Vomit, Poo, Sin, and other Excrements ...

Perhaps only a parent can know how for love, we can overcome our distaste of bodily fluids and horrific smells and clean the baby that needs cleaning.  People outside of the nursing profession, who otherwise have no medical training or discipline, can bring themselves to clean that soiled diaper, or wipe away that puke from your shoulder and baby’s mouth.  Strong men who melt at the sight of these scenes in others, somehow find themselves able to face them, when it is their child in need, their child who is crying.  It is the love of a parent that brings a person who before could never imagine it, to face these dilemmas and meet the needs of the child, no matter how distasteful.  No parent wants to do these things, no parent finds the cleaning enjoyable, but we do recognize the need for it.  After all, a baby simply cannot do it for themselves.  A helpless person, needs help from someone.  Ultimately it is love, that will cause us to do what we would normally like to avoid.  Our child cannot pay us for it, they have no money we did not give them already.  Our child cannot earn it, our love is free of charge and deep within us.  And for a long time, our child will repeat the need, unable to prevent the dirt, soil, poo, and vomit from re-occurring time after time.

It is perhaps this most distasteful work, that is such an excellent example of what our God does for us in the mission to see us redeemed, re-created, and restored to His side.  We are the dirty baby.  We are the child who has soiled themselves, thrown up, dove into the dirt, and now appears in front of our Parent, with a need to be made clean, and a complete inability to make it so.  And with tender care, beyond the capacity of a human parent to even begin to know, our Heavenly Father reaches down to us, and begins to clean away from us, the most distasteful substances He can imagine … namely our sins.  The analogy is perhaps only flawed, in that our sin is more horrific than our poo, more dangerous to us and those we love, and more difficult to be rid of.  The baby makes himself dirty because he is unable to avoid it.  We sin from similar reasoning, but we could choose to submit to Christ, and find potty-training in the realm of sin, is actually possible through Jesus.

Humanity has a nature to focus on the externals.  We focus on cleaning the vomit up, because of the smell and discomfort it causes us to see it on our child.  Having a “clean” baby is much more tolerable and enjoyable.  But what if instead of focusing on the dirt on the outside, we were able to affect a change on the inside that made throwing-up a thing of the past.  It is not as much the pool of mud our child dives into that makes him really dirty.  It is the desire to jump in, that is the real culprit.  It is likewise not so much the individual sin we commit that makes us so dirty.  It is the desire to do it again and again that accomplishes that feat.  Sin, is never a one-and-done phenomenon.  The devil may present it that way.  He may lie to us, and tell us that we need only commit this sin, just this one time, and only under just these circumstances.  He may tell us, no one will know.  He may rightly tell us, we will not get caught for it.  And that may even be the truth.   But the devil is not trying to sell us a single incident, he is actually trying to sell us a habit disguised as a one-time-only event.  Once we drop our guard, and lower our resistance to any particular sin, we find ourselves so much more inclined to repeat it.  Once virginity is lost for example, how often is the logic cited that “it is no big deal now” to repeat our error.  And so habits are formed, addictions fostered, and before you know it, you are way beyond the ability to be clean again.  You must be made clean to see that ever happen.

To keep us from finding cleanliness once again, the devil simply focuses our attention on the externals.  Look at the dirt.  Look at the poo.  Look at the nasty train wreck you have made of your life.  Look at all the pain you have caused.  Look anywhere, just don’t look at Jesus, because looking at Him may actually change the direction of your life.   Perhaps the more sinister lie the devil tells us, is that if we can clean up some of the dirt we have on our hands, we could actually make ourselves clean.  So we spend endless hours, washing ourselves using disinfectants, and trying to make some little part of our filthiness, just a bit better … but to no real effect.  Trying to conquer our own desires, is akin to focusing on the externals, and has the same success as a baby attempting to change their own soiled diaper, it makes only a bigger mess.  This was a lesson we needed to learn.  The idea that cleanliness is next to Godliness needed to be debunked, because our understanding of what real cleanliness is, is the problem.

Peter continued the lesson for us in the gospel transcribed by John Mark in chapter seven, and picking up in verse 14 as Jesus speaks saying … “And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand: [verse 15] There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. [verse 16] If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.”  The Pharisees had tried to make the argument that without washing our hands before we eat, we are bound to get contaminated with the food we consume.  Their argument is logical and truthful.  But it is missing the greater point.  Washing our hands, and washing our food, may help to eliminate germs, and bacteria we would have otherwise missed.  But it is not what we eat, or the cleanliness of our food, that is the greater concern for what can and will defile us.  A perfectly clean peach is better than a perfectly clean pork chop as an example.  And perhaps dirty hands eating clean foods, is better than clean hands eating unclean dangerous foods.  A focus on the externals always leads to this kind of superficial thinking and comparisons.

