Sermon
The Compassion & Forgiveness Of Jesus
November 3, 2002
Pastor Donald Sheley

Take your Bible and join with me in a passage in the gospel of John. For you join with us, for a couple of years now we've been working our way through the gospel of John, and we'll get there. We'll finish, I think, before the Lord comes, but it's all right if He comes anyway. We're just enjoying going verse by verse, and chapter by chapter. We're in chapter 8, the gospel of John, if you'd like to read it from the notes that we have. I pray that you all have them today because we're going to reference a number of points from the sermon notes. But the story is this:

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them.
Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act.
Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?"
This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.
So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first."
And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, "Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?"
She said, "No one, Lord," And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more."

Now if you have your personal Bible you may find there a reference or at least a note in the margin that this particular story is not found in the original manuscripts. In fact, some Bibles leave the story out completely. And let me tell you the reason. Let's go to our notes, and I've explained it for you.

We must begin our lesson today with a brief note on the problems and the difficulties that surround our text. The older the manuscripts of the New Testament are, the more valuable they are. They were all copied by hand, and obviously the nearer they are to the original writings the more likely they are to be correct. We call these very early manuscripts, the Uncial manuscripts, because they are written in capital letters; and we base the text of the New Testament on the earliest ones, which date from the fourth to the sixth century.

The fact is that out of all these early manuscripts this story occurs only in one, and that is not one of the best. Six of them omit it completely. Two leave a blank space where it should come. It is not till we come to the late Greek manuscripts and the medieval manuscripts that we find this story, and even then it is often marked to show that it is doubtful.

Though it cannot now be proved that this story formed an integral part of the Fourth Gospel, neither is it possible to establish the opposite with any degree of finality. Let me pause just to explain -- here is a portion of Scripture that finds its absence in many of those manuscripts, and yet when you go back into church history you'll find that it was a story very well-known and often referred to by the great church fathers. Some believe that the story came from Luke, and in fact, one Bible, if I remember correctly, has place this story at the end of the gospel of Luke which is very, very interesting.

But there was a reason. Let's note here -- why was this story not in those early manuscripts? That's a good question. Well, Augustine the great Catholic theologian gave us a hint. He says that this story was removed from the text of the gospel because "some were of slight faith," and "to avoid scandal." We cannot tell for certain, but it would seem that in the very early days the people who edited the text of the New Testament thought that this was a dangerous story, a justification for a light view of adultery, and therefore for that reason they omitted it.

Let me explain -- one of the most grievous sins that's referred to in the Old Testament was the sin of adultery. In fact, when you read the writings of Moses in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, you'll find that those caught in the act of adultery, their life was taken from them. It cost you your life.

Now when we come to the times of Christ it is still very severe, but they made some differentiation in their application of judgment. In those days you arranged for your child, for your young lady's arranged marriage, and often that arrangement was done when the girl was between 13 to 15 years of age. And that arrangement was made and she was known as one betrothed, in other words, committed, promised in marriage; much like our own engagement period of time.

So, if one who was betrothed became involved in violating the sacredness of their marriage vows, that young lady and the accomplice were stoned. But if that young lady had married and was in the process of bearing children for the family, and she then became involved in adultery, she and her accomplice were strangled publicly. That's how serious the culture and the religious leaders of that day consider this sin. And that's why in those early days of the Christian church it could've been felt, it could have been determined, that Jesus wasn't quite severe enough in dealing with this awful sin that had borne such punishment down through the generations.

Therefore it would be better simply to omit it because Jesus didn't even confront the lady. All He said is, where are your accusers? And she said, I have none. And then He answered, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more." And it was felt that maybe Jesus handled the subject too lightly and it would be better just to omit the story.

These religious leaders made their charge explicit, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery." Now the very construction in the original Greek of the sentence makes it clear that these men are making a legal claim; They posses the evidence that the law requires to convict of the crime.

What was the evidence required by the Old Testament law? And you'll find that when you trace back through the pages of history, very few court cases on adultery were ever resolved or settled because it was so hard to come up with all the evidence. Look at what it took to bring about a judgment. The law required strong testimony from two witnesses who saw the couple. The two witnesses had to see these things at the same time and place so that their testimony would be identical. Such evidence virtually required the witness to set up a trap.

