Living Waters for the Thirst: Deeper than Lust & Sexual Liberation

Read John 4: 1-26; 39-42

           

In John 4, Jesus initiates a conversation with a Samaritan woman at a well by asking her for a drink of water. The text tells us in the 6^th verse that it was about the 6^th hour—noon. This is the hottest time of the day. This woman is coming to the well to draw water by herself in a culture where women tend to go to draw water early in the morning to avoid the heat. She clearly wants to be left alone.

It is no wonder that when Jesus’ reaches out to her, she pushes back. She is skeptical of Him and for very real reasons. Her response in verse 9 is effectively, “why are you talking to me? You’re not supposed to be talking to me (my translation).”

The text also explicitly informs readers that Jews and Samaritans did not associate. Samaritans were seen by Jews to be half-breeds (used here in an intentionally derogatory sense) because they were not fully Jewish but rather multi-racial in being mixed—for this reason, they were looked down as racially inferior. Tensions between Jews and Samaritans abounded. In fact, Jews often deliberately avoided traveling through Samaria purposefully taking a longer route around the town just to avoid interacting with Samaritans. The woman at the well would have automatically recognized Jesus to be Jewish by His clothing, so the woman’s reaction to Jesus makes sense. For both cultural and personal reasons, her defenses are up. She resists conversing with Him and attempts to push Him away.

            Jesus perceives her resistance to Him but yet He persists and insists on conversing with her. Jesus is not afraid of her walls—her defensiveness. Beyond her guardedness, He sees her and is inviting her to see Him and to know Him.

            Jesus responds, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and He would have given you Living Water.” Here, Jesus is saying, “if only you truly knew and truly recognized who I truly am, you would know that I am offering you something so much greater than you could possibly ever even imagine.”

Again, the woman’s response is a pushback. She is somewhat defensive and skeptical when she says, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water…?”

The way that I hear this exchange and what it may sound like today is: “Look man, are you for real? You don’t even have a bucket or anything to draw water with. And who do you even think you are to be making these kinds of offers? Are you greater than Jacob? Please you’re nothing special…go somewhere (my translation).”

And even though she is still pushing him away, Jesus does not let up. Although she is skeptical as to whether He genuinely has anything to offer her and is questioning whether He is just bluffing, even calling His character into question, her demeanor does not intimidate Jesus. He refuses to be put off and He does not become defensive. He remains gentle and confident in His offer. He insists that the water that she is currently drinking is inadequate to really deeply quench her thirst and satisfy her. He is certain that the water that He is offering her will not just fulfill her, but it will become an eternally life-giving spring. Talk about quenching a thirst! I promise sprite has nothing on this.

So maybe now, from her response, the woman is thinking, “Man, this man is really persistent. Okay, bet, well, if this water is as good as he says it is and he insists on giving it out for free, I may as well get some so that I don’t have to get thirsty or have to keep coming to the well to get water (my translation).”

After all, she is probably tired of having to come to the well at noon just to avoid people and if she gets ahold of this living water, she can just avoid them altogether. It sounds like a good deal to her so now she’s down.

And yet, she is still missing out on what Jesus is saying. Jesus is talking about something much greater than physical water and so much deeper than she can comprehend.

During this time, a woman couldn’t have entered into an agreement without her husband present. Jesus tells her to go call her husband. And with that one question, it is clear that Jesus has hit a soft spot. She responds that she has no husband, but she is not being fully forthright.

But Jesus being Jesus and knowing the truth even when we aren’t willing or ready to admit to the truth exposes her. He responds in verse 18, “You are right…the fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

In this moment, Jesus exposes this woman’s source of shame. Anyone who has had 5 husbands in our day would be sure to be gossiped about, looked down upon, and an outcast. Now imagine what it may have meant over 2,000 years ago for a woman to have had 5 husbands and to be currently living with a man that’s not her husband. Imagine the names that this woman must have been called and the stigma that must have been attached to her. It’s likely that few people wanted to be associated with her. And imagine going places knowing that everyone is whispering about you. No wonder she is coming to the well at the hottest time of day. She is marginalized—people don’t want anything to do with her. And it’s no wonder that she is defensive, she is probably tired of people judging her and thinking that they know her so she, in turn, rejects them as well.

But then there’s Jesus. Jesus who refuses to let any amount of stigma, shame, sin, cultural boundaries, or even her own guardedness to keep Him from pursing a relationship a relationship with her or to keep her from knowing him. Imagine, this whole time, Jesus has known her secret, but still refused to be deterred from knowing her.

