03/06/05

Doodles in the Dust

Isaiah 43:16-21
Philippians 3:7-14
John 8:1-11

"Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." Talk about taking the wind out of their sails! They've come for a lynching, so to speak - whether it be of this rabble-rousing rabbi whose followers claim he is the Messiah, or this obviously adulterous woman. But there is to be no lynching, no stoning, no crucifying on this day. Be patient, you scribes and Pharisees, your day is coming; it won't be too long.

Jesus has gotten up early this particular morning. He arrives at the temple soon after day-break. The crowds have already started gathering. They know a good preacher and teacher when they hear one, and Jesus is good. His fame has spread and he is becoming very popular - too popular in the eyes of the religious authorities, too threatening to their status quo. And so, as he sits there teaching, the scribes and Pharisees bring in a woman caught (in their words) - caught in the very act of committing adultery. The law of Moses is crystal clear: the woman and her lover - where is the man involved? ... has he managed to escape or is this just another case of a woman bearing the brunt of the punishment? ... we don't really know - but the parties involved must be punished; the law is very explicit - death by stoning.

"So Rabbi, what do you say? Should we carry out the law?" Poor Jesus! What a way to start the day. If he were someone else he might be tempted to say: "Listen, fellas, give me a break, will you? I'm right in the middle of my Bible study class. I haven't got time to argue with you about the relative merits of the law. Take her to Rabbi Jacobowitz over there. He doesn't look very busy. Let him judge for you."

But of course Jesus' answer is much different. He realizes they are setting a trap for him. They've done it before, like when they asked him if it was lawful to pay taxes to the emperor. This situation is similar. If he says the woman should not be stoned to death, they'll accuse him of ignoring the law of Moses. If he says go ahead and stone her, they can denounce him to the Roman authorities for inciting the crowd to violence. To use a bad pun, they've got him between a rock and a hard place. Heads they win, tails he loses. We can imagine the drama of the scene unfolding. What will Jesus do? What will happen to the woman? Slowly he leans down and starts writing something with his finger on the dust of the ground. He starts doodling in the dust! Why? Maybe he's trying to buy himself more time, trying to figure a way out of his dilemma, perhaps silently praying to God for divine intervention. Maybe he just can't face the leering, lustful looks on the faces of the legalistic religious leaders, the contemptible cruelty in their eyes, the crude curiosity of the onlookers, the remorseful shame of the woman - so in agony and pity he lowers his eyes from them all. (i) Or maybe he's doing something else with these doodles in the dust. We'll come back to this in a few moments.

The religious leaders press him for an answer and finally he gives them one: "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." This is definitely not the kind of answer they expect, and not only does it take the wind out of their sails, but the impact of Jesus' statement sends them spinning into confusion. The tables have been turned; the sandal is on the other foot. He continues his doodling in the dust. Slowly at first, then quickly, they turn to leave, beginning with the oldest (perhaps the wisest) until only Jesus and the woman remain. Jesus looks up from his doodling in the dust. He rises to his feet and confronts the woman face on. "Where are they, woman? Is there no one left to condemn you?" "No one, sir," she meekly replies. "Well, I'm not going to condemn you either. Go your way, but don't sin again."

In just a few brief moments a miracle has occurred. The woman never dreamed of getting mercy; she knew she was guilty and was expecting the worst. But now God has opened up for her a whole new future. We don't know the circumstances of her adultery, but we do know that she doesn't need to go there again. Her past does not have to determine her future. She does not have to be held in bondage, either to the accusations of others or to her own sense of deep guilt. (ii) It's as if Jesus says to her: "Go, and since neither I nor others condemn you, don't condemn yourself. Put your past behind you. Don't repeat it, but know that because God has forgiven you, you can forgive yourself. Live your life as God wants you to live it. Go, and be joyful."

The prophet Isaiah depicts God as saying: "Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth ..." The exiled people of Israel are promised an open future. God through the prophet urges them to let go of the past, and to stop seeing themselves as boxed in by what has always been. These words also apply to the adulterous woman - and to us. Life can begin again - now. It's not too late to start over again - now. We don't have to go back to square one, but can pick up right where we are this moment. It doesn't matter what we've done, or how we've sinned, or who we have become. God takes us just as we are and gives us the possibility of being freed from all that has held us down, all the sin, the guilt, and the nagging sense of unworthiness. This is what Jesus does for the woman, and this is what Jesus can do for you and me. If we'll open our hearts, God will make a new way in the wilderness of our lives.

