Stooping Down

…but Jesus stooped down and started to write with his finger.  — John 8:6

Could you imagine having your worst sins paraded out there for everyone to see?  The Pharisees in this story “caught” a woman in the act of adultery.  Somehow they managed to nab the woman but not the guy.  Anyway, put yourself in her position.  Imagine being dragged out into the open…completely naked and completely embarrassed.  I would be willing to bet that she would have welcomed the rocks.  If shame didn’t kill her, maybe the rocks would.

Today, there are millions in her position.  Teenagers are having sex at record levels.  By the age of 19, 7 out of every 10 teenagers have had sex.  A sexually active teenaged girl that uses no forms of birth control has a 90% chance of becoming pregnant in one year.  At the small school that I teach, at least one baby has been born to a teenager every single year.  I recently had a conversation with a coach at another school, he said that out of the 400 girls at his school, 40 became pregnant during the previous school year.

It is interesting to see the reactions from different people towards women who become pregnant out of wedlock.  I would say that most people today accept them completely…it is just no big deal that they got pregnant.  However, the only people who seem to pick up those rocks are church people, the very same people who picked them up in the Bible story.  They are so quick to call them names and condemn.  Today, if I sinned and the sin was brought out in public, I would much rather be placed in the hands of a worldly person than be placed in the hands of most Christians.  I don’t think I’ve ever met a mean atheist, but I’ve met a whole bunch of mean people who claim to be Christians.

Here is what we forget…all of us were sinners at one time in need of a savior.  If not for the grace of God, not a single person reading this WMD would be righteous.  The only reason we became righteous is because God was merciful and GAVE us righteousness.  Paul even had to remind the Corinthian church in chapter 6 verse 9:  “Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders  nor thieves nor greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”  Now, check out the next part…”And that is what some of you WERE!”  I know I used to fit into a few of these categories!  Did you?

Here is the thing…Jesus Christ showed us how to handle these people.  He stooped down.  He literally left Heaven to come down to our level.  I must be willing to do the same.  Therefore, I do my best to never condemn a person.  I have to give them chance after chance and sometimes stoop down to their level.  That’s what He did for me!   I have to let them know that I have been where they are.  I have to let them know that even though many church members would have picked up rocks to launch at me, Jesus offered forgiveness.  He was the only one that could have thrown a rock at me because He had no sin, but He chose to show me mercy.

It is interesting that among the Christian community that homosexuality seems to be the greatest sin.  I once asked a group of teenagers a question.  Their youth pastor had been busted with some magazines that contained gay pornography.  The boys were launching the verbal rocks at him.  I asked them “if the pornography had been of straight men and women would that have been okay?”  Almost in unison…they said “yes.”

Do you know what is even crazier?  I would say that the majority of “Christians” are not homosexual, but are homoSECTual.  If you do not look and act like their denominational brand, their SECT of people, you are not worth their time…even within the “Christian” community.   I have heard of church food banks not giving to people in need because they weren’t “associated with the members of our church.”  I have heard of pastors asking people to leave because they didn’t have the right look about them.  I have watched church members get up and leave because a guitar was about to be played…it was one of those “piano and hymnbook only” churches.  I have heard the contemporary church condemn the traditional church, and I‘ve heard the traditional condemn the contemporary.  Yes, we can be very much homosectual!

Jesus demonstrated for us how we should be!  He did not allow the guilty to condemn the guilty two thousand years ago, and He isn’t about to start now.  If you call yourself a Christian, you were saved by His grace and His grace only!  We all needed Him to stoop down to our level.  At the very least, can we not stoop down to the level of others who believe just a little bit different than us?  Can we not just band together and say “I may not agree with you, but we were saved by the same blood!”

Let’s stoop down, set our differences aside, drop our rocks on the ground and show the world who Jesus really is!

Later

Adam