39. What Jesus Meant by Cast the First Stone

I'm trying with God's help, I'm trying to give up condemnation and blaming and self-righteousness

and this season. And today I want to talk about a single phrase of Jesus and try to unpack it,

but the one who is without sin casts the first stone. In the ancient world,

stoning was a real thing and people did it both to destroy somebody to inflict pain upon them

and to express condemnation and exclusion. You are not worthy to be a part of us. Thank God we

don't stone anymore. Except, of course, we do. The online is a very popular place for stoning

and in media and in our hearts. I can throw a little stone with my eyebrows. I can throw a little

stone with my tone of voice. I can throw a little stone with my timing. This is quite embarrassing,

but this week needs asked me to do a favor and there was a long pause and then I said, okay,

and then of course she said, well, why did you say it like that? Why was there a long pause?

And then of course, I said, what do you mean, long pause? Everything's fine. I said, okay.

So now I'm adding deceitfulness and lying to the resistance in my spirit to just the simplest

act of love. It was amazing how to struggle with myself. Later on that afternoon, as I was thinking

about this to say, no, I got to go back to Nancy and tell her what was going on and of course,

she read me right and put down the stone, put down the stone. We live in a world of stone

throwers and the form that a stone takes can vary from one century to another from one culture to

another, but it is deeply, deeply within the human heart to judge, to condemn, to hold it over

someone to want to bring somebody down. We live in a world. So the invitation today is just this

simple, put down the stone. Just, just let it go. Now, I want to try to unpack this with two

ancient stories. It's a little tricky. So I don't know if I'll be able to do it, but I'm going to

give it a shot. René Gerard in this book I see Satan fall like lightning talks about two stories

from around the same time, both of them involving a stoning, one of them pagan, one of them,

the story about Jesus and John chapter 8, and they illustrate a sea change that Jesus is bringing

to human life and if we want to you and me. The first one is from a book by a Greek writer and

the book is called the life of Apollonius of Tyanna. He was apparently a historical figure, though

lots of miraculous legends kind of made up told about him. One time Gerard quotes this story,

I won't go all the way through it. There's a plague in the city of Ephesus and they couldn't get

rid of it. And so Apollonius comes and says, I'll tell you how to get rid of it. That guy right

over there, there's a beggar walking around in the theater. He says, he's our problem. You stone him

and the plague will go away. Pick up as many stoneages you can and hurl them at this enemy

of the gods. Now the Ephesians wondered what he meant and were shocked at the idea of murdering

a stranger so manifestly miserable for he was begging and praying them to take mercy upon him.

And nevertheless Apollonius insisted and they end up stoning the guy and then once he

has stoned the plague stops and it turns out they all think by looking at him. Yeah, he was the

cause. There was a demon in him that was a monster in him that was something wrong in him.

And Apollonius successfully eggs them on to stoned this one.

Gerard talks about how there's something inside all of us that always wants someone to blame.

He talks a lot about scapegoating. We got to find a victim. We got to find somebody to condemn

mobs kind of work that way. People kind of work that way. And the stoning takes place. And this

was something that was admire. Julian the Apostate Gerard writes who was trying to save paganism,

several centuries after Christ actually put the book that tells the story of Apollonius back into

circulation. Now contrast that with this story about Jesus. Describes in the Pharisees bought

before Jesus a woman taking an adultery, placing her in view of everyone. So think about this moment,

think about this moment for this moment. She has done a horribly wrong thing. She would have been

a married woman across the series of lines is in an adulterous affair. There's been deeply

damaging to herself, to that man, to her family. And now for her to be taken in adultery means there

had to be at least two witnesses. So you think about this. Somebody had to be watching. And when

they were watching, they did not try to help. They didn't try to stop. They just wait.

Interestingly enough, they don't catch the man. Although, you know, pretty clearly if they

caught her in the act, they would have caught him too. Double standard is goes way, way, way back

there. Placing her in view of everyone, they don't see a human being with her. They see an

opportunity to tap trap Jesus. She's just an object. People who pick up stones were kind of that

way. We kind of dehumanize people. We don't see them. We don't think about their story. Master,

this man was surprised in the act of adultery. Moses commanded us in the law to stone such women.

Now, what do you say about this? They said this to set a trap for him in order to be able to accuse him.

So that's their only concern in this process. If Jesus were to say, yeah, go ahead and stoner.