After Jesus exposes her, she does what so many of us are prone to do when someone brings up a subject that makes us uncomfortable—she changes the subject. She acknowledges that Jesus is a prophet, after all, how would He know what He knew? But instead of talking about herself and engaging with what Jesus has just revealed, she instead begins to talk about religious matters, specifically, what appears to be a disagreement between Jews and Samaritans about the appropriate place to worship. Notice for her how this conversation still goes back to the division between Jews and Samaritans. Notice how perhaps she is using this information lowkey to put up another barrier between her and Jesus and to push Him away.

Jesus still is not deterred. His response is that it is not about where you worship—physical location, it’s about how you worship. In verse 23 Jesus is seeking to take her deeper in her understanding to show her that “true worshippers, the kind that the Father is seeking, will worship in Spirit and in Truth. This is what God has always been interested in: our hearts. God is looking for a people who are pursuing Him with their hearts, seeking to know Him more, to seek His face and get caught up in His presence—people who are genuinely desiring Him and wanting to know His truth.

Again, the woman does not agree or immediately engage with Jesus. She is not yet willing to concede that He is right. And in turn, she is not willing to admit that she may be wrong. Instead, she says that when the Messiah comes, He will be the one to explain everything and finally set the record straight. And to her surprise, Jesus reveals that He is indeed the Messiah.

This is the first person in the gospel of John to whom Jesus is reported to have disclosed his identity: a marginalized woman.

This whole time, unknowingly, this woman has been talking to the Messiah. He is the one who everyone has been waiting on and He chooses to reveal Himself to her—someone who others may have thought to be the least deserving of such a great revelation. But Jesus does not care much for making decision based on what other expect about him or what others will think of him. Jesus is not seeking to please anyone but his Heavenly Father.

In revealing himself to her, Jesus is saying that “I am the living water that you have been searching for. You’ve been looking for fulfillment in all of the wrong places, in your numerous relationships, and you’ve been coming up short, but if you search for fulfillment in me, you will know true satisfaction and wholeness.”

Jesus does not allow her past or even her current sinful situation to keep her from knowing Him. In fact, He probably recognizes that the underlying motivation for her sinful actions is the pursuit of fulfillment with the hope that these things or relationships would make her whole—but true wholeness is found in Him. This life pattern of broken relationship after broken relationship is what she knew and what she came to accept for herself but Jesus is offering her something different. In revealing Himself to her, Jesus offers her a new and restored identity not in what she’s done or who she was but in Him. In verses 39-42, we are told that this woman shares her testimony with people from her town and many come to believe because of her. Shout out to Jesus for first using a woman to preach His gospel. No longer will she be the talk of the town for her relational history, from hence forward she’ll be the woman who brought the town to know the Messiah.

I think that so many of us are like this woman in so many ways in seeking fulfillment in things other than God be it relationships, money, status, or anything other than God. But I’m going to use this opportunity to speak specifically about hook-up culture and sexual sin. There is a current water that so many of us are drinking that says sexual freedom and liberation is found in the choice to do what you please with whoever you please as long as it’s consensual.

So when Jesus, or Christians carrying His teachings, come along with an alternative view point it seems outdated and oppressive, so we, like the woman, resist Jesus in refusing to believe that He actually has something to offer us. We wonder if He has come to just impose some religious teaching on us and to force us to submit to antiquated rules and regulations. And of course, we don’t want anyone to impose anything on us because we just want to be free to do as we please. But this isn’t what Jesus is doing at all. Jesus is a gentleman, He never forces Himself on us or anyone else, instead He comes to offer us true and deep soul fulfillment in Him. He realizes that the water that we are drinking now is stale and leaves us thirsty, but He has come to quench our thirst in offering us living water in Him.

In her Everyday Feminism article, “3 Reasons Why Sex-Positivity Without Critical Analysis is Harmful,” Melissa Fabello critiques sex-positivity. She encourages her readers to think critically about sex positivity and to not fall into the trap of “carelessly labeling everything (everything being all free and open engagements in sex acts) an example of liberation.” Her first point is that “we don’t make decisions in a vacuum.” She seeks to persuade readers to think through the ways in which our “socialization affects the choices that we make.” Part of her purpose for writing, as stated in her third point, is to question where “we draw the line between what is authentically liberating and what is just sexism presented in a shiny new package.”

I completely agree that critical thought is absolutely necessary. To be clear, lest I mislead anyone, Fabello is not making her argument from a standpoint of faith. And still, again, her challenge to think critically about what true liberation means, be it sexual or not, is an extremely important one.

I would like to harp on her point that we do not make decisions in a vacuum. Included in the reality that our socialization affects the choices that we make is the reality that our pursuit for sexual relations are often much deeper than merely the pursuit of pleasure. How do these underlying motivations affection our understanding of liberation? For example:

If you’re having sex with a wo/man as a means to affection in the hope that s/he will want to date you, commit to you or love you, then are you really liberated?

