John 7:53-8:11 (NIV)
Then they all went home, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 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. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
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. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Devotion
Renee Good is a poet. She’s driving down an icy road and stops. Immigration officers are arresting others and begin recording Renee. “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.” She turns the car near an officer to drive away. The officer shoots her three times. Renee was a poet. The law commanded it, they said. Justice.
Alex Pretti is a nurse. He’s walking on an icy road and stops. Immigration authorities are arresting others and Alex records them. He steps in when officers push a woman to the ground. They pepper spray him. They push him to the ground and take his gun. They shoot him ten times. Alex was a nurse. The law commanded it, they said. Justice.
There are a lot of stones flying through the air in America.
This is not justice.
Jesus knew that justice and mercy should be woven together. Justice is truth in action. It is working within the confines of the law to figure out what happened and act on it. Mercy is grace in action. It is acting on that truth with human decency and ethics. One strand, alone, snaps under any weight. Together, they hold us up in the hardest times.
Jesus made this union possible in his own death. At the intersection of the cross was a tension between justice and mercy—the ultimate punishment for sin and forgiveness of the sinner. A tension Jesus resolved for all of us.
We would do well to remember that.
Prayer
Lord, help us see that justice requires grace. Give us the courage to tie these strands together in our hardest days as you did. Amen.
LT Edwards