mentality to deal with “sins” that were not even sins.  The judgment of humanity is not judgment at all, it is only condemnation of what they cannot understand.  The sins we commit are never right, or excused; only forgiven.  Our chains to them, our desires to do them, are what Jesus came to save us from.  The entire Gospel summed up in one sentence.  He came to “save” His people from their sins.  Not to excuse them in perpetuity.  He came to change the lives of those who are in bondage to sins.  He came to make us different.  He came to remove from us the things that must be removed if perfection is ever to be our result.  Obedience is not a precondition of our salvation.  Obedience is a evidentiary result of our salvation.  It cannot occur until transformation of who we are occurs.  This is what Jesus came to do.  No mobs need ever form.  Redemption and reclamation is His only goal.

Matthew had made his first foray into tying the Old with the New.  But this was far from finished …

 

Pretext to Kill (witness number fourteen) ...

The story of Mary Magdalene that unfolds in John’s gospel account beginning in chapter eight is not merely an account of adultery, or of forgiveness, or even of redemption.  This story like too many others, was designed and orchestrated by the religious hierarchy in the days of Christ, to find a way to judge Him guilty and kill Him to get Him out of their way.  Adultery in this instance was merely a pretext to the sanctioned murder of Christ.  It is unclear how much time elapsed between the end of chapter seven and the beginning of chapter eight.  In their last attempt, the Pharisees had sent temple guards to “take” Christ and bring Him to them for judgment in private.  This did not work.  And since support for Christ among the people was growing, they must have decided a more public trap would be required to justify their actions.  Since the foundation of their hold over the people was based in religion, it must be a religious pretense that would allow for the judgment and killing of Christ.  A secular accusation would not be enough in the minds of the people.  They needed for the people to see that Christ disregarded the laws of Moses, and would therefore “need” killing, so as to prevent this idea from spreading among the people any further and keep Him from contaminating them with His teachings.

How interesting that religious zealotry is NOT limited only to “false” religions.  The Pharisees were the upper echelon of the Jewish faith established by the true God (in fact by Christ) since their patriarch Abraham sought God nearly 1600 years earlier.   Christ was the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of Joseph, of Moses, of Joshua, of Samson, of Ruth, of David, of Solomon, of Isaiah, of Daniel, of Ester, of Nehemiah … and now He stood among them, the long awaited Messiah who every patriarch of the Jewish faith had so hoped to see in their lifetimes.  The Pharisees were not following some ancient myth or superstition; they were basing their religion on the written word of God, found in carefully preserved scrolls of the accounts of each of these biblical heroes that comprised the Old Testament as we know it.  While Abraham may have also fathered many other nations who too sought to follow the true God in their own way, through the lineage of Jacob alone, would come the Messiah.  They had a rich heritage and the words of truth.  The Pharisees SHOULD have had a religion based in the love of God the Father, whose entire purpose was to redeem his lost and fallen children and bring them home again.  But the truth contained in accurate scriptures is not enough to change the heart, if power over others is prized over service and love to others.

When power is prized and valued over love, religion can degenerate to a point, where the entire basis of longing for a Messiah decides to spend its entire energy looking for a way to kill the Messiah instead.  Power and control lead to murder.  Love leads to sacrifice.  This contrast was never so brilliantly revealed than in the interaction between the ordained religious leaders of the day, and the head of their religion, the God they were supposed to be worshipping.  The rich and powerful corrupted hearts who claimed only the pretense of religion now sought to kill the founder of their own religion; simply because they had missed the point of loving others.  They embraced the laws of Moses, and were now trying to use those very laws to kill the innocence of Christ, in order to quell the message of love itself.  For you see, love is more powerful than justice.  Love is more powerful than evil itself.  And the only response evil is left with when confronting a love it does not understand and cannot overcome, is to kill it.  It is why when the end of all things is upon the resurrected wicked; they are brought to their knees when confronted by the overwhelming love of Christ to confess He is Lord.  But they rise from their knees only to cry again “kill Him”.  So well before the last great day, the Pharisees conspire to use scripture to justify the murder of the opposition, the murder of love.