If you’re having sex with anyone as a means of comfort or cure to your loneliness but still end up feeling lonely afterwards, are you really liberated?

If you’re having sex or hooking up because the idea of someone wanting to have sex with you makes you feel better about yourself and more attractive, are you not basing your worth in your sex appeal, and are you really liberated?

If you’re having sex because of societal pressures and the need to prove to others how conscious, enlightened, progressive and liberated you are really are, but still somehow feel like crap afterwards, isn’t that just as bad as abstaining because of societal pressure to be a virgin or celibate? Aren’t you still merely making a decision from societal pressure and not genuine choice? Does this make you liberated? (Sidenote: God is not interested in you abstaining from sex until marriage for mere religiosity’s sake, He’s interested in you waiting from the deep and genuine believe that what He has for you and His vision of sex is more precious and beautiful than you can ever imagine and that this vision flourishes in the context of marriage. Prudish teachings that make us ashamed of sex and sexuality come more from religiosity than anything else. God is not afraid or ashamed of sex, He created it to be beautiful for a purpose, a context, and for His glory.)

If you’re having sex or hooking-up casually and feel good in the moment but end up feeling empty and hollow the following day because even though you’re told that you’re free, you still somehow can’t escape the weight of your conscience telling you that something is not right about casually offering your body to someone else but you ignore your conscience and chalk this feeling up to antiquated religious teachings instead of realizing that maybe God is trying to tell you something only to do it again and to come up feeling empty again, are you truly liberated?

If none of these may apply to you, that’s great, I am happy for you. This is for people who are ready and willing to be real with themselves in acknowledging that one of their main underlying desires in pursuing sex and relationships is the hope for fulfillment and the desire but yet you still feel like your coming up short, maybe it is also time to acknowledge the reality that so many of us are aware of the reality that we carry a God-sized void in our hearts that worldly pleasures, be it sex, relationships, money, status, or anything other than God, though they may feel good temporarily, are just inadequate to fulfill you. Again, if you don’t feel this way, then this isn’t for you. However, if you do feel this way and you’re tired of the thirst, if you’re ready to face this reality, maybe it’s time to let God fill this void in accepting Christ’s living waters that never run dry. And just like with the woman at the well, Jesus will not allow where you've been or what you've done to keep you from knowing Him and His healing waters and love. He took care of all of that on the cross.

I’ve heard it said that sin is an attempt to fulfill a legitimate desire through an illegitimate means. I believe that there is a lot of truth to that statement. I’ve really struggled with lust before and in my faith walk. I tried to not be consumed by my lust but it just seemed to have a hold of me. Based on everything that I learned growing up from what I read and the things confirmed in popular media, I came to believe that the height of intimacy was in romantic and sexual relations. My lust problems weren’t just because I was hormonal, they were fueled by the rejection and abandonment that I experienced from a young age and actually rooted in a deep longing for intimacy, love, and affection. In my faith walk, God has been showing me that not only is He a Father who loves and cares for me deeply, and always has since I was younger, but He was also showing Jesus to be my eternal bridegroom and the lover of my soul. As God was teaching me that the height of intimacy is not in sex, romance, or marriage, as I had for so longed believed, but rather it is in knowing and loving Him and receiving His love for me, I received a new found level of freedom from lust and freedom in Him. It felt like Jesus’ living waters were springing up, washing over me, making me new in Him, and drawing me in. It got to the point where I didn’t even want to lust over anyone because all I wanted was to soak in the presence and bask in the adoration of the God who loves and cares for me more deeply and intimately than I had ever imagined. My heart and soul felt so full.

When I find myself falling into sin patterns or taking up idols that God has already freed me from, I have to ask, what are my real motivations for my actions beyond my brokenness, where am I putting my hope and seeking to gain fulfillment? Then I repent, and I ask God for the grace to help turn my wandering heart back to Him to drink from His living waters that I may know true wholeness.

The Scandal of Christianity

I know what some of you may be thinking, and no, I’m not talking about that scandal. And I’m not talking about the other scandal that you may be thinking about. I’m talking about the scandal of the Holy Spirit—God in us.

In John 14:16-18;20, Jesus is quoted as saying the following:

“If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you…On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”

Over the past week, thousands flocked to the streets to see Pope Francis, to hear him speak, to reach out and touch his hands, many hoped that he would bless them and their prayers. The pope even addressed a mass of 20,000 people at Madison Square Garden. The Papacy is respected enough command respect wherever the Pope goes so much so that the President and Prime Ministers of nations personally welcome him. In his first days in the United States, he even addressed all of Congress while captivating the attention of nations.