Jesus was plainly saying, it is not the outsides that can do you harm, or what you need to try to clean.  “Nothing from without a man that entering into him can defile him”.   That phrase alone was heresy to the Jews.  Daniel had made a reputation for avoiding unclean foods in the days of Nebuchadnezzar.  All the way back to Noah, there was a distinction made between clean and unclean animals.  The unclean animals entered the ark 2-by-2, the clean entered 7 at a time (a distinction Hollywood always avoids when making movies of this story).  And going back all the way to Adam, there was only a certain type of sacrifice considered acceptable to God as Cain quickly learned.  So when Jesus blows away all the conventional thinking of stating nothing we can consume causes us to be defiled, He appears to be speaking in direct contrast to centuries of Jewish tradition.  But Jesus was not trying to undo His own council on what is good and bad for us to consume.  He was instead, as usual, talking about something deeper.  What we eat does not save us, or cause us to be lost.  It only impacts our health.  We can become stronger or weaker physically by what we consume in food, but our salvation remains neutral.  Disobeying the guidelines set out by our Maker, will inevitably cause us WAY more pain, than obedience would have resulted in.  But food is not a salvation issue, neither is how often we wash our hands in a given day.

But this seeming contradiction between clean and unclean was a mystery His disciples just could not get their heads around.  They needed further clarification, so they pursued it later in private.  John Mark records the events beginning in verse 17 saying … “And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable. [verse 18] And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;”  Keep in mind the questions raised here were in reference to his “parable”.  Even in this Peter understands that Jesus is not speaking in strictly literal terms, but in story form, or in analogy form.  This is a good first step towards understanding.  But Jesus seems a bit taken back that His meaning is still not understood by even His own disciples, so he questions them a bit.

Mark continues in verse 19 … “Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?”  Eventually everything we eat will be processed by our digestive system and excreted from our bodies.  Whether our food choices were good or not, they end up in the same place.  To somehow equate food to salvation is a mistake.  This false equivocation is what the Pharisees had built an empire upon.  Temple sacrifices were butchered and the meat resold in shops owned by the priests.  The animals used in sacrifices were provided by priests who owned farms on the side.   Worshippers who traveled to Jerusalem from great distances did not usually bring animals with them on the journey, instead they bought the sacrificial beasts when they arrived.  So the priests sold the live animals for sacrifice, then they resold the meat later for food.  Restricting the entire process, and claiming that salvation was only possible by adhering to their restrictions, had made killing animals more important than ending sins; eating kosher, more important than loving others.  Instead of focusing on the heart, and how we could reflect the love of God to those in need, the Pharisees had turned the focus to the hands and stomach, to clean and unclean things, not clean and unclean hearts.

Jesus continues his explanation in verse 20 saying … “And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. [verse 21] For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, [verse 22] Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: [verse 23] All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.”  You will notice in the response of Christ, that He immediately follows verse 20 with verse 21 so that we are clear he is not talking about our bowels, or the excrements of human anatomy.  It is not what we throw up, or excrete that has the power to make us defiled.  However, what exists in the core of who we are, in our desires is what makes us defiled.  It is our very desires that will require reform, re-creation, and restoration to make us clean.  Christ explains this in priority order.  He begins with stating it is heart that is at the source of this.  The heart is associated with what we love, with what we desire, with what we want.  The “yearning” of our hearts tells the story of who we are, defined by what we want.  So to use the heart, is to say this is the deepest definition of who we are.  In essence, we want the wrong things.

Next, Christ continues with the very FIRST thing that defiles us … namely evil thoughts.  Way before we actually commit a single sin in actions, we commit it in our minds.  Our motives matter.  Our very thoughts matter.  It is our desires that drive us to first think about sin, to entertain the idea of sin, to want sin.  We want it, before we do it.  We desire the WRONG things.  This is not a problem in just “some” areas of our lives, it is problem in every area.  It is bigger than just our sexual expressions, it is our everything - from our greed, to our gluttony.  It encompasses our apathy for the poor, and our desire for expediency over service.  It encompasses our pride, our arrogance, our desire to always be right, and the other guy to always be wrong.  It encompasses our need to gossip and sway public opinion to our side of any issue.  To think our problems are isolated to chemical addictions, and sexual expression, is to vastly reduce the field of battle on which our sins find great expression.  It is our thoughts that occur in sin, that defile us, a long time before our bodies and hands take the actions that cement what we already want.

Next up, Jesus hits the most frequently committed sins, in His day, and in ours.  Adulteries and fornications top the list.  This says that more married people cheat on their spouses (even if only in the lust of their minds) than do unmarried people who wish sex without commitment.  It is no accident that sexual sins occur at the top of the list, for our biology can easily be corrupted in this way.  We have inherent biological needs, that are meant to be paired with the intimacy of the confines of marriage.  To avoid treating people like meat, marriage offers us the focus to serve only one, in a triangular relationship with God at its center.  But Satan tries to sell us the idea, that variety is better than intimacy.  He tries to sell us that risk makes sex exciting.  He tries to sell us that the forbidden is the only fruit worth eating.  And like sheep, we wander right into sin.  It is also interesting to note here, that the first sexual sin cited is adultery, then fornication, not homosexuality.  That does not mean Jesus is endorsing homosexuality by omission, however, it does tend to highlight where MOST of the sin exists in His day and in ours.  Rather than trying to remove the splinter from the eye of our gay friends, perhaps we should be removing the log from our heterosexual eyes first.