But there was another aspect which included a legal rule, and that was this: "No penalty without a warning." This meant that in the case of any crime it was necessary that a potential offender be warned not do such and such a thing. And so part of your argument to win the case you had to prove that there was a verbal warning against this before it took place; and that became part of the argument in the accusation.

All of this leads us to ask some questions. First, it is impossible for a woman to commit adultery all by herself, so the question arises, "Where was the man?" If the woman had been taken in the very act, as her accusers said, then there should have been a male offender who was taken too. The accusers have permitted him to get away Scot-free. Because the law, the ancient law, said both are to die, now you can see the evil behind this entire setup. They have most likely framed or trapped this young lady because they've got a motive, and their motive is to somehow use this lady to get at Jesus.

They brought this adulterous woman to Christ not because they were shocked at her conduct, still less because they were grieved that God's holy law had been broken. Their object was to use this woman to exploit her sin and further their own evil designs. So with cold-blooded indelicacy they acted, employing the guilt of their captive to accomplish their evil intentions against Christ.

I'm at the top of page 3. Their motive cannot be misinterpreted. They were anxious to discredit our Lord before the people. They did not wait until they could interrogate Him in private. They interrupted while He was teaching in the public, and they rudely challenged Him to solve what had seemed to them was an unsolvable enigma.

They begin politely by addressing Jesus as "Teacher". There's apparently no doubt about the guilt. The woman is caught. But the problem is what course of action should be taken. They say that Moses prescribed stoning in such cases, in verse 5. Though it should be noted that when you go back to the Leviticus passage and the Deuteronomy passage, it's provided that both guilty parties be executed. Whereas these zealots use the feminine form and continue their attention to the execution of the woman in the case.

It's true that the Jews had come to the view that stoning was to be used where Scripture spoke of the death penalty without prescribing the method. Here, the accusers in their zeal ascribe to Moses words that he did not utter. Now here's what they've done. They have a plot to bring a charge against Christ. They frame, trap this young lady and then they twist the law of Moses, put their own words in it, and then they ask this insidious question -- what do You say Jesus? How are we going to handle this?

Had He said, "Let her go," they could then accuse Him of being an enemy against the Law of God, and His own word was: Think not that I have come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. And those words would have been falsified.

But if He answered, "stone her," they would have ridiculed the fact that He was the "friend of publicans and sinners." No doubt they were satisfied that they had Him completely cornered. Now here's what they did. They've got this little lady and they say, Jesus, what do we do? If He had said, "stone her", He was known as a friend of the common people; they loved Him. So therefore they would have turned the common people against His ministry. If He'd have said, "do not stone her", then He would've had all the religious leaders on His neck saying that He was guilty of being a law breaker.

Down at the bottom of the page -- Their purpose clearly was this: to cause Jesus to give an answer which would be in violation of the law of Moses; next, to place this as an official charge against Him; then on the basis of this charge, to have Him condemned by the Sanhedrin at an official session; and finally, by branding Him as a transgressor of the law. That was their purpose.

I'm at the top of page 4. Now their purpose may also explain why the man who was involved in this transgression was not brought before the Lord. For the fabrication of a charge against Jesus the arrest of one party was sufficient. So in this connection it was not at all certain that the scribes and the Pharisees actually meant to have this woman stoned. They were not primarily interested in her; they were simply using her case in order to get at Jesus, who was their real intended victim.

And in order to carry out their diabolical purpose against Him, they throw kindness to the winds. The shame and the fears of this woman in being thus publicly exposed, meant nothing to them as long as their purpose was being achieved. Now let's stop there.

This I was studying this story throughout the week I was thinking, all of us recognize the sin of adultery and we realize God's judgment upon it. It has such condemning effects in family and homes. But I got to thinking about these fellows; these evil men wanted to get at Jesus, to set Him up so that they could bring a charge against Him, and then take Him to the Sanhedrin. And ultimately, they win, because ultimately they nail Him to a cross. But those evil men had an ulterior purpose which was extremely evil and extremely selfish, and they saw that little lady as an object to be used to accomplish their ends not as a human being loved by Christ.

Now I want to take this thought -- I want you to journey with me here for a moment with it. When we see people as objects to be used for our selfish gain, and we use them, and we do not see them as persons sacred and created in the image of God, we do great damage to relationships.

And I say that life is sacred. All you've got to do is stand in a hospital room when life is ebbing away from a person and there is a strange sense of eternity that surrounds that room, because life is very sacred; and man was created in the image of God and life is sacred. And when we use people with a purpose of accomplishing selfish ends for our own, and forget that they're children of God designed in His image, we do great injury.