The existence of the Papacy, or office of the Pope as the leader of the church, is a powerful reminder and proof of the reality that Jesus actually existed. To be redundant, the only reason that there is a Papacy is because of Jesus. This same Jesus, whose life, teachings, and ministry the Bible testifies to actually walked this Earth and the church was birthed from His ministry on Earth. Many Catholics believe that Jesus ordained the Papacy when He told Peter that he would be the rock upon which Jesus builds His church. Some Protestants would disagree that this is what Jesus meant when He spoke these words. Regardless, the point is that the papacy is the longest standing office of leadership on Earth and a visible reminder of Jesus’ existence and ministry. And even if anyone wanted to deny Jesus’ existence, every day the calendar reminds us that He lived. In citing the year as 2015 Anno Domini we are reminded that before AD (meaning “In the Year of our Lord” as recognition of Christ’s Birth” there was B.C. or Before Christ. Imagine that, the calendar year testifies to Jesus’ existence in that He is the only figure who splits time in half—time is literally ordered around Him. But I digress.

While there are debates as to whether Jesus actually ordained the office of the pope as a sort of promise in speaking the aforementioned words, Jesus makes another promise about one who He will send to remind His followers about His teaching and testify about Him:

“If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you…On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you..” John 14:16-18;20

This is one of the original scandals of Jesus and His ministry: God in us. Jesus tells His disciples that it is for their good that He is going away because unless He goes away, the Advocate, His Holy Spirit, will not come to them; but if He goes, He will send His Holy Spirit (John 16:8). This promise was such a big deal that after Jesus’ Resurrection, while His disciples who have now become apostles in witnessing the resurrection are preoccupied with knowing when Jesus will restore the Kingdom of Israel, Jesus’ response is essentially, don’t worry about that right now, what I want you to focus on is the power that you’re going to receive when my Holy Spirit comes upon you and that you’ll be my witnesses (Acts 1:6-8). So not only does Jesus remind His followers about the promise post-resurrection, He tells them to not even go forward as His witnesses

If we take Jesus’ words about Peter being the Rock upon which He’ll build His church seriously, how much more seriously should we take the promise that Jesus adamantly reiterates time and time again that His Holy Spirit will come to be not just with us and inside of us—making our hearts His home?

Earlier, I said that God in us through the Holy Spirit was one of the original scandals of Christianity, but before that, the scandal of Christianity that actually led to Jesus’ crucifixion was that God took on flesh and dwelled amongst us as a human being through Jesus. To many religious leaders of His day, Jesus was not just a rebel, but He was also utterly blasphemous. John 5:18 says “they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” In fact, the notion that the Creator God could become a human being is still scandalous, and even absurd, to many people.

In Islam, the one unforgiveable sin is shirk or associating partners with the Divine. This is what Christians do when they worship Jesus Christ as the Son of God. The Qu’ran opposes all teachings that claim Jesus’ Sonship to God—He is to be honored as a prophet and nothing more. And yet the New Testament and Jesus in His teachings and actions insist “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14).”

And while the Bible and Jesus in His teachings ask His followers to take a leap of faith in believing that He truly is the Messiah—the fulfillment of Jewish hopes and expectations—and also God in the flesh the notion of God coming to dwell amongst His people was nothing new. The God of Israel was known around the ancient world to be the God who delivered His people from the bondage of Pharaoh with a mighty and outstretched arm through miraculous signs and wonders. Then after delivering His people, God traveled with His people and led them in a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. And what was special about the Tabernacle that God commands Moses to build when after the exodus from Egypt is that God’s presence would come to abide amongst the Israelites.

In Exodus 29:44-46, God is said to promise the following to Moses:

 “So I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. Then I will swell among the Israelites and be their God. They will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.”

And before the Exodus, the Creation story of the Biblical narrative was unique in telling the story of a God who created human beings from an overflow of His love. God not only provides for them, but He walks and talks with them.

Furthermore, the vision of heaven that the apostle John is given while on the Island of Patmos as described in Revelation is a vision of God coming to dwell with His people.

And I heard a loud voice on the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be his people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. Revelation 21:3-4

This is what will make heaven so special, the eternal presence of God made fully manifest all around us.

So you see, from the very beginning, God has been pursuing humanity longing to lavish His love on us. The Scandal of Christianity is that a God who is perfect in all of His ways would continually pursue a sinful and broken humanity and still continues to welcome us into His presence. Before Jesus, God’s presence dwelled in the Tabernacle in the most Holy of Holy places. With Jesus, God makes our hearts His Tabernacle and our bodies His temple in coming to dwell inside us through His Holy Spirit presence. I do not have sufficient words to underscore how amazing and absurd God’s love for us is, that in spite of ourselves, in spite of our sin, He still longs for us to know Him intimately. And it’s not because God needs us or is dependent upon us in anyway. He chooses to love us.