But John opens his story in chapter eight and verse one, with a brief note … “Jesus went unto the mount of Olives. [verse 2] And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.”  From John’s account we see that it must have been at night that Jesus went to the mount of Olives, likely to pray.  It seems this must have been a favorite spot for Him, as there are other references to Him going to this spot.  Perhaps it was to be alone.  Perhaps it was like Moses to be closer to God in a higher elevation like on Mt. Sinai.  But I wonder when Christ ever took rest, if He prayed at night, and taught during the day?  In any case, we find it is early in the morning when He again travels to the temple to begin teaching.  Also interesting that despite the religious leader’s rejection of Him, Christ does not reject them.  He continues to teach in the temple, where the words of truth are supposed to be taught.  Also interesting, that the people, a great many of them, come to hear Him teach there.  So the stage is set.  Christ is in a public place.  He is sitting, teaching a great crowd of listeners that will serve as witnesses to the plans and trap of the Pharisees.  Time to spring the trap.

Verse 3 begins … “And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, …”  Notice this was not an angry wife who caught her husband cheating.  It was not an angry mob of common folk who were tired of having a slut, prostitute, or just a cheater in their midst and decided to take matters into their own hands.  It was Scribes and Pharisees who brought this woman before Christ, and seated her in front of the crowd for all to see.  Having been caught in the literal act of adultery she may not have been fully dressed.  At a minimum she would have been wholly unprepared to face the public.  She would have been embarrassed, ashamed, humiliated.  She would have looked the part of a guilty person.  One wonders, how the Pharisees knew exactly the right moment to collect her in such a state?  One wonders, since adulterers generally seek secrecy to keep their deeds out of the limelight in general – how did the Pharisees and scribes know where to find her, when to find her, and why her male accomplice seems to have totally eluded this story.  Perhaps he picked the place and time, and was a part of this conspiracy.  We may never know.  What is clear, was that this pretense to murder was now in motion, and so far, their plans were running on course.

Verse 4 continues … “They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. [verse 5] Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? [verse 6] This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him …”  So much revealed is so few verses.  First, though they hate Him, they call Him “Master” in order to show fainted respect to Him in front of the crowd.  Second they show her in her disheveled state in order that any question of guilt on her part is erased in the minds of the people there.  Notice again her male accomplice is absent.  Then they reveal the core contrast of their corrupted hearts; they quote the law of Moses in the ears of the people that is very “clear” on what the penalty of adultery is.  Now in point of fact, Christ might have debated them on their ideas of clarity.  First, as it was then, and as it is now, the penalties for breaking the law are reserved for those WITHOUT repentance.  Adultery is not beyond repentance even within the Jewish religion prior to Christ arriving.  It, like any other sin, requires bringing an offering to the temple, and the symbolism of blood shed points to the future method of what must be done to pay for our sins.  Mary had only to repent and make an offering, and the LAW of Moses would have been satisfied.  Only if Mary had refused to repent, and chosen to abandon redemption forever, would she finally meet the results of her choices.  Just like us.  Only if we choose to refuse to be remade, refuse to learn to love, refuse to submit to God, and trust Him, not in ourselves, will we finally meet the end of our chosen path.  But no single sin, or even repeated sin, is able to separate us from the love of God, or from His desire to still redeem us from the lives we have chosen.

The Scribes and Pharisees were counting on the love of Christ to be His undoing.  This was perhaps the most insidious part of their plan to trap Him.  They knew He loved more than He judged.  They knew He could not resist the desire to redeem no matter what the guilt or sin of the person cast in front of Him.  They knew He would not choose to follow their ideas of the law of Moses and they were counting on it.  They were counting on Him to publicly disobey Moses in front of the people, for the sake of love and redemption.  It was the basis of the trap itself.  They needed Him to disobey the law in favor of love so that they would have the pretense they needed to kill Him as well.  They could care less about Mary.  What is one more loose, or abused women, willing to offer sex in the scheme of things.  They could always find another one of those.  But to use one, to trap Christ, and get Him to demonstrate that love is more important to Him than the law of Moses in front of the people, would be priceless to them.  In this they reveal the full Satanic influence over their now fully submitted minds to the devils ideas.  Evil was counting on a display of love, in order to justify the killing of the author of love.  And evil was gleeful to use religion as the reason behind it all.