Next up in the list of sins is murder.  Then like now, murder rates were not so exorbitant, but keep in view that sin begins in the mind.  Murder may be less frequent, but hate is certainly not.  To hate in the mind, is to murder in the hands.  Murder does not usually occur to those we love, but to those we disdain, or those we care nothing about, it does.  Greed then tops the list with thefts, covetousness, wickedness, and deceit.  We steal, and we lie about it.  We want what others have, and we are pretty much willing to do anything to get it.  It may not be outright theft, but it may be sabotaging the promotion of a coworker in order to get the promotion ourselves.  It may be a host of secondary “questionable” activities that enable our greed, and give us the “things” we want.  Lasciviousness, and an evil eye, then appear on the radar of our Lord.  Our lust, our constant viewing of what otherwise might be innocent with an evil eye, or evil intention, becomes the problems we most suffer from.  These problems are universal, but absolutely only known to our hearts, and to God.  No one knows what we think when we see that beautiful girl, or handsome guy, or shiny new car.  But God does.  He knows what we would do, to get that thing we want.  He knows how far our sin would lead us into destruction, and how much pain we would cause others while engage in our sin.

Finally, Blasphemy, pride, and foolishness are cited.  Here are the sins of the church.  Here are the sins of the faith.  The religion in the day of Christ, was His own religion.  He was not there to denounce the Jewish faith, the Law, or the prophets.  Instead He was fulfilling all of it, to the letter.  The Christian faith of today is not the “wrong” belief system.  But as Judaism was corrupted in the days of Christ, so Christianity can easily be corrupted in our own day.  The blasphemy inspired by pride, and the foolishness of men, in the days of Christ lead the religious leadership to believe they could save themselves.  They were babies believing they could change their own diapers.  Just like us.  We too have decided we can through the strength of our will, and the dedication to our spiritual routines, clean our own soiled diapers and save ourselves.  But we are equally blasphemous, proud, and foolish.  Babies must be made clean by Dad, they cannot do it themselves.  After all, Jesus keeps focusing on the heart, on the core of who we are, of what we want, as the core of where our defilement comes from.  Who but Jesus can change the heart of a man or woman?

Christ concludes by stating that all these evil things come from our hearts, not our food, our clean or dirty hands, or any other external.  Our sin is worse than our poo.  Our poo is confined to us.  Our sin impacts the lives of others.  Those who we claim to love are hurt by the sins we commit.  Those who truly love us are hurt when we are hurt.  Our sin is more than distasteful, it is a circle of pain, like a rock tossed into calm waters.  Our sins have ripple effects that send pain in every direction, impacting everyone and everything they encounter.  What seems like harmless sins are anything but.  They are the excrement of our lives.  They are the vomit, the poo, and the unclean bodily fluids.  We can be made clean by Christ.  But more than that, we can find a way through submission to Jesus, to never want to be dirty again.  It is only then, that we can understand what it means to be made clean, or to stand next to God.

 

Process of Perfection ...

Have you ever considered “if” perfection of who you are, of your character, is something you want at all?  Many of us have become quite contented with who we are today, reasoning that we are indeed “better” now than we used to be.  While all of us might crave the perfection of our bodies, and a life eternal without ever facing sickness, disease, or death; how many crave a perfection of character for whatever time we have left in our mortal existence?  Scripture promises us perfection of both body and character as we are resurrected, but can it be achieved before then, and does it matter?  Assuming there is no “if” in our minds where it comes to craving perfection of character, have we then determined “when” we expect to see it?  At the end of all things is an easy answer.  But sooner than that perhaps; next year, next month, next week, tomorrow?  Seems like today has already blown that chance, but perhaps “soon”.  Seems like tomorrow, or next week is unlikely, but sometime.  In the meantime, before we reach the state of perfection, we will indeed make mistakes.  Our mistakes will encompass everything from what we eat, to what we say, to what we “think we know” about scripture.  How can God use us in His plan of redemption, if our doctrine remains imperfect?  This is a lesson Peter was keen to insure that readers of his gospel, transcribed through John Mark, would decisively answer.

Peter continued his recollection of events following the confrontation between Jesus and the religious leadership of His day, over Sabbath observance, as he transitions the venue and relays how the people responded to the newly revealed truth in the messages of Christ.  John Mark transcribes in chapter 3 and verse 7 saying … “But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea: and a great multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judaea, [verse 8] And from Jerusalem, and from Idumaea, and from beyond Jordan; and they about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they had heard what great things he did, came unto him.”  Jesus had been teaching in the temple in Jerusalem on Sabbath.  His message of restoration of our spiritual condition, combined with the miracle of restoring the lame man’s hand exactly like his other one to full normality, spread like wildfire through the multitudes who had come to worship.  It was not just His miraculous ability to heal that intrigued the crowds, it was His ability to reveal truth and love that put aside the traditional “wisdom” of the Pharisees, and left them unable to beat Christ with logic, the Law, or on any other grounds.  Jesus’ words were so powerful, and His message so pure, there was no “alternative” line of thinking that could surpass it.