I wonder what would happen if we got as excited about God’s Holy Spirit continually abiding in us as we did about the Pope coming to the United States. How different would life be if we walked in the authority of knowing that the same incomparably great power that God exerted when He resurrected Christ from the grave and seated Him in heavenly places is what He promises His people (Ephesians 1:19-21). How would that news that God lives inside us change the way that we see ourselves, the way we treat our bodies, the way we treat other people as image-bearers and spirit or potential Holy Spirit carriers? What would recognition of this news do for our prayer lives? How much more would we be able to hold our heads high and walk in confidence even in the midst of turbulent times proclaiming that we are not defeated no matter what our circumstances look like, but rather we are indeed more than conquerors because the Eternal God who created this Earth is not only going before you but is living inside of you?

Look y’all, there is a Resurrection Power that God has placed inside of you that is yearning to come alive to enable you to walk in the victory and the authority of being a child of the Most High. This resurrection power if your birthright, so I pray for you all in the same way that Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus:

¹⁷ I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. ¹⁸ I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, ¹⁹ and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength ²⁰ he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, ²¹ far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. ²² And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, ²³ which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. Ephesians 1:17-23

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

9.30.15

Jesus Is Not a Religious Person. Reflections on John 8:1-11

 

 ¹But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. ²At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. ³The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group ⁴and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" ⁶They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

   But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. ⁷When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." ⁸Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

 ⁹At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. ¹⁰Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

 ¹¹"No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin." John 8:1-11

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This passage reveals the difference between religious people and Jesus. Jesus is not a religious person; He is the Son of God. And as the Son of God, He calls anyone caught in bondage to freedom in Him.

In this passage, Jesus is teaching in the temple courts early in the morning. Jesus’ message that the Kingdom of God was coming to Earth through His ministry was radical. Jesus also taught with authority and power. The anointing and power of his teaching coupled with His power to perform miracles made Jesus famous. Since He was so well known, Jesus naturally attracted a crowd everywhere that He went. The crowd that Jesus attracted consisted of various types of people from supporters, to followers, the curious and the adventurous, and of course the haters, naysayers, and others in opposition. Jesus generated excitement everywhere that He went. All eyes were on Him wondering: what would He do next?

On this particular morning, as Jesus is teaching, some religious people, specifically Pharisees and Teachers of the law, interrupt His teaching by bringing in a woman caught in adultery. They force this woman to stand in front of the entire assembly as her accusers publicly question Jesus as to whether she should be stoned for her sin, as written in the Law of Moses. But notice that the 6th verse says that the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law were using this question as a trap to have a basis for accusing Jesus. So you see, the Pharisees and Teachers of the law were not really concerned at all about the woman, she was merely a pawn in their attempts to build a case against Christ and delegitimize His teaching. They do not see the woman. We never even see them address her directly or acknowledge her in this interaction. They do not care for her. She is merely a means to an end to make them feel better about their religious position. 

What must it have felt like to be this woman at that moment? To have been publicly exposed, mocked, and shamed? What may it have been like to have all eyes on you and yet still be so invisible; to feel that no one is interested in even hearing your story and that everyone is against you?

Have you ever had an experience where you felt as if the entire world was against you and you were all alone wondering if anyone cared about you or if anyone would even stand with you? I know that I have. If you’ve felt this way, then you can probably empathize with this woman, only except her very life was on the line. What could it have been like to know that at any moment, her life could end with the excruciating experience of death by stoning? There must have been a million thoughts streaming through her mind. It may be fair to assume that she must have been beyond anxious—completely overcome by fear and dread. Maybe she felt guilty and humiliated. Maybe she was upset that she was the only one who had to face the crowd while the man she was with did not. Perhaps she was overcome by anger and despised the people who put her in that situation. And just maybe in this moment, she felt fear, fury, and hate towards Jesus, the one who would decide her fate.

And yet, characteristic of Jesus in many of the stories of the gospel, Christ does the unexpected. Although the Pharisees and Teachers of the law were trying to trap Him, this time, Jesus doesn’t respond with a parable nor does He launch into a long teaching. Instead, He keeps His cool. He doesn’t respond in haste. He takes His time. His response is simple: “let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

And then, He simply waits.

It is as if He pulls out a large mirror forcing this woman’s accusers and everyone else to examine themselves, to consider their own actions, motivations, and content of their hearts. This is part of the power of Jesus’ response; He takes the focus off of the woman and creates a space of self-reflection for everyone present.