That would be incredibly harsh. And people would think he's not nearly as compassionate as he

seemed to be. And it would get him in trouble with the Romans because Rome said that Israel was not

allowed to publicly execute people. If he said, no, don't stoner, then he would look soft and like he

wasn't really committed to the law, the way that other rabbis were. And so either way, they thought his

reputation would be tarnished. But Jesus, bending down, started writing with his finger on the ground

as they were insistent, he drew up and said to them, let whoever is without sin among you cast the

first stone at her. And bending down again, he once more began to write on the ground.

When he said this, they withdrew one by one, beginning with the oldest.

Jesus remained along with a woman who was still there. Standing up, he said to her, women,

where are they? Has no one condemned you? No one, Lord.

She answered, neither do I condemn you. Jesus said, go and sin no more.

Now, in contrary to that story in Ephesus where Apollonius is, where he's got to stir the people

up, you got to stone this guy, you got to let him have it. When Jesus comes, this group is already

combative mood. They're already ready to do it. And he explicitly mentions the first stone,

let the one who is without sin cast the first stone, wants them to dwell on who's going to throw

the first stone. Apollonius the other way around, he's just trying to get anybody to throw it.

And Jesus does this to our rights because it's going to be a very weighty thing. It's a lot

easier to pile on when somebody else does it. Who's going to be the one to throw the first one?

According to the law, it was supposed to be the witnesses, whoever those, in it, took at least

two witnesses, couldn't be just one, had to be two witnesses. And then according to the Old

Testament law, it was the witnesses who had the clearest knowledge of the sins that were the one

that were to begin the punishment. But in this moment, when these people are there and they've

set this thing up to be a trap, let the one who is without sin cast the first stone, see the woman

was guilty of sin and horribly, shamefully, deeply, funerably aware of it.

The men that had her here were guilty of sin. Judgmentalism, unbelievable lovelessness,

hatred for Jesus in their heart, but they were unaware of it.

So I can put myself in the woman's place. I can put myself in the place of the men who

held the stone because I've held the stone a lot of times in my life. And often, I'll think,

yeah, I'm right. I'm the one who's concerned for good. I'm the one that's on God's side. I'm

trying to teach and explain to people. There's moral rot all over the place. How awful it is.

And so Jesus deliberately draws attention to, all right. Now before you do this, just stop and think

who's, this is an act that for which I will be responsible. See, if I just become part of a mob,

I don't have to worry about it, but everybody's doing it. And you're our rights about how

most of what we do in life, we are deeply influenced, we learn, we live by imitation in ways far

deeper than we think. And so Jesus draws attention to who's going to throw the first stone.

And then this very interesting people have wondered for centuries when Jesus bends down. What does he

write? Does he write the Ten Commandments? Does he write a list of the sins that the people are guilty of?

Gerard says he thinks at least part of what's going on is Jesus bends down so that he doesn't have

to look the men in the eye because if he looks him in the eye, he knows they will take that as

kind of a challenge. The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center says even if you're ever with a bear,

don't look the bear in the eye because the bear will take that as an act of aggression and the odds

of violence will go up. And Jesus is being so thoughtful, so brilliantly understands the human

condition. He's creating space for the men who are there to reflect on their own sin, to not just

get caught up in an aggressive moment. I'll show you. So for whatever reason, he bends down,

he writes something around, and then somebody puts down a stone. And then somebody else,

and somebody else, and somebody else, and he turns to the woman, do they not condemn you?

Now, of course, they know what the woman has done is wrong, but it's a different thing to discern

what's happened is wrong than it is to condemn. Jesus says, no, Lord. This apparently is the

beginning of her journey of faith in him. And Jesus says, neither do I condemn you.

Go and sin no more. You'll have to put an end to this affair. You'll have to go back to your

husband, set things right with a family. Lots of work ahead, but now you'll do that with no

condemnation. I do not condemn you. So, gosh, our world needs this so much to you and to me,

what Jesus would say today is put down the stone, put down the stone, put down the stone.

Live with a spirit of discernment, clarity about what is right, conviction, and love.

No more stone in. There is now no condemnation put down the stone.

Hey, did you have a takeaway from that teaching? Don't keep it to yourself,

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My name is Tim. I'm a part of the team here at Become New and I'm a pastor. We distribute

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