A wise human leader, who sees the trap laid out before them, might decide that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or of the one.  A wise human leader, might decide that Mary has earned the fate that is coming to her, whether she was trapped into this or not.  She had a choice.  She could have claimed rape, or rejected the offers of her male accomplice, or run away.  She could have moved.  She could have done many things to avoid being here at the feet of Christ awaiting the death for her sins that she deserved.  For the fate of all evil leads to death.  It was death that was now what the Pharisees hoped for, not the death of Mary, but the death of Christ.  If Mary had to die too, so what?  A wise human leader could have simply let Mary get stoned to death, and try to use this as a lesson to the crowd that evil does indeed lead to death.  The Pharisees plan would have been thwarted.  They would have had nothing left to say.  In fact, a wise human leader, could have asked that her male counterpart be brought there too, in order to face judgment.  Having produced him, he might have offered a different take on why Mary was there.  A wise human leader, might have found a way out of this trap, that at the worst cost two guilty people their lives.  So be it.

But wisdom was not the primary lesson to be taught that day, nor was justice, nor was a debate over the law.  The real lesson, was to be the value God holds, over each life, no matter how low it has fallen, how far it has gone, or how guilty it truly is.  Verse 6 continues … “But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.”  I wish John would have read the words written on the ground and reported them here.  Perhaps he did read them and chose not to reveal what they said.  If I were to offer a guess, I would bet he wrote the names of those in this very accusatory crowd who had been with Mary in the past, and the reasons they “knew” they could catch her at it.  But John does not reveal what Christ wrote.  The trap could not be sprung without a verbal response from Christ, and writing was not going to get the job done, so they kept pressing Him on it.  Verse 7 reads … “So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. [verse 8] And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.”

The perfect response.  He turns their trap back on themselves.  If they now cast a stone at her, they are publicly saying that they are without sin.  Since they have been seen making the traditional sacrifices at the temple themselves, this would be a public lie on their part.  Christ has used the law, to defend the law.  And in so doing, He has subtly pointed out the purpose of the law was to point out our need of redemption, and the love that authored it in the first place.  He reminds them publicly that there was always a method of forgiveness within the law itself.  And that none of us are perfect.  More interesting to me, is His continued preoccupation with writing in the sand on the ground.  For He returns to writing as soon as He has given His response.  Again I have to believe that what He was writing was a message to her accusers that reached into the core of who they were and revealed the contrast of perfect love with what they intended to do in the name of religion.  Their response was chronicled in verse 9 … “And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.”  What Christ said, perhaps what He wrote, had left them staring into the mirror of perfect love.  And what they saw, convicted them of their evil intent.  Their trap had failed.  And they left.  Perhaps they followed the order of oldest to youngest, as the older ones in the crowd had lived longer and therefore had sinned longer than the younger ones.  Perhaps the younger ones were just more passionate or more stubborn.  But in any case, all her accusers left.

Verse 10 continues … “When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? [verse 11] She said, No man, Lord …”  There was now to finish out the matter of law of the Pharisees and Scribes had brought before the crowd still in attendance.  In order to be stoned, Mary must have an accuser.  She did not.  All those who wished a killing had left.  Even now, the law was not disputed by Christ, negated by Christ, or ignored by Christ.  Christ never said Moses was wrong, or the adultery was not a sin, or that Mary was somehow innocent in her participation in this deed.  Her guilt was clear.  What was being discussed was the punishment for her crime, and more to the point, the value of her redemption.  Her life mattered so much to God, that God would not cast her away, even if she was guilty, even if she did deserve her fate.  God loved her too much for that, as He loves you, me, and the world today.  He has not cast us aside, or left us to reap what we have sown just yet.  Still He longs to save Mary, as He longs to save us.  It is Satan who always demands that the justice of the Law of God be met in our demise.  It is love that offers us another alternative.  It is love that took our punishment, and our sentence unto itself.  We are free, not because death is not required, but because He took our death instead.