Let me explain. James had something to say about it. Go with me to James chapter 5. He had something to say against the rich. Look at what he says: James 5:1-6, Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached that ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the justice; he does not resist you.

It's the picture of someone who uses other people to enrich themselves, even to the other person's hurt, by defrauding and taking from them. And I see that so often in business people; so intent in gaining their riches that they misuse human life and they use them to their own ends. They see them as objects not as people to be served and loved.

Now let me make that very personal. As you know I have two roles that I fulfill every week here at the church. First of all, I'm a pastor, and that's my greatest love to be here and pour out my life out 24 hours a day, seven days a week for you folks. That's my great joy. But I also have the responsibility of being an employer. We have nearly 150 people who serve here at the church every day who are employees that help us in school and secretarial work and so forth. So I have that balancing act to do constantly of being pastor and being employer.

And I have to watch it intensely because you hire people and give them assignments, and sometimes those assignments are not done you then begin to see them as objects who are taking advantage of their job.

This week I came face on with an issue. We had brought in a contracting firm for janitorial and I realize that the gentleman that they had sent was really not qualified for his task. And I could've looked at him as an object, as part of a business transaction, send him on his way, and tell them to send someone else.

But I sat him down, and I'll just call him Joe. And I'm sitting there at the desk talking to Joe and God's really talking to me -- Here's this young lad, newly married, has a family, has a car to pay for, has so much responsibility, and I began to see him through the eyes of a child of God needing to be cared for and loved, and understood and helped.

So I said to him, Joe, it's obvious that you're having difficulty performing your task. But what we're going to do is we're going to get you some help, and we're going to do some training and I believe that you can become one of my best employees. And I worked that through and after a matter of days Joe now has become one of my finest employees.

It's that balance of seeing those that are within your control not as objects, but to see them as human beings with feelings, and with dreams, and with hurts and with pain. That's why we should handle in tenderness our relationships; Never using friends; Never using persons as objects just to accomplish our selfish purposes.

There's another illustration that comes from the Scripture. Go with me to 2 Peter 2:12-22, and it's the picture of a religious man using the religious settings for his own personal gain. And I'll just pull a few verses out. It says: For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption.

You can understand why sometimes I become exceedingly angry as I see religious leaders taking advantage of people who are sincerely looking for truth. And they use them for their own personal gain and their accomplishments. It's really sad. And I'll share one with you that you probably never thought of before.

Over my 50 years of ministry I've never had a Holy Lands tour sponsored by the pastor. You say, why pastor?. And I'll tell you. Because those tour companies come to the preacher and they encourage the preacher to use his connections with the flock, with the congregation, and for each five they get to go on the tour, then the tour conductor gives them the equivalent in dollars or another ticket and they gain handsomely financially by their involvement -- in using their congregation to set up a tour.

A few years ago I had a pastor come to me and he said, I really did well on that last tour brother Sheley. He said I made $17,000. I said you are to be ashamed of yourself. He said, what do you mean? I said, what you shouldn't done, you should've taken that $17,000 and divided it equally among all those people who went with you instead of you personally advantaging from them. You misused your congregation for your own selfish games.

Now I'm using these very clear and vivid illustrations, but I tell you this whole idea of misusing others and seeing them only as objects and not as people who have a godly purpose for being here and in our lives, to be served to be loved, to be cared for -- we do great injury in our relationships.

Now I'll get real close to home -- husband and wife. Those early moments of marriage they are the objects of someone sacred that God has brought into our lives, but if we don't watch it, it doesn't take very long till they become objects simply for our advantage and for our selfish purposes. It's wrong. And I get angry when I see those men in that Scripture story as they frame this little lady and use her to get to Jesus. Jesus saw her as one to be loved and forgiven. They saw her as an object to be used for their evil purposes.

I want you to think that through because it affects all of our relationships with others. I must see those people around me. I have to think of that too in terms of your pastor. I could see you folks as objects in that you fill the auditorium and we can tell about all the folks who come to church. God help that never to be. May it be that I see you always as human beings crying out for Christ and His love, and to be cared for, and to be served -- never as objects to be used. Amen?

