Alex, I'll Take Door Number Three Please

John 8:1-11 has one of my favorite stories of Jesus. It's the story about the woman brought to Him, and how He handles the men who bring her. The story is so well known, I'm not sure I even have to summarize it. The men bring a woman caught in adultery to Jesus. The implication is she was caught in the very act, they pulled her out of the bed while having sex and drug her to Jesus. Where is the guy who was committing adultery? Theories say he may have been let go, it was a setup to get the woman so they could make things tough on Jesus, or even it was a Pharisee using the woman in order to set Jesus up. We simply don't know. But he's not mentioned in the story. I mean, it's kind of hard to "catch" someone in the act of adultery if it's not your spouse. It seems like a set up. So, anyway, it's early morning and they drag this woman into the temple in front of a large crowd. Let's not forget, she does commit adultery. The story is never questioning her guilt. She's guilty. She either blew it as a married woman, or is a prostitute, or somehow has made a serious of decisions that has put her in a mess. She's guilty, she's made massive mistakes, and now they are all blowing up on her in the most nightmarish, public way possible. If you haven't ever been in a situation that feels like this, you are blessed. It's a horrendously painful thing to have your sins exposed. God says they all come out one way or the other. It's her day.

Here's the trap for Jesus. The law said a woman caught in adultery should be stoned. It laid out that she had to be caught in the actual act of sex, and there had to be witnesses. Some scholars say this rule, rather than being barbaric, was actually to protect women. A husband couldn't just accuse her and kill her, like most of the societies in the time of Moses. There had to be proof, and a witness. The situation had to be severe. But this woman was guilty under that law.

Now, there aren't a lot of historical documents that point to the Jews ever actually killing someone from this law. They didn't keep a lot of the laws from the Old Testament, and tended to pick and choose, much like I do. So, they have Jesus trapped. If He says "Let her go", like He always tends to do, they can accuse Him of breaking the law, destroy His credibility as a teacher, and be done with Him. If He says "Let's kill her", He will lose every one's favor who follows Him, because suddenly He will be seen as even more uptight than the Pharisee's. It's a beautiful trap. It's dishonest, sinful, and manipulative. But no one can escape it. "Only God Himself could find a way out of this one", they probably think.

So, Jesus starts writing on the ground. What? We don't know. Theories are that He writes the thoughts of everyone of the Pharisees right then. Or He writes out the plot of how they trapped the woman. Or He writes out the sins that each of them hide and struggle with. Or He writes passages of Scripture on forgiveness. We don't know. Whatever it is, it's not enough to rattle them completely. They stay on Him.

Then He tells them, "You stone her. If you are sinless, you stone her." Only men who were righteous were supposed to have that kind of power. At this, one by one, they leave. Imagine being the last one there with a stone in your hand. Remember, this is in front of a huge crowd, listening to every word.

Then Jesus forgives the woman, and tells her to go, but to change her life. He calls for her to repent, literally to turn around and go a different way.

Here's a challenge for us. As we find older and older copies of the Bible, this story isn't in the ones we currently have as our oldest ones. That means that this story may have been added later, and John might not have actually written this story in. I consulted a man much wiser and smarter than I about it, and I think His advice was solid. First off, there is nothing to say that we won't find an even older copy that has it in, justifying that John did write it. Until we have John's original, we can't be sure. Secondly, does this passage fit with what we know about Jesus? Of course, it does. This is vintage Jesus. So, leave it in for now until we know for sure.

I thought is was solid advice.

So, here is the story. The parallels are not hard to see. Sometimes we are the woman. Busted. Out in the open. Exposed. If we will admit, and follow Him, we will be healed and forgiven.

Sometimes we are the Pharisees, full of judgment and justification towards others. We use people for our own agendas, and can't see God right in front of our face. We have to confess our own guilt, and walk away from the rocks we want to throw.

Sometimes, just sometimes, we find ourselves in the role of Christ. Wise. Peacemaker. Living life on God's terms, by His rules. Then, and only then, does life get interesting.

My prayer is that today we will find ourselves letting the first two roles die, and embracing the third.

Let Your Guard Down

I finished chapter 7 (7:45-52) of John today. In it, the temple guards come back from being sent to arrest Jesus. But He isn't with them. They come back empty handed. The religious leaders (the Pharisees) are dumbfounded. "Why didn't you bring him back?!", they want to know.