But then comes the blessing of redemption.  Then comes the words of promise and hope.  Then comes the most liberating sentiment in all of scripture to date as Christ says to Mary continuing in verse 11 … “And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”  First, though He could have, though we are still guilty, God does NOT condemn us.  It is not the guilt that is in question, it is the condemnation for that guilt.  We are guilty, no question.  But it is NOT our God who condemns us to this fate, it is His enemy Satan who does.  It was Satan behind this trap to kill Christ.  It was Satan who was all too happy to kill the guilty Mary and trap the love of God.  God by contrast, was NOT the one who condemned Mary or us.  God, as the entirety of the Bible points out, is interested in our redemption, NOT our punishment.  The ideas of Satan, the character of God he tries to paint as a God of vengeance, are really lies, and a self-portrait.  God does not want our condemnation, He wants our redemption.  This was the point to be made in the story of Mary.  This was the larger lesson for the crowd to see and hear and experience.  God is a God of redemption.  It is the guilty who NEED redemption.  It is the guilty who appreciate the gift of life instead of the punishment of death.

Further comes the liberation from evil as Christ lifts the slavery she has been bound to her entire life.  He takes from her, her inability to refrain from sinning, and pronounces the life altering blessing on her … “Go, and sin no more”.  This is not an edict from a God who does not care about her life or her pain.  This is the blessing of a God who has just finished saving her life, and now is adding her freedom from the addiction of sin she suffers from.  He is healing her mind, her soul, and making her life renewed in one blessing.  He did not just save her, to preserve her in her evil and the pain it causes; instead he is pulling her out of her pain.  He is freeing her to be free FROM sin, not free TO sin.  This is not an excuse to continue in adultery, or a redefinition of the penalty all sin brings.  It is not a “wink” at evil and the consequences and pain evil brings.  It is a redefinition of slavery, a removal of it, a renewing of freedom that starts within us as it placed there by Christ.  It was not the deeds of Mary, that earned her redemption.  It was not the strength of Mary that would enable her to sin no more.  It was the blessing of Christ poured out upon her that would yield a change.  Mary was not to use His forgiveness as an excuse to keep right on sinning.  She was to be blessed with the removal of the slavery to keep right on sinning.  Her life was to be different.  Her life was to be better.  She was not to wait to judgment day to finally be rid of her pain.  She was to be rid of it today.  Right there and right now, in her humiliation, in front of the still staring crowd amazed at the mercy of Christ.  She was to be made free in that condition.  She did not have to achieve some state of purity in order to come to God to get freedom.  She was brought there by force, in the worst state imaginable, but she walked away free. 

This is not just the story of Mary and how she was redeemed.  It is the story of how I am redeemed, and how you are redeemed.  We are both guilty of sin and choosing to serve self over others.  Satan demands that the penalties of the law be implemented immediately upon us both.  But Christ steps in and takes our penalty,  He offers us His gift of freedom from the addictive controlling power of sin, to remove it from our lives.  He offers to remake us, to help us think differently, want differently, and love differently.  He teaches us to love like He loves.  And in so doing we learn truth.  For as we learn of Christ, we find Christ is truth.  Scripture did nothing to redeem Mary that day.  Christ did everything.  It was the improper understanding and use of scripture that would have seen Mary dead.  Instead the proper understanding of redemption and love was to redeem Mary instead.  You cannot see the love in scripture until after you have been remade by Christ.  The unchanged heart, sees only what it wants to see.  It uses scripture to prove its point, maintain its power, and keep pure its own ideas at the expense of the lives of others.  But this was not the point or intent of scripture.  Love was always what was behind it, throughout it, and within it.  It was love demonstrated in the actions of Christ that day that redeemed Mary while never breaking the law, ignoring the law, or belittling the law.  The law remained as it always will.  But what Christ did, was reveal that love redeems, and is greater than anything else in the universe.  Love is the basis of the law, not its undoing.  Love is reflected in forgiveness.  Love is reflected in redemption.  Love is reflected in restoration.  Christ was the embodiment of these things.  He was the embodiment of love itself.  For God is love.

Killing the Critics ...

There are many who have a horrible picture of God, and even worse of the Bible.  It would be easy to assume they are all outside of the church, but such is not always the case.  Critics are alive and well and ever present in online forums, social gatherings, and even inside church business meetings or board meetings.  Those who criticize from outside the church are taught to do so, by the encounters they have had with those who profess the name of Christ.  The critics within do an excellent job of training the critics without.  How do those who bear the name of Christ undo the damage that has been done by those who believe it is their duty to point out the flaws - in everything?

