February 4, 2010
“The religion scholars and Pharisees led in a woman who had been caught in an act of adultery. They stood her in plain sight of everyone … They were trying to trap him … They kept at him, badgering him. “The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone”. … The woman was left alone. Jesus stood up and spoke to her. “Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn you? …. Neither do I …” John 8:3-11 The Message
What if …?
You were caught sin-handed … knee-deep in your darkest moment … exposed for all the secrets in your heart??? Not just caught .. but dragged in front of everybody who knows you .. for everyone to see. How would you ever recover? Who would remain your friends? What if it cost you everything you had worked for: reputation .. social standing .. wealth .. admiration ..? The world you live in doesn’t care about your sin and sins. It cares about trapping Jesus .. trying to prove He isn’t who He really is. What the world will do with your sin is use you and discard you without a compassionate thought of restoration. But Jesus … He never tires. He doesn’t get trapped into silence or shame over your sin or when you royally mess up. But … He speaks into the deepest .. darkest places of your shame and says as loud or as soft as you need to hear: Neither do I. You may be standing in plain sight of everyone or alone in the dark suffering the relentless voices of condemnation .. but Jesus is standing or kneeling right there with you. You see … He’s made salvation. He knows what it looks like in you. He knows what it will do in you. He knows how far His life has to go in your life so that you will lift your head and look into His face. Your love will run out but His is indefatigable! The world can’t badger Him into silence .. or trap Him with sin-tricks. He’s already showed the world what real love .. restoring love .. raising-up love looks like. And now He just wants to show it through you. And before He does that He’ll spend all the time he needs to for you to know how real and indefatigable His love is for you today. It only takes a moment …
“God made history with salvation, He showed the world what he could do. He remembered to love us, a bonus to his dear family, Israel — indefatigable love. The whole earth comes to attention. Look — God’s work of salvation.” Psalm 98:2-4 The Message
Ken Chester: Grace-Gripped is sent M-F to Followers of the Holy Dirt Writing Rabbi named Jesus and friends of Priority One (ken@priorityone.org)
