Don’t Rub It In!

John 8:10-11 (NIV) – 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.”

A woman caught in adultery is brought to Jesus publicly in the temple. Evidence of adultery and witnesses are all there. The people who brought her demand that Jesus allows them to stone her to death. They tell Jesus that the law of Moses allows them to stone her to death and they want to know what Jesus says about that!

Jesus ignores them at first. Jesus bends down and writes on the ground. When they realize Jesus is ignoring them, they keep pestering him to respond. We learn our lesson right there. Not everything requires a response. Sometimes silence is the best response. Take time to respond. Think before responding. Don’t rush into giving a response. Only speak if your words are of greater value than silence.

As we go through the day, you may need to be silent in some matters. When people provoke you or seek to set you up, be silent. Someone has correctly said that silence can not be misquoted. There are times to respond and most times require reflection and silence. May God help us to know the difference!

As Jesus silently wrote on the ground, they pestered Him. Eventually He had to respond. He had reflected and He gave a short effective response. He asked those who haven’t committed sin to go ahead and stone her.

After challenging those who consider themselves sinless to stone her, He continued writing on the ground. He had given them a moment of self reflection. Instead of focusing on the sinful woman, they were now to focus on themselves.

Many holier than thou persons focus on others but hardly reflect on themselves. They easily see a lady inappropriately dressed but they don’t see their hatred for their bosses at work. They focus on health reform and uphold it even during sexual immorality escapades. They focus on the short comings of others and forget their own weaknesses.

As you condemn others for being lost because of this or that, Jesus invites you to focus on yourself. Others drink alcohol and it’s bad, but you are lazy and hardly provide for your family, and it’s equally terrible. Your wife is toxic but you are a pervert and tribalist, which doesn’t make you a better person. Your leaders at church or at work are bad, but are you good? Jesus wants you to focus on yourself!

You know a lot of religious stuff and you feel better than others, but aren’t others better than you for working hard to excel in studies and at work which you are failing at? You are known for missions and religious sacrifice, does that make you better than others? What about your continued failure and average performance in class? What about your incompetence at work? Jesus wants us to focus on ourselves!

When they focused on themselves, they couldn’t handle it. They left one by one beginning with the oldest. In a short time they all disappeared and left Jesus with the woman. Self reflection sent them away. We need more and more of religious self reflection.

John 8:10-11 (NIV) – 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.”

Jesus turned to the woman and asked her if there was anyone condemning her. The woman said there is no one condemning her. Then Jesus told her, He too doesn’t condemn her. Jesus ordered her to go away but stop sinning!

That is all Jesus said. That is how Jesus ended the matter. Jesus did not rub it in. Jesus had the moral authority to rub it in but He didn’t. That is a lesson for us who love to rub things in. Don’t rub it in!

To rub it in is to repeatedly emphasis a mistake and something embarrassing that someone has done. When we rub it in we make the sinner feel bad and Jesus didn’t do that. When we rub it in we want to paint ourselves as being better. Jesus did not rub it in.

Rubbing it in demonstrates our fears and weaknesses more than an attempt to help the person who made a mistake. Rubbing it in relieves us but rarely helps the already embarrassed sinner. Jesus did not rub it in!

The religious leaders who brought the adulterous woman rubbed it in. They pestered Jesus. The holier than thou always rub it in. Jesus did not run it in. He let her go. Don’t rub it in!

Before sinners repent, we expound the problem of sin until they see it. Preaching is showing the problem and the Saviour at the same time. Once sinners choose the Saviour, we stop preaching. Preaching expounds the problem and points to the Saviour simultaneously. It is not rubbing it in. Preaching becomes rubbing it in, when we keep attacking a repented sinner over what they have surrendered. The woman caught in adultery was already surrendered. Jesus did not rub it in. Don’t rub it in!

When God confronted Cain after he killed his brother, He didn’t rub it in. When God confronted David after the  Bathsheba scandal, He didn’t rub it in. When Jesus met Peter who had betrayed him thrice and other disciples who had deserted Him, He didn’t rub it in. Don’t rub it in!

May God help us that we don’t act as if we are better than others. May God help us in self reflection. May God help us to see ourselves more than we focus on the shortcomings of others. May Gods save us from the urge to rub it in when others are wrong. In Jesus’s name, Amen!

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