The message of Christ was and is perfect.  The life of Christ was and is perfect.  His love of others trumped every other concern.  Christ lived His human existence fully dependent upon His Father for direction, for mission, for strength.  The perfection of Christ living in a sin-stained world was upheld and maintained by His submission to the power of the Holy Spirit.  In heaven, Jesus was an equal member of the Godhead.  On earth, His humanity had to submit its own will to the will of the Father, and His power would be sustained by the work of the Holy Spirit.  He did not live this way because He had to.  He lived this way because He was here to show us, how we could do, what He was doing.  Full willing submission of Christ to His Father, kept Christ upon the path of perfection.  Our full willing submission to Christ, can put us on that same path.  Jesus did not assert His dominance to achieve perfection in Himself, instead He surrendered in humility to the full will of His Father.  And because He so perfectly reflected the love of His Father for us, what resulted was nothing short of phenomenal.

John Mark continues in verse 9 … “And he spake to his disciples, that a small ship should wait on him because of the multitude, lest they should throng him.”  The crowds were so desperate to be close to the source of all love, that Jesus had to step into a ship and row a little offshore to remain in speaking distance to the multitude but lessen the temptation to “throng him”.  The apostle John in his gospel recounts how often crowds like this one wanted to crown Jesus as King of Judea.  Jesus did not want this, and many times in the gospel of John, Jesus had to miraculously escape from the crowd bent on this result.  Here He moves away offshore to avoid being taken by the crowd and “made” to be their King.  Instead He wants to continue to share with them, the truth of what it means to love others.  But the love of His Father continued to flow through Him as He perfectly reflected it. 

While arrangements for the boat are being made, the crowd continue to press close and Peter recalls to John Mark in verse 10 what transpired … “For he had healed many; insomuch that they pressed upon him for to touch him, as many as had plagues. [verse 11] And unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God. [verse 12] And he straitly charged them that they should not make him known.”  Those who sought restoration were finding it, just by touching Him.  It did not matter what their ailments were.  Cancer, AIDs, orphan-diseases, leprosy, there is not a single disease that cannot be cured by contact with Jesus Christ (then or now).  The love of God the Father is restorative, it does NOT leave us in the condition in which it finds us, it removes that which causes us pain – be it our sins, or our diseases.  The motivation of God the Father is NOT to see us suffer from our choices, or our genetics, it is to see us restored to the perfection He intended for us.  In the presence of the love of Jesus Christ, and His perfect reflection of the love of God the Father for you and me diseases (including the desire to sin) just melted away.

Perhaps there was no greater example of this spiritual healing than the words of Peter in verse 11 above recalling that even unclean spirits could not tolerate His presence falling down in submission before Jesus Christ, and crying out publicly that Jesus was the literal Son of God.  How sad that many worshippers who were seeking Christ had so digressed from truth and love, that unclean spirits had taken up residence within them, and they likely did not even know it.  Our contentment with who we are, and our rationalization about how “good” we see ourselves to be, allows for the devil and his minions to encroach upon us, until we permit entry through continued indulgence and do not even know what we have done.  Our minds are warped by repeated indulgence of sin, until we come to believe sin is no longer sin.  We see our choices to love self as natural, and we turn a blind eye to the pain our choice to love self causes others.  We make self number one, and all others secondary to me.  In so doing, we adopt the philosophy of Satan, and our distinction between us and him becomes difficult to determine.  In this condition, we may talk of righteousness, but the evil within us is so deep it is nearly indistinguishable from the unclean spirits that fell with Lucifer in heaven so many ages ago.  Whether they reside within us, or whether we choose to just behave like them, our character looks the same.  But even in this depth of depravity, there is hope from the perfect love of the Father God, reflected through His son Jesus Christ.

When the perfect love of the Father God is reflected through humanity, great things can be accomplished.  The redemption and restoration of mankind is ever the goal of the Father.  God the Father is not sitting around, waiting for us to screw-up again, so He can inflict the severe and just punishment we have earned.  That image is the one Satan paints of God, and it is yet another lie.  Our God desperately loves us with His entire being, and yearns to set us free from the pain of our choices.  He longs to instill in us perfection, not because He demands it, but because WE need it.  God is not looking to just cure 90% of our Cancer, or 95% of our AIDS, He is looking to cure ALL of it.  There is not just one “little” sin that does not result in enormous pain, they all result in that kind of pain.  It does no good to cure only a part of disease and leave something behind that will eventually kill you anyway.  You need to cure it all, in order to get rid of the pain reoccurrence causes.  This is why God seeks to give us perfection.   It is His greatest gift to us.  He does not ask us to cure ourselves, only to let Him do it for us.

