Shall We Dance?

Read: John 7.53 – 8.11

The text for today does not appear in the very earliest manuscripts of John’s Gospel and appears in different places from manuscript to manuscript. Some scholars note that it seems to interrupt the flow of the story from chapter to chapter 8. However, almost every Biblical scholar accepts the passage as a reliable report of an incident in Jesus’ ministry, and it has a firm place in Christian scriptural and preaching/teaching tradition. Therefore, it’s important for Christ-followers to consider and live out its message.

In “The Gospel of John: When Love Comes to Town,” Dr. Paul Louis Metzger writes a excellent summary/analysis of today’s reading:

“Jesus does not ignore what the woman caught in adultery has done. While Jesus does not condemn her, He does not condone her sin, either. He tells her to go and sin no more. We often forget that part of the story. However, the million-dollar question was: What was Jesus writing in the sand? The sins of the persons who had accused her? Perhaps each one of them had slept with her or someone like her before. And since she had been caught in adultery, where was the man with whom she had just slept? The law of Moses required that both parties be brought forth to be stoned, not just the woman.”

“Jesus upholds the law, not the accusers or the accused. He walks in the light, for He is the light, as the next account makes clear. The rest – accusers and accused – walk in darkness. And yet, Jesus brings His light into the darkness and becomes the guilty party, even though He is completely faultless.”

“If the million-dollar question is, ‘What was Jesus writing in the sand?’, the ten-million-dollar question is, ‘Why do we like playing the victim card, accusing others of victimizing us, when the only truly innocent victim, Jesus, doesn’t play the blame game with us – His victimizers – but forgives us?’…We keep dancing with the devil by playing the blame game when we could be dancing with Jesus, who sheds light on our situation and helps us to see that we’ve been doing the tango – stepping on one another’s toes. He helps us to see that we need to accept His forgiveness and forgive others so that we can dance to a new tune with Jesus as the lead partner. So shall we dance?”