A Father Daughter Moment
Continuing with March’s theme of women….
There was once a woman who was either sleeping with a married man or married herself and sleeping with another man. Jesus was teaching and all of a sudden, some religious men presented this woman to Jesus, trying to trap both her and Jesus, they said, ““Teacher [to Jesus], this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” Jesus didn’t say anything but bent down and wrote something in the sand.
Sabbath laws did not allow Jews to even write on paper on the Sabbath day. As He did this, these religious men kept questioning Jesus and so He stood up and said, “let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Jesus bent down again and wrote in the sand again and as they read, the oldest to the youngest of these religious attackers walked away one by one.
Now stood this woman and Jesus, her Savior and God in the flesh looking deeply into her eyes with love, compassion, and holy conviction. With His eyes of blazing fire (Revelation 1:14), looking at this broken woman who was actively engaging in adultery, Jesus said, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
She looks down at her feet, her fingers interlocked forming a V shape across her torso. So many thoughts racing through her head that she had just been publicly humiliated by men for her sin. And now, “this Rabbi man is judging me too,” she probably thinks to herself. “I like my adulterous lifestyle”- or maybe she doesn’t know how to get out of it- “I’m not really hurting anyone, and besides it’s my business. Who has the right to judge me anyways?” Wanting to bolt and leave this mysterious Rabbi looking at her, she takes a gulp.
“Oh, He asked me a question of ‘where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ she thinks to herself.
“Well I’m glad they’re gone, thank God” she’s probably thinking to herself. But she has no idea she’s caught in the most beautiful Father-daughter moment with Jesus.
So, she answers, “no one, Sir.”
Gazing upon her with love, Jesus says something so simple but palpable: “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”
What a beautiful story. I do hope that this woman did stop sinning and that her life story turned into a testimony. We’re reminded a few chapters earlier in John 3: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him (v. 17).”
We see here Jesus, who is a representation of God, met this woman with grace and mercy. And for us 2000+ years later, our Triune God meets us with grace and mercy. God has been reminding me lately of the Fruit of the Spirit: gentleness. Jesus was gentle as well as gracious and merciful to her. In this Father-daughter moment this woman was shown her identity and if she chose to heed Jesus’ words, she found a renewed life of freedom from her sin. In that moment Jesus condemned her sin, not her. God loves His daughters but He holds us to His standards and asks us to rise to them, because in them we find a freer life and a wholesome life.
If any of us have active sin in our lives, let us take the words of Jesus to go and sin no more and apply them to our lives, so that we can be freer in God and receive all that He wants to give us in life.
**This account Father-daughter with Jesus and the woman can be found in: John 7:53-8:11