Jesus’ statement begs the questions: who has the right cast stones? Who has the right to condemn her? Is it only the person who is without sin? Who then is without sin? From His response in calling the one without sin to cast the first stone, He also seems to be bothered by self-righteousness. He creates a space for introspection so self-reflection and examination appear to be important to Him.

One by one, her accusers, maybe having recognized their own sins, begin to walk away. The older accusers begin to leave first followed by the younger ones. Why do the older people go away first? Is it that they are frustrated because they know that there won’t be a stoning? Or is it that in the wisdom of their old age they are more prone to recognizing their own imperfections? Are they trying to save face? Who can say for sure? What we do know is that the only person left standing with the woman is Jesus. Why? Why is Jesus the only one who can stand with this woman at the center of this trial?

It seems that in standing His ground, Jesus is making a profound statement about Himself. Jesus is the only one left remaining because He is the only one who is without sin. He is the only one who is completely blameless, and thus the only one who has the right to condemn.

And now how does this woman feel? Is her heart racing? Who in the world is this man left standing alone with her? Will He treat her worse than the religious people who dragged her out for public exposure and caused her humiliation? Does she fear that Jesus will stone her all by Himself? Will she be absolved? What will He do?

Jesus’ response: “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?

“No one, sir.” She replies.

And then Jesus simply states: “then neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.”

In His response, we see that Jesus is not at all like the religious people to whom we are presented in this interaction. In Israel’s history as written about in the Old Testament, God gives the Israelites His law so that they would have a deeper understanding of what it means to live lives that are Holy and set apart for the glory of God—so that God’s people may embody His character and look more like Him. Whereas the Teachers of the law and the Pharisees saw religious teaching as a way of wielding power over others and as a means to self-righteousness, Jesus is not at all like this.

Jesus’ response is powerful for many reasons. In calling her “woman,” meant as a term of endearment, Jesus addresses her with compassion. He is genuinely concerned with the woman and her wellbeing. He seems to be the only one who sees her. He is the only one in the narrative who actually addresses her, and He does so with care. Here, we see that Jesus is not a religious person, but rather He is God. It is extremely important for our understanding and the course of our faith walk to not make the mistake of allowing the mistakes of religious people to overshadow our understanding of God’s character. Religious people are imperfect human beings.

Although the Pharisees and teachers of the law sought to trap Jesus by using her as a pawn, Jesus allows neither Himself nor the woman to be trapped. Jesus advocates for her. He stands with her. Then, although He is the only one with the right to do so, Jesus chooses not to condemn her. Instead, he looks upon her with love and calls her to leave her life of sin—to be free.

Often times, when this passage is read or shared, people have tended to stop short at Jesus’ statement that He who is without sin should be the first to cast a stone. And as a result, the passage has been used to justify an unwillingness to seek freedom in Christ. However, to ignore the end of this story doesn’t do justice to the fullness of Jesus’ message. This woman encounters the presence of the living God, and He calls her to freedom.

Although the Pharisees and teachers of the law sought to gain authority and hoped to have the final say, it is actually Jesus who has ultimate authority and control over the situation. Sin doesn’t get the final say; the Pharisees and teachers of the law don’t get the final say; not even the woman gets the final say; it is Christ alone who gets the final say—God gets the final say. God always gets the final say.

And if God is: if God is real; if God is sovereign; and if God is just, then this is exactly what we should expect—for Him to have the final say.

And what does Christ say? Christ says to be free. We don’t set ourselves free. Freedom isn’t earned; it is a gift that comes from knowing Christ as Lord over your life.

This is grace. That God, instead of condemning us, chooses instead, to call us to freedom in Him.

I think that this passage is especially relevant today in the way that Christians relate to the LGBTQ community. I wonder if self-professing Christians look more like the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law in relating to the LGBTQ community rather than looking like Jesus. It often seems as though the LGBTQ community, like the woman, has become a scapegoat that keeps many Christians from examining the sin in our own hearts. The Bible is very clear that sexual sin begins with lust in the heart (Matthew 5:27-28) and that sexual immorality includes pornography, fornication, and adultery (Exodus 22:16-17, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11;18-20)—issues that are prevalent in the church. When we look at the full spectrum of sexual sin, a lot of the church has been affected or is struggling with sexual sin. And beyond sexual sin, the sins of pride, greed, lying, gossip and other issues raised by the Bible, to name just a few, are also very real issues in the church. So why is it so easy for some in the church to condemn this community in particular without acknowledging our own sin? Furthermore, the refusal of some segments of the black church to recognize the tremendous hurt, pain, and hate experienced in the gay community from those who are supposed to know and follow Christ is extremely troublesome and problematic because it does not reflect the love of Christ. At the same time, the prevalence of sexual sin both inside and outside of the church is not an excuse to indulge in sin. Although Christ in this passage does not condemn the woman for her sin, He still calls her to freedom. Christ calls us to live in this tension of not casting stones or condemning anyone for sin and yet calls us to be set apart in also not approving of sin (Romans 1:28-32). We are called to not be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:1-2).

