John 8 contains the familiar story of how Jesus
responded when the Pharisees brought to him a woman
that they had caught in the act of adultery.
Spiritually, we will find ourselves on either side
of Jesus and perhaps we have been on both of these
sides in our past.
The way that our Lord responded to those on either
side of Him teaches us a valuable lesson about how
we should respond to those around us.
On one side of Jesus was an immoral woman. She had
been searching for fulfillment in all the wrong
places. Her sinful decisions had finally led her to
be cast at the feet of the Judge of the universe.
This woman deserved judgment. She deserved to be
punished for her sins.
On the other side of Jesus was the religious crowd.
While the sinful woman was unrighteous, the
Pharisees were self-righteous. They were
“super-spiritual” in their own eyes and looked down
their religious noses on everyone else.
Although they looked so good on the outside,
inwardly they were very wicked. This was the very
crowd that cried out later, “Crucify him!”
These Pharisees also deserved judgment
How would Jesus respond to those on either side of
Him? His response is both interesting and
instructive.
John 8:6 says, “But Jesus stooped down, and with his
finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them
not.”
Everyone around Jesus that day deserved judgment,
but Jesus stooped down.
Our sinless Lord got down eye-level with this wicked
woman, probably with His back towards her, and began
to write on the ground.
I was considering the fact that for us to ever have
a relationship with God, Jesus had to stoop down. He
stooped down when He left heaven to come to a
sin-cursed earth. He stooped down and ministered to
little children. He stooped down and washed the
disciple’s feet. He stooped down and willingly lay
on an old rugged cross where he died for the sins of
the world.
The spotless, sinless Savior set an example for
sinners like us by stooping. Are you willing to
stoop?
Sometimes we subconsciously consider ourselves
better than others. We may begin to view ourselves
as above them because they have less than we do in
some area of life that we deem important. Jesus is
far above man in every area yet He was willing to
stoop and minister to us.
