I make a lot out of Jesus' radical welcome and embrace of "tax collectors and sinners". So inevitably someone will try to throw some cold water by bringing up John 8.1-11.
This is the famous story of the woman caught in the act of adultery. After challenging the men accusing the woman -- "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her" -- causing them to drop their stones and walk off, Jesus turns to the woman:
The trouble with this, from a practical standpoint, is that way too often this is the first, last and only word the church offers the world. Instead of "Neither do I condemn you", it's always "Go and sin no more".
"Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"So far, so good. Jesus doesn't condemn the women like the men have. But that's not Jesus's final word. His parting word is this:
"No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you ..."
"Go and sin no more."The way John 8.1-11 rhetorically functions in many conversations is as evidence that Jesus had moral standards. Jesus's embrace wasn't unconditional, it had strings attached. That is, Jesus' welcoming of tax collectors and sinners wasn't as radical as we might think. We must recall, the argument goes, that Jesus told the woman "Go and sin no more". And so, the argument continues, the church should follow Jesus' lead. We should embrace the sinners of the world but we need to tell them to "Go and sin no more."
The trouble with this, from a practical standpoint, is that way too often this is the first, last and only word the church offers the world. Instead of "Neither do I condemn you", it's always "Go and sin no more".
Jesus' first statement serves as the foundation from which the second statement emerges. We don't find in Jesus a God who is only too willing and quick to condemn. God's business isn't judgment. It's forgiveness. The judgment is all ours.
Which is to say, sin is its own punishment. When this woman tells the truth about her life, when she names her sins, she judges herself.
What, on the surface, then, appears to be Jesus' holding to standards is a word of amazing embrace. He could have judged her. The sins she's named were punishable by death. Instead, Jesus pronounces her clean -- "Neither do I condemn you" -- and urges her to live that new identity as the embraced, forgiven one.
It's easy to say that Christians these days never do this. But we saw it yesterday.
You can look at these pictures. They tell you everything Jesus was trying to say.
Yesterday Pope Francis was leaving St Peter's Square when he saw a severely disfigured man covered with boils.
The pope stopped his car, got out, embraced and kissed the man and then prayed over him. And I was reminded of Jesus from another place: Mark 1.40-41 ...
The pope stopped his car, got out, embraced and kissed the man and then prayed over him. And I was reminded of Jesus from another place: Mark 1.40-41 ...
A man with leprosy came to Jesus and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean."
Jesus, filled with compassion, reached out his hand and touched him ...