Grace and Fairness

In this passage we see Jesus offer grace and fairness . We can see that the man who was with the woman was not brought before Jesus which is against the law that says if a man and woman be caught in adultery they must both be stoned to death (Leviticus 20: 10) Even in todays world, women are held at a higher esteem than men when it comes to sexuality, but Jesus sees us all as equals. We all know that the Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus in getting him to say something that would incriminate himself, but Jesus knew better. He knew their hearts and he went after their hearts in telling them "He who has no sin, may he cast the first stone”. The Pharisees were left speechless and unsuccessful in their attempt to trap him.

We too sometimes can cast stones at others without first examining our own hearts and where we stand before God. Sometimes we dont give the same mercy that we want to receive. When the woman receives Gods grace, she is given another chance to repent and start anew, as we all do when we repent, and are baptized and say Jesus is Lord of our lives. May we not take the mercy of God for granted and may we always approach God with a heart of repentance.

The Pharisees did not believe Jesus was the Son of God and they were being used by Satan to essentially kill him. The Pharisees had much training and they studied the law, but somehow they missed the basics. Jesus tells them that if they knew the Father, they would know him. Jesus is trying to make them understand that he is not of this world and he was sent by God and is God by saying "I am" but their hearts are so hard that they are not comprehending what he is saying. Our hearts can get hard sometimes as well, and we have to be humble enough to allow God’s Word to penetrate our hearts. Jesus says that we will have life if follow God and trust in his Word. May we allow God’s Word to be our foundation so that Satan will not be able to get a foothold and cause us to be weak in our faith. Like Mark 4:12 tells us, we don’t want to be ever seeing but never perceiving and ever hearing but never understanding. Amen.