Catch the guards answer. "No one ever spoke the way this man does."

Okay, the guards are good Jews who work at the temple. They aren't priests or religious leaders, but they work with and around them all day. They have seen and heard it all. They've seen what goes on in front of the people, and what goes on when there isn't a crowd. They're probably going to be a little jaded, a bit skeptical, because they have seen the humanness of the religious leaders that few people would have seen.

So, they go to arrest this guy Jesus. No big deal. They've done it before with others, they'll have to do it again. But something happens this time. The way Jesus carries Himself, the way He speaks, His tone of voice, His choice of words, His love and strength combined together, it all affects the guards. The whole group. Its not that one guard decided to leave Jesus alone. The whole group decides not to arrest Him. They are possibly going to get fired. They are definitely going to hear about it, which they do. But yet, they decide it's worth it.

In reading this, I feel like a lot of the people in our lives are like the guards at the temple. They have been around religion for a long time. A lot of stuff has been done in the name of God during their lives, not all of it being good. Thanks to scandals, pastors blowing it, television evangelists, and a bunch of other stuff by people in the church (us), our friends and neighbors have seen the good and the bad of our religion. And they are hard to it, they are jaded. (I often am too, for that matter.)

But notice that Christ, when they meet Him face to face, can cut through that. The guards hear him, and are changed. Very changed. Their allegiance changes, their actions change, they are different. And it's just in the way that He speaks. It wasn't the miracles that convinced them, it was how He spoke.

So, here we are, 2000 years after Jesus physically leaves the earth, and He has left us to be His voice, His hands, His heart on this planet. Are we speaking in such a way that people around us see and hear God? What about your boss or your teacher? What about your neighbor, the person in class next to you, the person next to you on the line at work or in the next cubicle? What about the people in your family? Do you speak and act in such a way that they see Jesus in you? If so, it will change them. If we're wondering why God isn't changing the people around us, maybe we need to start by looking at ourselves. Maybe He is trying, and we aren't. It's just a thought. I'd love to hear what you think.

Sometimes I Just Don't Get It

Okay, so the passage I read today (John 7:14-44) really confuses me. There are several points I have trouble understanding.

First off, in several places elsewhere in the Bible, people repeatedly call Jesus "Rabbi", which was the term for a Jewish religious teacher. He is seen at 12 years old in the Temple teaching the Rabbi's. You would assume He would have been chosen to study as a teenager. In another part of the Bible, He quotes an older Rabbi, showing that He had been well educated. It's assumed that Jesus completes all of His religious education, and is a traveling teacher, like many others in His day. If all of that is true, why do the people in Jerusalem question how He knows so much "without having studied"? And Jesus doesn't even answer the question.

Then, when Jesus claims they are trying to kill Him in verse 19, the people act surprised and accuse Him of being crazy. They answer like "oh come on Jesus, who's trying to kill you?" But then in verse 25 they act like they know all about it. So which is it? Is he paranoid in their eyes, or do they know that His life is in danger?

Neither of these are big points, they just remind me I have so much to learn, so much yet to understand about the Bible. I've discovered over the years when I hit places that don't make sense like this, it's just because I'm missing pieces to the puzzle. God is always trustworthy.

It's like the Jews in the story. Jesus comes speaking truth, performing amazing miracles, and many people want to believe in Him as the Savior. But, their understanding is that the Messiah has to come from Bethlehem. They knew Jesus grew up in the little hick town of Galilee. They don't realize Jesus WAS born in Bethlehem. So, even though Jesus is the Messiah, He is staring them in the eye, offering them hope, they still won't believe. They allow their limited understanding to stop their faith in what is clearly seen.

I often do the same thing. God wants me to do something, to let go of something, to follow Him in some direction. It's clear what I'm supposed to do. But it doesn't make sense to me. It contradicts some thought or understanding I have. I'm not saying it contradicts the Bible, or His commands. It just goes beyond what I can see or understand. So I refuse to do it. I dig in my heels. I won't obey. And I miss out, just like the people in the story.