The narrative begs that we examine ourselves. If we can picture ourselves in this story we see that we are presented with a couple of options: Will we be like the Pharisees and teachers of the law at the beginning of the story, hypocritical religious people who see everyone’s sin but our own and seek to condemn others to make ourselves feel righteous? Will we, like the Pharisees, refuse to see and acknowledge the humanity of people around us seeking instead to use religious as a means to an end to bolster their own political agenda? Or will we be like Jesus, full of grace and compassion, seeing the humanity of one another in spite of our sins and calling one another to true freedom in Christ? Will we be humbled by Christ’s call to let (s)he who is without sin cast the first stone? Will we recognize that none of us can claim to be blameless for we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)? Or maybe we’ve felt like the woman who was condemned for our sin and need to accept Jesus’ warmth and call to freedom from sin.

The cross illuminates the meaning of this story in many profound ways. The grace that Jesus shows this woman seems to be a foreshadow of the grace that Christ shows all of humanity on the cross where Jesus doesn’t just stand with us in our sins and call us to freedom, but rather He pays the ultimate price with His life in taking on the sins of all humanity, even though He was completely innocent and blameless, that we may know freedom from sin and reconciliation to the Father. Jesus wills for none of us to be in bondage, but rather makes a way for us to know freedom in Him.

The choice to accept His call to freedom belongs to us.

How Much A Dollar Cost?: Thoughts on Jesus' Call to Serve the Least of These (In the wake of events in Baltimore concerning Freddie Gray and Countless others)

Scripture: Matthew 25:31-46

Song: How Much a Dollar Cost?

If I had to choose a protest song for the current times, this would be it.

While listening to the album, when I heard this track, this was the one that had me stuck, that forced me to hit the repeat button.

In these lyrics, as Kendrick wrestles with trying to avoid the gaze of the man experiencing homelessness who has the nerve to stare into his eyes and demand his attention, I hear a conversation about how we treat the “least of these” or the marginalized in our society and who we think deserves or needs our help.

In 4 min 21 secs this track for me carried the conviction of a sermon on justice. And in the final lines:

I looked at him and said, "every nickel is mines to keep"

He looked at me and said, "Know the truth it'll set you free

You're lookin' at the Messiah, the Son of Jehovah, the Higher Power

The choir that spoke the word, The Holy Spirit

The nerve of Nazareth, and I'll tell you just how much a dollar cost

The price of having a spot in heaven embrace your loss

I am God"

I couldn’t help but to think  of Matthew 25:31-46. I remember the first time that I read this passage; I found myself really challenged by Jesus but also remember that this was part of what made me fall in love with Him in the first place.

Jesus, from his teachings, sayings, and miracles from crucifixion and through to His resurrection believed and proved Himself to be God. 

So what does it mean that God would align Himself with “the least of these” in our society?

Well, if we are faithful to view the arc of the Biblical narrative, this actually shouldn’t take us by surprise. Jesus’ declaration here in Matthew 25 is consistent with who God always revealed Himself to amongst the Israelites—Biblically speaking. Innumerable times in the Old Testament, God identifies Himself as He who cares for the widows, orphans, and the oppressed.

In Deuteronomy 24:19, The Israelites are commanded “When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.” They are commanded the same in Leviticus 19:9; Leviticus 23:22, and countless other iterations of the same command are repeated throughout scripture. 

In the Psalms, one of the characteristics consistently attributed to God by David and other Psalmists is that “righteousness and justice are the foundations of [His] throne; love and faithfulness go before you. (Psalm 89:14)” And there are far too many other iterations of this verse to name as well. As a matter of fact, if you cut out all of the passages in the Bible having to do with justice, you wouldn’t have much of a Bible left, there’d be holes everywhere. (Hence the Book—The Hole in Our Gospel: What Does God Expect of Us? The Answer That Changed My Life and Might Just Change the World by Richard Stearns).

The prophets, both major and minor, decried the injustice running rampant in Israel. In the opening of Isaiah (the first major prophet), God, through the prophet Isaiah rebukes His people for their idolatry and meaningless worship but a key aspect of His denouncement is that they have failed to live justly. He says,

 Wash and make yourselves clean.
    Take your evil deeds out of my sight;
    stop doing wrong.
¹⁷ Learn to do right; seek justice.
    Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
    plead the case of the widow. (Isaiah 1:16-17).