And the love of our Father God yearns to do this today.  He is not looking to wait for some future far off date to see us rid of our pain, He wants to see us healed today.  It is a process He can start today.  It is a process that begins with proximity to Jesus Christ.  Just like those crowds, the closer we wish to get to Jesus Christ, the more our disease just melt away.  God does not demand perfection first, He gives us perfection as fast as we are willing to accept it AFTER we come to Him.  It is His love and His Holy Spirit that transform us from the sin-sick, self-loving-addicts we are, into the perfect creations He intended us to be.  And He understands that our disease will likely prevent us from embracing the whole of perfection instantly, but it does not diminish His goal of seeing us FULLY rid of our pain.

Peter remembers and recalls for our witness, that despite their human frailty, and full lack of perfection at that point in time, Jesus Christ STILL chose to embrace and use His disciples to further His mission for our restoration.  John Mark transcribes in verse 13 … “And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him. [verse 14] And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, [verse 15] And to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils:”  We are in chapter three of this gospel folks.  This is nowhere near the end of the story, or the end of the transformation these disciples are going to experience.  In short, they were nowhere near perfect yet.  They were simple followers of Jesus Christ and did NOT have a wealth of experience reading the scriptures, or debating their meaning.  They were NOT paid professional speakers, with college degrees, and formal instruction on how to address crowds of people.  They were common men that shared an uncommon experience.  They had been close to Jesus Christ, and were “personal” witnesses to how He restores broken men and women back to normal. 

Your testimony is what matters.  Your accounting of how Jesus Christ has made you free from some long embraced sin you were once enslaved to, is the testimony that matters.  If you have not yet experienced this, then you do not yet have something to say.  Your depth of scriptural understanding is meaningless, but your personal account of restoration Jesus has performed in you is priceless.  Jesus did not appoint Pharisees and keepers of the Law to preach His gospel of love.  They had rejected love in favor of their wisdom.  They had rejected the Author of the Law, because He was too obsessed with loving others and did not conform to their ideas about “how” the Law must be kept.  Religious leaders were unqualified to preach the Gospel of the Love of Christ.  I will say it again, Religious leaders, were unqualified.  They did not have a personal experience with being made free from sin, by the transforming power of the love of Jesus Christ.  The disciples did not have good enough resumes to have gotten this job.  They were the least qualified from a perspective of education, training, and preparation.  But they knew Jesus.  They saw Him love others.  They saw Him restore others.  And they could bear personal witness to what it means to come and surrender all to Christ.  That testimony was ALL that mattered.  Could you love others, and could you point them to Christ, then Jesus has a mission for you.

But then comes another revelation of love that astounds the mind.  Not only did Jesus empower His disciples to preach the gospel of love, He intentionally passed on His power through them to do it.  He “gave” them power to heal disease, and to cast out devils.  To reflect the love of the Father God, we must be able to share in the mission and goal of the restoration of those in need.  You will note, these are not tools of condemnation that were offered, they were tools of restoration.  The goal was not meet a sinner in need, and explain to them how bad off they were, it was to point them to Christ to find healing from the pain and disease of sin.  It was to restore their physical needs as they had them, and cast out devils that would prevent them from finding spiritual restoration in Christ.  None of the disciples given these gifts of love had perfect doctrine.  None of them knew scripture well enough to debate it.  All of them were still imperfect but the gifts were given by God anyway.

Then Jesus took another step.  In addition to commissioning them to join Him in His mission of restoration by preaching, and healing, He sought to instill in each of them a new identity in association with Himself.  John Mark continues in verse 16 saying … “And Simon he surnamed Peter; [verse 17] And James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James; and he surnamed them Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder: [verse 18] And Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Canaanite, [verse 19] And Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed him: and they went into an house.”  For those keeping score, Peter is listed first in this list, and the house they went into was again likely Peter’s home in Capernaum (more items relevant to Peter being the source of this gospel).  Simon is now to be called Peter.  A new identity.  James and John are surnamed or now also known as … the sons of thunder.  What may have in times past referred to the boisterous nature of their father, or a propensity to use the language of a “sailor”, is now transformed into another meaning.  The preaching of the word will come like thunder for all to hear.  James and John will carry the word like thunder to those in need, such that they cannot avoid hearing it.  It will resonate from one end of the world to the other.  The other nine disciples are identified here as well without fear, or hesitation.

You will note, Jesus commissioned them ALL to preach in His name.  He gave them ALL power to heal and cast out demons that might obstruct those in need from finding Christ for spiritual restoration.  This included Judas Iscariot.  The man who would later choose to betray Christ, was not held in disregard by Jesus.  Christ did not withhold from Judas any gift He gave to Peter.  Judas was equally loved, needed, and employed in the work.  None of them were perfect, and Christ had the foreknowledge of who would betray Him, yet He held nothing back from Judas.  The goal of Christ was to save every man, woman, and child.  Judas was no different in the eyes of Christ than was Matthew, or James, or John, or Peter.  ALL were disciples, ALL were called, ALL were given gifts to restore and point men in need to Jesus Christ to be saved.  So why was Judas different?

