Jesus’ message was a happy one of Love 🙂
One of Jesus’ lessons on judging others is from John Chapter 8… I call it “Doodling In The Dirt”… that’s basically what He did while He let our conscience work on us… the story goes something like this…
“The really smart people”… you know, that click we refer to as the Pharisees? For whatever reason, they always wanted to test Jesus on the Law of Moses. The Law… man, there were a mess of them! They brought before Him a woman caught in the act of adultery. I’ve always wondered why just the woman? I guess it may have been a part of their trap… the plan or attempt to try to get Jesus to quake and falter. They always wanted to one up Jesus…
The Law told the people of the time that they should stone one found guilty of this crime. So the Pharisees posed the question to Jesus… what say ye? His response: wait upon the Lord… “I’m going to doodle in the dirt”… that’s what Jesus did… then He added, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Oh WoW!! That’s not what the Pharisees expected… Jesus one upped them… once again!! He highlighted the importance of something these folks were overlooking…
Compassion and forgiveness… a few days ago I wrote some thoughts about the paradox to wisdom, age and spiritual maturity… and the scourge of our communities: anger and jealousy…
Anger and jealously… maybe that’s what motivated the Pharisees? I don’t know, just sayin’…
Back to the story… what happened next?
The Pharisees walked away… oldest to youngest. One by one, they tucked tail and went back to their daily lives…
Was that by age? Or maybe inference to spiritual maturity? Remember my dear friend G.A. … there are some really smart, and really mature young people today! Thankful for her!!
The moral? Sometimes it seems so easy for us to pass judgment on other people and their sin. I just need to focus on me… being a better me… compare myself only to Jesus, and focus on being more like Him… and, try to move clicky people who tend to draw me to the wrong side of the chessboard out of my life!
Playing God…
“It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.†Lamentations 3: 22-23
How long do you think Jesus doodled in the dirt before all of the Pharisees walked away and went back to minding their own business?
I soooo loved the photo of the doodle. I will be thinking of that allllll day! How long did the Pharisees wait? Well, obviously too long!
Thanks Carol… I’ve had this one “written in my mind” for a while now… How long? Yea, a while now… 😉
Hi Chris, I guess He doodled long enough. Great story!!!
I remember at UF one of the grad students giving a presentation on some “soil” samples from North Dakota (or wherever they convinced the NSF to sned them away to with grant money… heehee). This girl called the soil “dirt” and the prof’s got miffed about it!! Whatever it was Jesus was doodling in I bet he made some smiley faces 🙂
When we point figures and judge others it causes us to look away from our self, which I think is what happened with the pharisees. Great post.
So true Dan!