The Invisible Man

John 8:3-11
3   The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery.
They made her stand before the group
4   and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.
5   In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women.
Now what do you say?"
6   They 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.
7   When 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."
8   Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9   At 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.
10   Jesus 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." (NIV)


A couple of questions come to mind when I read the above passage.
Where was the other adulterator?
I mean, to commit adultery by yourself would be a trick wouldn't it?
They brought this woman in for commiting adultery,
what happened to the man? Did he run away?
Not likely, even if he did run someone would probably recognize him.
It's more likely that because he was a man he was allowed to slip away.
As it is today, it was more acceptable then for a man to commit adultery than for a woman.
In other passages Jesus called them a covetous and an adulterous generation.

The next question is what in the world was Jesus writing on the ground?
Well that's probably not to hard tp figure out.
We know from scripture that after Jesus said, Let him without sin cast the first stone,
they all left one by one, the oldest ones first until no one was left.
Could it be that Jesus just simply wrote a sin
that each of the accusers had commited until no one was left,
or maybe he simply wrote the ten commandments,
each recognizing a sin they were guilty of.

The children of God, especially the present day christians,
have always placed one sin above another.
Murder being the worst, adultery second and so on.
Under God's law commiting any sin makes us guilty of commiting them all.
To think an evil thought is just as guilty as murder,
coveting your neighbors property is just as guilty as adultery.
Once we understand this we begin to understand
how much we need the redemption of the blood of Christ.
The jews of Jesus' day were more aware of the fact that not obeying one law
made them guilty of not obeying them all.
The children of God today have called everything sin except what sin is,
and the things that are sin in God;s eyes are not even considered sin today.
Jesus said that nothing that goes into a man makes him unclean.
It's what comes out of a man that makes him unclean.
Sin is sin based n your relationship with God
and your relationship with your fellow man.
Jesus made this clear in the parable of the good samaritan.


Luke 10:25-38
25   On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus.
"Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
26   "What is written in the law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"
27   He answered: "Love the Lord your God with al your heart and with all your soul
and with al your strength and with all your mind;
and "Love your neighbor as yourself."
28   "You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
29   But he wanted to jusify himself, so he asked Jesus,
"And who is my neighbor?"
30   In reply Jesus said : "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho,
When he fell into the hands of robbers.
They stripped him of his clothes, beat him,
and went away leaving him half dead.
31   A priest happened to be going down the same road,
and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.
32   So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him,
passed by on the other side.
33   But a samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was;
and when he saw him, he took pity on him.
34   He went to him and bandaged his wounds,
pouring on oil and wine.
Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn,
and took care of him.
35   The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them too the innkeeper.
"Look after him," he said, "and when I return, I will reimburse you
for any extra expense you may have."
36   "Which f these three do you think was a neighbor
to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"
37   The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."
Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise." (NIV)


This is the way God expects us to treat our felow man,
even if we don't like him.
There is nowhere in God's word that says we have to like anyone.
Scripture says to love your neighbor,
we express this love by helping some one that needs it.
It's like the story I heard years ago, or maybe it was a song,
I'm not sure but it goes something like this;

A farmer was sick and laid up during spring planting
and unable to plow and plant the spring crop.
When he became well enough he went out to his fields to find
that someone had plowed and planted them for him.
When he inquired who had done this so he could thank or pay them,
no one would admit to knowing anything about it.
This is what it means to love your neighbor,
to help out when someone is in need,
without expecting anything in return.
No acknowledgement, no pay, no thank you's.