The story of Judas and Peter is not so different.  BOTH betrayed their Lord in His hour of greatest need.  Judas turned Him over to the religious leaders who sought His life.  Peter denied three times even knowing Him.  So why did it end differently?  It is not our mistakes that define us, it is what we do afterwards that does.  We can like Judas turn only to the mirror, and rightly point out how evil we are, and how bad what we have done is.  Or we can like Peter, despite knowing our guilt, STILL turn back to Christ and look for forgiveness we know we do not deserve, but He offers anyway.  Judas chose to end His life, not because He was ever treated differently.  He chose to end it, because He would not humble himself and seek forgiveness for the great evil he had done.  Peter too could have ended his life because of the shame of his faithlessness in the face of danger.  But instead he bore the humility of seeking forgiveness he did not deserve, and accepted that forgiveness in spite of this knowledge.  If we can surrender, we can find both forgiveness and perfection.  If we cannot surrender, it does NOT matter how much power we have been given.

Judas was a preacher, he was a disciple of Christ, he spent time one on one with Jesus.  But in the end, he could not surrender to the love and mercy of God, and chose to die instead.  Judas could heal diseases, and Judas could cast out devils.  But Satan entered Judas because he chose to allow it for greed and the hope of forcing Jesus to do what He wanted Him to do, become King.  It was not the betrayal that marks the sad story of Judas, for if it were, Peter would be equally disdained.  It was the response of Judas to his mistakes.  He would not submit, and instead chose death.  Peter did submit, and went on to greatly aid the cause of Christ.  Yet both men were given tremendous gifts when neither of them were “ready” from a traditional point of view, or deserving, or perfect.   The gifts of transformation put us on the path to perfection.  Perfection is not a pre-requisite, it is a result.  Constant surrender leads to perfection, we do not start out perfect, we end up that way.  And no matter where we are in the journey, Christ can use us still.  These were lessons Peter deeply needed to share with us, and the lessons were far from over …

 

To De-Value Grace ...

In our last study, Peter began enumerating the degeneration that occurs, even within a “spiritual leader” when once the concept of “self” is introduced into the process of our salvation.  It begins with pride; perhaps pride in the idea that “we” alone have found some nugget of truth in an interpretation of prophecy or scripture, and therefore all others are by definition … wrong.  Instead of attributing the cost of our salvation to Jesus Christ alone, we begin to assume that our own efforts matter as well.  We begin to think that perhaps through study and dedication, we can fix some portion of ourselves, and simply leave the remainder that is broken to Christ.  Instead of success, we only prolong failure, but in the stubbornness of our pride, we cling to our ideas that “we” too, must have some measure of control in the process of our salvation.  Holding on to the value of self in our religion, we begin to tailor our worship services to be pleasing to us.  We begin to confine the notion of family to those only of blood or marital relations and when once marriage is discarded, those former soul-mates are cast to the winds.  None of these end-states were envisioned when once we started down the slippery slopes of self or pride.  Lucifer could not imagine killing God when he merely pondered the idea of loving himself instead of others, even if only for the briefest of time.  But degeneration is the nature of sin.

The insidious doctrine of Satan must not be wholly in error, or else it would be discovered and eliminated quickly.  So even the teachings of Satan must include some measure of truth.  For Christians, this measure of truth could rely upon the concept of forgiveness.  Forgiveness, is the Christian’s “get out of jail free” card.  There is an unlimited supply of forgiveness.  There are no limits to the sins it will cover, everything from the serial rape and murder of children, to little white lies.  Forgiveness erases it all.  Forgiveness allows us to be “saved” with a clean slate, a complete do-over, a white-out of the sins of our past.  Without it we could never begin a face to face relationship with God.  For whatever reason, God never seems to hold forgiveness back from us, whether we commit sin knowing full well in advance what we were doing, or just stumbling in on it by accident.

So Satan does not attempt to destroy the idea of forgiveness, instead he amplifies it.  He makes forgiveness the “king” of Christian doctrine and philosophy … to the exclusion of any further thoughts on the subject.  By leveraging forgiveness, we can effectively remain in our sins, content with “who” we are.  We can come to believe that “God understands our weaknesses” and therefore invented forgiveness in order to keep loving us.  We begin to tell ourselves, that what we do must actually be God’s fault because He made us this way.  So in reality forgiveness is something He owes us, in order to keep up His end of the justice equation.  Over time, we come to believe that forgiveness is automatic, we don’t need to ask for it every time, because God “knows our hearts” and provided forgiveness in advance for every deed we will ever do.  And at some point, we decide the value of forgiveness is just not that great, so whether God grants it or not, becomes much less important to us.  Apparently God wants us to “enjoy life” and has provided forgiveness as our Christian reset button when life comes to an end.