When one examines the ministry of Christ, we always find Him focused on the redemption of all He encounters.  Christ does not center his conversations on what is wrong with His listener, only how His listener could escape the pain they carry.  Mary Magdalene was guilty of far more than adultery when she was cast at the Savior’s feet.  Christ could have enumerated all the sins He knew she had committed over her lifetime.  He did not.  Nor did He call attention to each of the sins in the lives of those who were picking up the stones to end her life.  With a simple but piercing gaze into the eyes of the angry mob, He gently reminded them that they too were equally guilty and deserving of death, or more importantly of the mercy He was extending to Mary.  Christ was not trying to excuse Mary, or proclaim her innocence.  He was trying to free her from the pain she had chosen to embrace.  This is the very nature of redemption, not provide an excuse for evil, but an escape from evil.  And in this work, Christ was decidedly NOT a critic.  Instead He uses the power of positive reinforcement, blessing her, freeing her, and saying … “go, and sin no more.”  Forget what you have done and embrace the freedom from pain He offers to her.  Do not focus on your sins or your past or the hundred other things she had done wrong – instead be free, and focus on the freedom only Christ could bring.

Criticism does not bring reform.  But the hope and love Christ offered brought about change.  When Christ encounters the Samaritan woman at the well, he again gets her excited about what He has to offer her – a living water, a freedom she has never known.  He does not focus on all the woman’s sins or faults.  He mentions her social history only to reveal to her that He knows her as a person, cares about her as a person, is interested in freeing this particular woman from the pain she has known in her own life.  She becomes so excited she is compelled to go back to her town, and bring with her everyone who knows her to hear “this prophet who revealed the secrets of her life”.  She is not content to hear His message of freedom alone, but rather wants the entire town to come to Him.  Had Christ been a critic with divine knowledge about her life and sins and focused only on her faults, she would have wanted to hide herself from Him, and never let Him speak of her long list of evils in front of the entire village.  Instead, Christ does not center His encounter with her on what she may have done wrong, but on how she can be freed from the pain of evil.  This freedom, this hope, this love is what she is compelled to share with everyone she knew.  Christ brings reform, criticism accomplishes nothing.

Yet somehow over the years “Christian” has become synonymous more with “critic” than with “Christ”.  Too often Christians focus on what is wrong with the world around them, and more specifically with the people they encounter, than on the hope the Christ brings to escape the pain of evil that plagues our souls.  When an outsider looks at a Christian for the first time, they mark whether they see a person who loves them unconditionally, much like our Lord – or someone who seems to think their sole mission is to point out every flaw, every shortcoming, every sin that might be preventing them from “finding God”. 

As when Christ encountered Mary, there was no question that the crowd was right, she was guilty.  But the lesson is not about judging the guilty, it is about reforming a life from guilty to one that is not slave to the pain that evil brings.  So too, when we encounter the sinners that surround us in the world, it is not our mission to focus and call attention to the obvious evils they commit – but to point them to a God who loves them SO much He was willing to die to heal them.  People avoid criticism, but are drawn to love.  If we are to represent Christ, we must be a picture of unconditional love.  Proving that we actually do love the sinner, despite his sin; for our Lord loves us despite the evil we continue to cling to.  Our mission is not to “fix” people, we are incapable of that.  Our mission is to point people to the source of all love and let Him “fix” them, as He does with us.

Christ does not discriminate against “some” of His children, choosing not to love them because of a particular evil they commit.  Instead He loves ALL of His children, despite the condition they find themselves in, despite the sin and pain they have chosen to embrace.  He longs to free ALL of those He loves from the pain in their lives.  He wants ALL to come to Him; age is no barrier, sex is no barrier, race is no barrier, even our sin is no barrier to come to the Lord of Lords.  He did not ask anyone He encountered to go become blameless and give up certain vices before they could be with Him.  He knows that is not something humans can do.  Instead He bids us all to come to Him.  He knows when we do we find rest.  Only when we come to Him can we find the peace, the hope, and the change we ALL so desperately need.  In this He presents an infallible picture of unconditional love.  How can Christians then, those who bear His name, love others any less?  How can we claim the name of Christ and then totally reverse His ministry from one of hope, to one of condemnation and fear.