But opening our hearts is not easy. Take the scribes and Pharisees. They're given the same chance, but they refuse it. None of them are without sin, but consider how they treat her - not with pity or compassion, but with almost gleeful judgment and sadistic cruelty. They could care less about her; they are using her as a way of entrapping Jesus, using her for their own purpose. The crowd standing by watching is no better, no less guilty. Until confronted by the One who can see into their hearts, none of those who witness this event recognize that beneath their condemnation of the woman lies their own guilt.

In one of the delightful Winnie the Pooh stories, the highly egotistical Tigger wanders in front of Pooh's mirror, where he's amazed to discover an animal he's never seen before. Before Pooh can explain to this self-occupied creature that he is viewing his own reflection, Tigger moves on to something else that catches his fancy.

Our Gospel story is also about persons who cannot recognize their own reflections in a mirror. It's not just an account of divine mercy, but also an exposure of those religious leaders who do not recognize the reflection of their own sinfulness until it is spelled out before them. Even in today's permissive society, I would suggest that the deadliest of the seven deadly sins is not sexual misconduct, but rather, pride - pride that distorts our self-image and causes us to see only the sins of others and not our own. Those who throw stones are the last ones to recognize the true intention of their own hearts.(iii)

Some biblical scholars surmise (and I agree with them) that when Jesus doodles in the dust he is actually listing the individual sins of the men who are accusing the woman. How startling for them to see scratched in the dirt of the temple floor, those transgressions that they have been able to conceal from public scrutiny: lying, stealing, bearing false witness, idolatry, adultery, covetousness, greed, etc. - the list is very long. When Jesus doodles in the dust, their own sins are spread out for everyone to see. And yet, the sins are written in the dusty dirt, not permanently etched in granite. With the first breeze or scuffling of feet, their tawdry sins will be erased. The grace of God in Christ has recorded their sins in the dust to be blown away in the wind of the Spirit, forgiven and forgotten forever - "dust in the wind." Too bad they can't deal with this reality; too bad they can't handle the possibility of new life; too bad they quickly slip away before receiving any words of forgiveness; too bad they choose to stay in their past.

Venturing into an open future requires a lot of trust and faith. Our natural response to too much openness is fear. We're like the child who prefers swimming in a pool rather than in the ocean because the pool has definite boundaries. We like to remain in control, to be able to accurately predict what's coming next, to maintain ourselves and our surroundings just as they are. To worship a God who is full of surprises is not easy. To do so calls on us to believe that in all things God wills our good. Not that bad doesn't happen, but I believe God does not cause the bad to happen. Being open to God's grace enables us to forget a past that weighs us down with guilt or remorse or pride or whatever, and enables us to put down those heavy stones, and to live in the real possibility of a new present and a new future.

The Apostle Paul, often referring to Olympic games' imagery, writes this to the Philippians: "... this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus." This same call beckons each of us with the promise that God will do, and is doing, a "new thing" in our lives. There's no reason to surrender to futility, no need to give in or to give up. Because of God's "new thing" in Jesus Christ, we can live hopefully, with a sense of unending possibility.

Each time we gather in Christian fellowship and declare praise to God, life conquers death. Each time one person unselfishly loves another, the walls of separation collapse. Each time ignorance is dispelled, or justice is victorious, or belief overcomes doubt, or despair vanishes in hope, God's new thing is being done.(iv) Each time we confess our sins to God, be assured that they are written as "doodles in the dust," and like the song, "all they are is dust in the wind." All of this is the good news of God in Jesus Christ for each of us. Amen.

The Pilgrim Church of Duxbury
Rev. Kenneth C. Landall

i William Barclay, The New Daily Study Bible, John, Vol. 1, pp. 3-4.
ii Word & Witness, 3/20/83.
iii Emphasis 3/80, p. 17.
The Clergy Journal, 5-6/82, p. 23.