Has anyone condemned you? - Mon 5 February 2007

This weeks devotionals follow a classic pattern of imagining ourselves into the biblical story – this has been practised by Christians through the ages, most notably St Ignatius of Loyola. Allow Sheree’s meditations to help you engage more deeply with the Bible and you can use this method for your own prayer time. You may if you meditate in this way your drawn to a different character in the stories or that you imagine some of the background differently – but as Sheree demonstrates so well – allow your immersing in the story to deepen your understanding of and love for Jesus.

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Well I could tell this was a set up the moment they burst into the house, I had been plying my trade for over a year, since I realised that nobody was going to marry a penniless widow. Well I had children to feed. And the best part about it was that a few of them were regulars too, that made me angry because I’d been really discreet.
So off they dragged me, barely giving me time to cover myself while my customer ‘accidentally’ got away with my money. They bundled to the market place and they stood me in front of a Rabbi, one of those itinerant ones who wanders around preaching.
‘Ok, Rabbi, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.’ shouted one ‘In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’
That’s when I realized that it wasn’t my set up but his, however this ‘set up’ was going to decide whether I lived or died so I had a bit of a vested interest there. I waited for what seemed like an eternity with my heart pounding while he crouched down to write on the ground with his finger. The men around me were getting restive, muttering to each other and picking up stones all ready to start. ‘Come on, give us an answer’ one shouted and there were a few cat calls from the back of the crowd.
So the Rabbi stood up and he stared me in the face. Now I have looked a few men in the eye in my time and some are shifty, some plain lustful but this one, well he was looking at me with real respect as though he saw past the make up and the uncovered hair. Just as though he saw the real reason why I do it, and he smiled a little too as though I was his sister or something and he was pleased to see me. Then he said.
‘Are any of you completely sinless? Then you can throw the first stone.’ Then he crouched down and went on writing in the dirt.
There was all this muttering going on behind me but I didn’t dare turn my head. I heard the thuds as the stones hit the ground and I closed my eyes but the noise died away and when I opened my eyes the men had gone. Just me and the Rabbi, even the crowd that had gathered was drifting away.
He stood up and said "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
No sir," I said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," he declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."
And do you know I did. I could have all along but it was just as though he gave me permission. I knew it was wrong too but I think it just took that look of real respect in his eyes to make me realize how long it had been since anyone had looked at me like that. They called him Jesus, the Rabbi and I have heard it said that he is the Messiah, but all I know is he changed my life and that’s good enough for me.

Then neither do I condemn you, go now and leave your life of sin."
John 8:11