What is Jesus calling you to, that maybe you can't fully comprehend? Is He stretching you beyond where you want to comfortably be? Is He pushing you to follow, even though it doesn't make "sense"? What will you do? In the story in John, some followed (vs. 41), some didn't. (vs.43). What about you?

Not Invited to Your Own Party

I don't know what tough is. I really don't. I think I do sometimes. I believe that my life has gotten incredibly difficult, hard to navigate, too much to think about clearly. I convince myself that I'm at the end of my rope. Then I go and read something like John 7:1-13. Jesus is home, hanging out around His hometown. It's time to head for Jerusalem, so that all of the good Jews can take part in a religious celebration. But Jesus is unable to go, because there are leaders in the city who want to kill Him. I mean, step out of our "read that a hundred times" mindset, and really consider that. He can not go to Jerusalem, because people want to kill Him. I can not say that I have ticked anyone off to that level. At least not yet.

So what do His brothers do? They act like jerks, because they don't believe Him. It says in another story that they think He's insane. I'm not sure, but it sounds like they're making fun of Him in verses 3-5. Now, these are His younger brothers, His little brothers, giving Him grief. That is never cool, whether you're Jesus or anyone else.

Then, once everyone has gone, having a party, celebrating God, celebrating Jesus without knowing it, Jesus hangs out alone. When He finally goes to a celebration that is actually for Him, He has to go undercover. He has to sneak in to His own party. Once He gets there, He hears people arguing about who He is, and blasting His character.

And this is just one snapshot, of one short time frame in His life. How can I ever complain about what I'm facing? I've gotta get tougher if I'm gonna be like Jesus, that's for sure.

400 Years of Fun

Jason and the girls at the Governor's Mansion. We're considering picking it up for a summer home.

Never were there two cuter patriots.

Jill and the girls with the chair that Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington all sat in at the Capitol.

How to Lose Friends and Not Influence People

In John 6:25-70, Jesus has crossed the Sea and is in Capernaum, and goes to the synagogue to speak. While there, many of the people who He had fed on the other shore follow Him there. But He gets into a discussion about a bread greater than the manna that Moses supplied thousands of years earlier in the desert. When He claims to be the one sent by God, the people want a sign. Now, there are people in the crowd who were fed by the miracle of the loaves and fishes, yet they don't speak up, or they don't believe.

Then, Jesus really goes after it. He begins His discussion on how His flesh and blood are the food that sustains people eternally. This rattles everyone, and it says that many in the area leave and don't follow Him anymore. Then He pushes the twelve about whether or not they are going to leave as well, already knowing that Judas would turn on Him.

What to make of this passage. Obviously, Jesus is the one who saves and gives life. But why take such a radical tack in His language? Why drive people off intentionally?

This is where Jesus and I split ways. Jesus isn't worried about numbers or prestige. He wants people who are committed, when it gets tough. I want numbers, I want success.

Jesus is after me on this. How much does our desire to appear likable, to seem influential or cool drive us? Jesus wants it. He wants to own it, to hold it, and to kill it. I am to speak up for Him and what He has done in my life, regardless of the crowd. I am to speak the truth, no matter what. What will it cost? I can't be concerned for that.

What of you? What cost is Christ asking you to pay to stand for Him, to speak truth for Him? Will you pay it? Of will you turn away? It's tough, that's for sure.

My family and I are in Williamsburg, VA this week. Today, we went to Jamestown, the original permanent settlement in the U.S. It was founded way back in 1607. Anyway, the men who came over had to travel on these three small-ish boats. For six months. Below deck. Laying on boxes of cargo. With about 2 1/2 feet of space to lay in. It is simply insane when you stand there in the boat and contemplate what they did to get here.

Why? It wasn't for any regal reasons. It was for a possible payoff. It was a job. They came for money. That, and the adventure of it all. They wanted out of where they were, so they traveled thousands of miles in a tiny, tiny space to try to start again.

Then why do we balk when we are offered a new life? Christ comes in and offers us a free chance at a whole new life. We don't even have to ride on a cramped boat for six months. We just have to give in to freedom, joy, and love. And we get a new life. But we walk away, we go back to our old life. Why? I'm not sure.

But it makes me consider long and hard about the sacrifice of these early men, and my commitment. Take some time to re-evaluate yours today. It's worth it.