Jesus straightened up and asked her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no-one condemned you?’ ‘No-one, sir,’ she said. ‘Then neither do I condemn you,’ Jesus declared. ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’
John 8:10-11 NIVUK
I grew up in a bad neighbourhood. Some of our neighbours were so crazy you’d have thought they were caricatures of real people. Some of them were just plain bad.
One of them hated us and gave us a really bad time. He had serious alcohol and drug problems and hated us because we were completely different from him.
One night, he went to a bar and shot a man. Realising that he’d committed murder, he decided to hide the evidence by chopping the body up and pushing the body parts down a sewer.
This was a mistake. The sewage works were just a fee miles away. The body parts were discovered. He was caught, arrested, found guilty and given a long prison sentence.
One night in his cell, this bad man, who was high on drugs, felt drawn to a book in his nightstand. He took it out, began to read it, sobered up and decided to become a Christian. He had been led to read the Bible – the Word of God itself.
A few months later, while in rehabilitation, he wrote my family a letter, saying how sorry he was for all the wrong things he did to us.
It’s a true story. A wonderful story. But let me ask you a troubling question:
Does a man like that deserve to be welcomed into the Kingdom of God?
The answer is simple: of course not.
But let me ask a more challenging question.
Do you or I? Do we?
It might be difficult for us to admit, but the answer is again very simple:
No, we do not.
You see, that adultress in the Bible, my old murdering neighbour and us have something in common with the apostles, Paul and every other person who has ever been part of the Kingdom of God throughout out history, and who will ever be part of the Kingdom of God:
We don’t deserve it.
We are part of the Kingdom of God for one reason and one reason alone:
Grace.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no-one can boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9 NIVUK
So yes, it is absolutely true that the same grace that bent down to lift this guilty adultress from execution and touched my murdering, drug-addled neighbour is exactly the same grace that changed you and I:
This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Romans 3:22-24 NIVUK
And this grace is utterly scandalous.
It took a woman, caught in flagrante, evidence stacked against her, heading only towards a certain death, and it set her free.
It took a murdering junkie, right there in his cell, and slowly transformed him into a pastor.
It took us from wherever we were before we believed in Jesus Christ to wherever we are now.
It took a murder and persecutor of the church and changed him into one of the greatest preachers and theologians this world has ever seen (1 Corinthians 15:9-10).
It took twelve men, some of whom had downright shady backgrounds, and turned them into such amazing preachers and leaders that even their detractors and persecutors had to admit there was something different about them (Acts 4:13).
This is the same utterly scandalous grace that saved our souls when we were lost, when we didn’t deserve it, when we were hell bound.
So the question we have to ask ourselves is this: are we willing to show the same grace to those who are on the wrong side of the tracks now?
Are we willing to let that same scandalous grace transform the modern equivalent of tax collectors, harlots, zealots and traitors?
Are we willing to extend the grace that saved us to those who don’t need anyone to tell them that they need to be saved?
This, I believe, is the crux of the matter. It’s one of the reasons why, I believe, the Western Church has stagnated. Jesus Himself said the following words to His disciples:
Don’t you have a saying, “It’s still four months until harvest”? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.
John 4:35-36 NIVUK
But where was He when He said those words?
In a Samaritan village.
In a village of people who descended from those who had freely married foreigners and freely mixed the Jewish religion with idolatrous practices. In a village of people who refused to worship at the Temple in Jerusalem (John 4:20). In a village of people who were hated and despised by mainstream Jews.
In other words, these words were spoken from the wrong side of the tracks.
In ancient Mediterranean culture, there were two harvests at different times of the year: the fruit harvest in late spring-early summer and the grain harvest in late summer-early autumn. Only a fool would look for fruit to be ripe during the grain harvest, or grain to be ripe during the fruit harvest.
Could it be that the Western Church had made this basic mistake? Have we sought a harvest among the ‘nice’ people, who struggle with the concept of sin, let alone the idea that they are guilty of it, when those who are ‘not nice’ know what guilt is because they carry it every day? Have we been more concerned about our church bank balance than preaching the Word of God to those who will listen?
Have we spent years – decades even – harvesting in the wrong field, while the harvest in the right field goes rotten?
In case you still think I’m a little too left-field with what I'm saying, consider these verses:
Jesus answered them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but those who are ill. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’
Luke 5:31-32 NIVUK
Where was this spoken?
In the house of the treacherous tax collector Levi.
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.’
Luke 19:10 NIVUK
Where was this spoken?
In the house of the treacherous tax collector Zaccheus.
I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent.
Luke 15:7 NIVUK
When was this spoken?
At the end of the Parable of the Lost Sheep.
And then we have the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector:
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: “God, I thank you that I am not like other people – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.” ‘But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” ‘I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’
Luke 18:9-14 NIVUK
Now consider the outcome of this dreadful situation.
Don’t you see precisely the same thing happening?
The ‘righteous’ religious elite leave the scene of the crime with their tail between their legs, aware of their sin but seemingly not willing to do a blind thing about it. But the adulterous woman they were trying to stone to death leaves the Temple with a second chance of life!
Now ask yourself this: if Jesus was a member of your church in your town, what would he get involved in? Where would He be? On the golf course? Holding fashion shows?
Or would He be where the need is the greatest and hearts are the most open to receive Him?
The challenge for all of us is to go and so likewise.
Questions
1. When Jesus said that He came to seek and save the lost, who did He mean? If He said the same words nowadays, who would He mean? Who are the lost in your community?
2. How does Jesus’ encounter with this woman challenge and change your attitude to the lost around you?
3. Is it possible that our ministries have been ineffective because we have been harvesting in the wrong fields?
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