Notice that Christ never once threatened any of His listeners with eternal Hellfire and damnation if they did not choose to believe in Him.  His ministry was not one based on … “you better or else”.  The Beatitudes are not followed by ten curses to those who refuse to embrace Him.  Yes, on occasion Christ warned His listeners about the dangers of disobedience (mostly to those who thought themselves the religious leaders of the day); but even then it was always couched in an appeal of love.  Christ’s evangelism was not based on the soon coming end of the world, the last plagues, persecution, torment, and the evils of going to hell for our sins.  He did not preach long sermons designed to scare people into submission to an all-powerful vengeful God.  That is not who He was.  That is not who His Father is.  Instead, He presents the perfect picture of love, acceptance, and freedom from the pain of evil.  The Bible is not written to show the justice of God in condemning the evil ones, it is written to show the mercy of God to those who do not deserve it.  We are the beneficiaries of His love, His mercy, and His sacrifice.  We receive it as a gift, unearned.  He needs no fear to motivate us.  He has something considerably better to offer than merely an escape from fear.  He has a real alternative to the pain of slavery in serving only one’s self.

Christ does not need fear to transform His listeners.  He does not criticize to reform.  He loves.  He genuinely loves, each person, each encounter is one designed to redeem.  Christ knew the mind of Judas.  He knew that Judas was skimming from the collection plates.  He knew that Judas would betray Him.  He knew what would become of Judas.  So why not reveal him?  Wouldn’t you?  Why tolerate a known traitor in your midst?  But Christ did.  Not just to fulfill some prophecy written centuries earlier, or not because He intended to provide Judas with false intel to give the Pharisees.  He allowed Judas to be one of the twelve, because He desperately wanted to save Judas from himself.  He hoped that close-up, constant exposure to love might reach into the heart of Judas and reform him. 

But to do this, Judas must be willing.  Judas thought he knew better what the mission of Christ should be, and while he believed in the divinity of Christ, he never imagined that one who had such power would not use it to free himself from certain death.  Judas never accepted the freedom Christ offered, yet that did not ever give Christ an occasion to criticize Judas, and point out his every fault.  Christ did not try to frighten Judas into reform.  He did not tell Judas that what he was doing, and how he was thinking, might lead him to the very gates of hell.  Instead, He was patient and loving with Judas.  He accepted Judas as one of His own.  Judas was a member of the 12.  He could have had his name written on one of the gates of Heaven itself.  He could have been a mighty leader of the early Christian church.  But Judas would not have it.  And Christ never changed his approach with Judas, no matter what Judas did or said.  Christ only ever showed him love and acceptance.

If criticism is to end within the Christian church it must first end inside of me.  I must look in the mirror and confess to my Lord that my heart is one full of critique and empty of love.  I must ask the Lord to change how I speak, how I love, and how I communicate with others.   I must find a way to focus on what is good, and allow Christ to fix what is not.  I must become an encourager of the faith, and an unfailing reflection of His love through me to those I encounter.  I must love those who are hard to love.  I must remember not to respond to criticism with barbs of my own.  Instead I must return love for insults, love for hate, love for dislike, love for apathy, love for greed.  Whatever is thrown at me by those I meet, whether inside or outside the church walls, I must only ever return love. 

This is what my Savior did.  This is how Christ ministered.  He was not obsessed with a list of woes.  He was laser focused on how to redeem people with love.  He wanted to reconcile ALL of us to His Father, not just the ones struggling with “certain pre-approved sins”, but everyone, no matter what their particular sin was.  He did not care about the belief systems a person held to be valid, He knew He would have to help them see truth.  But we can only see truth AFTER we come to Christ, not before it.  He knew it might take years to help us believers find the truth we ignore thinking we know better – like Judas.  But He does not give up on us.  Therefore let us not give up on each other, and let us find His strength in our hearts, to destroy any shred of criticism that might remain.  And perhaps then redefine “Christian” to be synonymous with “unconditional acceptance” rather than “critic”.