For those who have embraced the idea that “self” plays a role in our salvation process, it is VERY easy to fall into this thinking on the topic of forgiveness.  For having embraced the notion of “self” in salvation, our failure to find perfection, to avoid the desire for sin, goes away.  We find we want sin as much as we ever did.  No measure of self-discipline or self-control ever eliminates the desire to sin; at best it eliminates the actions of sin.  In our hearts, we remain with longing for the forbidden.  In our hearts, our lust consumes our thoughts, and we enact (if only in our minds) the object of sin over and over again.  This process repeats until at some point, our actions follow our desires, and down into sin we plunge.  Our guilt may drive us back to forgiveness, perhaps because some relative or friend still enlists God’s intervention on our behalf even though we no longer want Him ourselves.  Perhaps He gladly answers their prayers for us, since we keep telling Him “no”.  But forgiveness only wipes our slate clean.  It does not transform what we “want” to do again and again.

This is why Satan ONLY amplifies forgiveness.  He hopes that in our repeated failure and degeneration over time, we will come to a point where we no longer even care about it.  He hopes that the sins of the flesh will so overwhelm us; that the gratification of self will so consume us and warp our desires, that nothing will provide an allure to return to God and his path of self-denial (translate unhappiness).  And Satan is VERY successful at luring “backsliders” out of the church through this path.  He is even MORE successful creating hypocrites that remain in the pews, content to sin, and cast stones at others.  All of us denying the central core tenant of salvation that would free us from this course of perpetuated pain and slow torturous death.  The truth that “we” have NOTHING to do with our salvation, that Jesus Christ alone purchased us with His blood, and through our submission of our will to Him, He re-creates “new” desires in us, eliminating the sins we were once so bound to and enslaved by.  The power of transformation is LOST on those who continue to insert self into salvation.  This was Peter’s greatest fear.  And he wanted to make sure we all knew where it would lead.

So he begins in his second letter to the church in chapter 2 and verse 10 saying … “But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.”  The men to which Peter refers are not just members of a church, or babes in the faith.  They are spiritual leaders, they are false teachers, they do not just commit these sins, they advocate them to others.  They assert their independence and their individuality and despise unity and conformity.  They misuse their unique perspective of Jesus to assert there is no other.  And they despise both correction, and transformation, as they have come to accept themselves for “who” they are.  The repeated failures of self to perfect them, have led them to the idea that perfection is simply not possible.  And since perfection is impossible, it must not be required.  They never for a second believe that perfection might be possible, if they gave up on the idea of having “self” achieve it.

Peter continues in verse 11 … “Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. [verse 12] But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;”  Peter is astounded at how far a corrupt spiritual leader can fall.  One who should know the truth and the power of transformation instead after relying upon self, offers criticism of things they do not understand at all.  Even fallen angels do not rail as these “brute beasts” of men do.  They march like cattle to the slaughter understanding not the effect of evil upon the soul and warping of the mind.  They lack transformation, and begin to de-value both forgiveness and grace, and in so doing they insure their destruction, running from the only source that would otherwise save them.

Peter continues in verse 13 … “And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;”  These false religious leaders are not timid, shy, or ashamed.  They are bold, arrogant, and desire to be the center of attention.  They insert themselves in the lives of believers.  They sin in heart and deed, and are “content” to do so.  Yet they feast with the saints, spreading their heresy, and hoping to have others join in their behavior as if in some way validating what they do.  But they remain a cancer on the body of Christ because they will not see past themselves.

Peter continues in verse 14 … “Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:”  Here is one of the saddest warnings in all of scripture.  Having “eyes” full of adultery; literally everything we see inspires in us only the desire to gratify self.  It is not the banner ads of scantily clad women selling perfume or cars on the roadside that inspire lust in us.  It is our own natural inclination that does so.  It is not the preponderance of sex on TV, and in every form of media, that causes us to lust.  Our lust merely feeds on these things.  If they did not exist, we would find other ways to feed.  And in this counsel is laid base the NATURE OF ADDICTION.  Our eyes are so full of adultery, that we … “cannot cease from sin”.  Cannot.  Not “will not”.  We are unable to stop sinning, in mind, heart, or deed.  This is not about sin as some choice we make.  This is about sin being “who” we are.  This is about the core of us being the very thing that needs to be remade by Christ, lest we remain enslaved to this kind of thinking.

Sin is NOT something we free ourselves from.  Sin is NOT something we can cease from committing by simply not allowing ourselves to “actually” commit adultery.  Adultery happens repeatedly in our minds, in our thoughts, in our fantasies, before it happens in our flesh.  We sow the seeds of it long before we reap the harvest.  It is the desire to sin that must be altered, if the deeds that follow are to ever stop occurring.  If the desire remains in us to sin, we will sin.  And most unfortunately, those accursed children who have rejected the transformation that Jesus Christ longs to give us, are not content to keep their sins confined to their minds, hearts, and thoughts; they must find expression with another person.  They work to “beguile” unstable souls.  How many a pastor or counselor has taken advantage of the weakness of a supplicant struggling against the desire to sin, to commit that very sin with them?  How often has a spiritual leader used the lure of God, to attempt to lure another soul into actions neither should take?  These false teachers preach self-indulgence combined with forgiveness, and advocate abandon to selfish desires, instead of to Jesus Christ to be remade.

