Throwing Stones
John 8:7-11 And as they continued to ask Him, He stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more He bent down and wrote with His finger on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before Him. Jesus looked up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again.”
A trap that I have fallen into before is the trap of condemnation. It’s so easy to look at others and see what they could be doing better, how they could improve, or how they could live a more godly life. It empowers my ego to sit back and judge someone from the sidelines, but Jesus reminds me that no one is without sin. If I was without sin, then I could be justified in throwing a stone someone’s way. However, I am blessed that the perfect Savior shows me mercy when I fall and is willing to forgive me even though He is perfection. How curious it is that the Son of God who is perfect and spotless is more compassionate than all of us who are imperfect and falling frequently.
I recall once when I went to go help a man on the side of the street, another person who was 50 feet away began screaming at me not to help him. Not only that, but she publicly screamed all of the ways that he had sinned or she believed that he had sinned. She told me and everyone else that he had abused animals, was fraudulent with money, and had inappropriate behavior with teenagers. My eyes looked at him and he looked at me. I didn’t want to judge him, I didn’t want to condemn him, I didn’t want to think I was better than him, I just wanted to help in what small way I could. So I ignored the screaming accuser.
That woman put a stone in my hand so that I could throw it at him. The evil one will give us stones so we can condemn other people with what we think they’ve done wrong, but we don’t have to throw it at them. We can choose forgiveness and mercy because we ourselves seek the forgiveness and mercy of our Lord. May we show the love of Christ to others the way He has shown it to us.