The call continues time and time again to and through Amos who cries out to
 "let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!" Amos 5:24

And when Israel was first established as a people and the law was given to them through Moses, a year of Jubilee was to be enacted every 49/50 years (depending on how you count the years) where all land, property, and property rights would be “reset” in a sense such that the long term consequences would be that no one could horde wealth. (This included the freeing of slaves. sidenote: Biblical slavery was drastically different from American slavery, which based on the teachings of the Bible would have actually been condemned from the outset because people were not allowed to steal other people, but this is another conversation and another much longer email). And I mention the year of Jubilee because I believe with all of my heart that structural injustice is structural sin—that systems of oppression started and are maintained by greedy, selfish, prideful, in other words sinful people.

The point being, God is a God of justice. And, still, God’s existence as a God of justice co-exists with the reality of a broken and sinful world where suffering is perpetuated. And God’s call for His people in the middle of an unjust world is not to turn a blind eye to injustice, but to see Him in “the least of these.” God’s people are called to honor the humanity of the marginalized and to serve them as if we were serving Him.

The brilliance of Kendrick’s thought process in the lyrics of “How much a Dollar Cost” for me is this call: to know that what we do to the least of these, we do to Him. 

At the same time, Kendrick’s inner dialogue about his interactions with this homeless man can also be used as an interpretive lens with which to view society at large and how marginalized persons have been treated in this country since before its founding, speaking of the oppression of Native Americans, but also speaking about black oppression from slavery to concentrated poverty to police brutality, native American oppression, and the list goes on.

Jesus’ final and most powerful alignment with the “least of these” and those who suffer is on the cross, where though He is without sin, He chooses to take on the sins of the world to both make man right with God and to free us from the bondage of sin and its corruption of our humanity. But the crucifixion is also a humble reminder that sin is in all of us, that it begins in the human heart, and that we all need to be redeemed.

But this isn’t the end of the story, in the Resurrection, Jesus shows Himself to be He who “holds the keys to death and Hades” (Revelation 1:18) as He defeats one of the worst evils, death and pronounces judgment on Satan, in the grave. Death has lost its sting because it doesn’t get the final say. The Resurrection is a sign of what is to come: God’s power and faithfulness to overcome all evil and defeat Satan once and for all. In this time, a new heavens and a new Earth where God Himself will be in the midst of His people will reign. And  “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (John 21:1-4).

So what does this mean for the here and the now? I circle back to How Much a Dollar Cost and Jesus’ call in Matthew 25 to serve the least of these. I also read this as a call to fight injustice.

In God of the Oppressed, James Cone writes:

“The weight of the biblical view of suffering is not on the origin of evil but on what God in Christ has done about evil. According to the New Testament, God became human in Jesus Christ, and defeated decisively the power of sin, death, and Satan, thereby bestowing upon us the freedom to struggle against suffering which destroys humanity. This is the meaning of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. During Jesus’ life, God became the Suffering Servant in Israel’s place, and thus took upon the divine-self human pain.”

And while I would argue that the Bible acknowledges that sin enters the world with sin which leads to the corruption of humanity, I agree wholeheartedly with Cone’s statement that the crucifixion in the cross is also a call to fight against injustice and suffering and to seek His healing and justice in our depraved world knowing that we serve a God who also suffered and overcame. Knowing that in Him, we too will do the same, by His grace.

This fight may look different for all of us, we will have to pick our battles, but regardless of how it looks, no one who aligns themselves with Christ can afford to turn a blind eye to any form of injustice be it in Baltimore, NY, Ferguson, Boston, on our campus, anywhere. We are called to know His redemption but to also call others to His redemption knowing that an intrinsic part of this call is seeing and serve the least of these. This is what it means to live like Christ in this broken world. And I pray that God would grant us the strength and wisdom to do so in prayer (because we wrestle not just against flesh and blood but spiritual principalities (Ephesians 6:12) and action. This world needs healers and His healing, badly.

And when we overlook this call because we are too busy doing church and other things, may God have mercy on us to see the error of our ways.

Praying hard that Freddie Gray's family and everyone suffering in Baltimore to know Christ's healing in the midst of the pain and suffering. Praying for us to know His Spirit of Comfort and that we would know Him as He who is near to the brokenhearted and  binds up their wounds (Psalm 34:18). 

And for us who profess Christ as Lord and Savior, and those who don’t, I’m praying for God’s wisdom to know what it looks like to be part of the solution—how to live as an informed and spirit filled/led healer. 

 May we know the truth, and may He set us free (John 8:36).