Peter continues in verse 15 … “Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; [verse 16] But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet.”  These spiritual leaders and false teachers have completely abandoned allowing Christ to remake them.  Instead they would use the supernatural powers of Satan in their ministry.  They crave money, fame, admiration, way more than they ever craved the humility of service found in the true ministry of Christ.  But God is not unaware of their actions and intentions.  He is not willing to abandon His sheep in His flock.  And He does intervene from time to time to supernaturally interfere when Satan attempts to use his own power to destroy the flock of God.

Peter continues beginning in verse 17 … “These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. [verse 18] For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. [verse 19] While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.”  These are “wells without water”.  They look like a place of refreshing in a dry desert, but they have NOTHING to offer, but further thirst.  These pastors, conference leaders, evangelists, or neighbors in the pew, can all TALK about salvation, but none have experienced it yet.  They speak with great swelling words of vanity, meaning they exalt their positions, their knowledge of scripture, their time with the Lord.  But none know what it means to really be saved, to really be made free from sin, any sin.  Their base desires remain within them, and are a constant focus of self-gratification on any level.  So they preach forgiveness and the liberty that comes with a clean slate, having no idea how to change the underlying desire for sin.  They are servants of corruption, inspiring others to join them in bondage to self, allowing none to escape the notion of “self” inserted in our salvation.

Peter concludes, starting in verse 20 … “For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. [verse 21] For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. [verse 22] But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.”  Again Peter introduces the concept that it IS possible to fall from grace.  Even spiritual leaders who perhaps at one time knew what it was like to be made free from the grip of sin, have instead of furthering their surrender to Christ, taken back a measure of “control”.  They have allowed the idea of “self” back into the process of salvation. 

Perhaps they reasoned that God would free them from the “big” sins, and they would work on the “little” ones.  Perhaps they reasoned that God would only free them from sins once or twice, not every time.  Perhaps they came to believe that it was never really God who freed them, but through their devotion and study, it was actually their own dedication that saw that sin go away.  It does not really matter how they came to deny the power of Jesus Christ in their original transformation, only that they did deny it.  It does not matter why they stopped surrendering their will to Jesus Christ, only that they did stop surrendering, trusting to self, and common sense, and will power, instead of to Christ alone.  Having tasted only briefly of the freedom of salvation, must be devastating when it is fully lost.  The end-state even a worse form of torture for them than never knowing it at all.  For now, they know it is possible, but no longer possible for them.  A dog returning to his vomit, the thing that should most repulse him – a pig returning to their own poo and mud that should most repulse any creature – yet both find “happiness” in this pit of despair.  More accurately, both are bound to seeing this pit of disgust, as a pinnacle to rise to.

This is the level of perversion that will occur in the mind of even a spiritual leader who relies upon self in the process of salvation.  They will not simply die alone in their sins, they will work avidly to have others join them.  They will not simply withdraw from the membership of the body of Christ, they will instead assert leadership in that body, and attempt to destroy from within what should have been preserved.  They will seek the company of saints, if only to corrupt them.  They will preach forgiveness because this is the part of the process they understand.  But they will never preach transformation because this is the part of the process that “self” keeps them from experiencing.  They will preach the need for “good works” but never understand the motives that would drive them.  They will preach adherence to the Law of God, but never understand how to be in harmony with that Law.  The best doctrines of Satan have a measure of truth within them.  The fostering of guilt within the church does nothing to purify it.  The knowledge of committing sin is not the same as a release from it. As long as “self” is allowed to be part of our thinking in salvation, we will continue to deny ourselves the ability of Jesus Christ to actually rid us of the desire to sin.

Those who would choose to believe in the natural “goodness” of mankind must examine the words and warnings of Peter and see where the degeneration of self leads … even in spiritual leaders.  We de-value grace when we assert self.  We de-value grace when we choose to rely upon forgiveness and never let Christ build upon that foundation, the transformation of who we are.  We de-value grace when we become “content” with “who” we are, instead of aspiring to allow Jesus Christ to remake us into “who” He intended we become.  There is so much more for us, than the clean slate we begin life with post forgiveness.  There is a life without the pain of self-serving sin.  There is a life no longer bound by eyes full of adultery.  There is a life where the idea of sinning no longer appeals to us.  There is a freedom and happiness found in loving others like Jesus loves others.  This is the life Peter wants us to find, through the transforming love of Christ.  And it was important to Peter, that we were not deceived into de-valuing the grace of our God.

And Peter had more yet to say …

 

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.