Let's finish the story. Jesus does something very interesting. He stoops down and starts writing on the ground. Now on page 4 I've suggested maybe four different reasons that Dr. Barkley said the reason why He did that. Maybe just to save some time. By far the most interesting suggestion emerges from certain of the later manuscripts. The Armenian Bible translates the passage this way: "He Himself, bowing His head, was writing with His finger on the earth to declare their sins: and they were seeing their several sins on the stones."

What Jesus did was something very wise. They tried to throw the Old Testament at Him and they twisted the words of Moses. But Jesus brings an Old Testament concept right before them. The one who brings the accusation is the one throws the first stone. That was the law of the Old Testament. If you're going to accuse and prove your point, you've got to throw the first stone. And Jesus stands up and says he that is without sin you throw the first stone, then He goes down and starts writing again.

The what was He writing? Look at the top of page 5. One scholar suggests that what Jesus wrote on the ground was a passage from Exodus 23:7: "Have nothing to do with a false charge, and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty." There was that Old Testament warning -- don't be a part of taking the life and being a false witness because the blood of that person will be upon you and your generations to follow. It was an exceedingly serious thing.

Maybe some of you have sat on a jury when you had to face the issue of life-and-death, and you realized how serious the matter was. We do not know what He wrote, but it's obvious that as the oldest one saw -- I think what Jesus may have done is just written the name of the person the older person had adultery with. And he walks away and finally nobody's there. And He says to the little lady, where are your accusers? I don't have any.

You know, this brings in the whole subject of judgment, judging others. It's hard for us to understand the concept of judgment from the New Testament setting because there are different words used. Jesus said in Matthew 7:1, judge not, and you will not be judged. With the same measure that you judge, it will be measured to you again. But we're told He said in another passage there, He said don't cast your pearls before swine. You've got to make a decision who are the pigs. He said, by their fruits you shall know them. So there must be a requirement of judging the lifestyles. And what we find that in those areas what Jesus is saying, we have a right and an obligation when there is a violation of divine truth and divine law, we then make the evaluation and we can say that is false doctrine. That is sin to live this way, and we have the right and the responsibility to so define. That's not judging, that's evaluating.

The word that's used in judging is the word that we have often in the New Testament, the word for backbiting or gossiping or slandering. And when it says do not judge, what it's used in that context, it means never say something slanderous or of gossip nature or of evil degrading nature about someone to their back without giving them the opportunity to defend themselves.

And it's very interesting when you go through the Old and the New Testament the sin of adultery is not the worst sin. The sin of homosexuality is not the worst sin. The worst sin, that has the greatest amount of judgment and condemnation throughout the Bible, is speaking evil about your neighbor in their absence. That's the worst sin in judging.

That's why in my church over the years if someone comes to me and says, Pastor I want to say something about someone. I say, just a minute, who is the person? I immediately pick up my phone and say, Mary, Bill has something to say and I want you here to hear what he has to say. That's scriptural. And if you'll do the same thing -- never allow anybody in your presence to say something derogatory or slanderous against anybody else.

Just say, listen, scripturally I'm going to get hold of that person and you're going to say it in their presence. I'm going to hold you accountable for what you say. I tell you if we would handle our relationships that way we could sure eliminate a lot of terrible stories that destroy. That's the word that is used for judge -- judge not, that you be judged.

Our story is over. You say, what did you learn Pastor? I learned first of all that it's a terrible thing to misuse others for selfish purposes. I learned also that it's wrong to judge another because you never know. They didn't know the background of that little lady. And you know when we judge and when we become critical like that and we don't take into consideration -- because we don't know all the facts. It's so wrong to pass judgment. And thirdly the thing I learned from this lesson is let's be less judgmental and more forgiving. Amen?

As Christians we get so critical of everybody else's sin. We really go at them. And yet I find something very interesting, when you study the life of Jesus, He handed sinners with such delicacy. He didn't like hypocrites. He didn't like fakes. But when it came to sinners, He was very generous and very kind. God help us to be the same way. We have a tendency to pull our spiritual cloaks around us and think we are better than they; we're not. And we are quick to judge. May we have forgiving hearts as Jesus had a forgiving heart. Amen?

Lord Jesus it's an interesting story but we've learned something today. We often see people as objects to be used not as persons to be loved and served. Please forgive us. We often are judgmental saying things that should never be said only to the face of that person, and then, with a desire for reconciliation. And we're so quick to judge when we really should be forgiving. Please forgive us. And everybody said, amen. God bless you folks.