Stage 1: Getting To Know Jesus Stage 1: Getting To Know Jesus Stage 1: Getting To Know Jesus

What in the world was Jesus writing in the sand? He bends down and plays in the sand as a woman standing in front of him with nothing but a sheet covering herself and angry men hurling horrible accusations at her. Weird, right? So, what was he writing? This question has gone unanswered for 2,000 years in the church because the scripture doesn’t say. One theory suggests that Jesus started writing the sins of all the men who were standing there accusing the woman. Fraud, thievery, lying, cheating, adultery, and many other sins. In Jesus’ eyes, these men were no different than this woman, but their sin may have been hidden, and hers was brought into the light.

Let’s look at this woman for a second. She was throwing away her identity for a cheap fling with another man, and she didn’t care. Now, these men wanted Jesus to apply the law to her and stone her to death. Here is a little side note. This woman was really a pawn in the game between the religious leaders and Jesus. They often tried to trick him into saying something they could use against him, but we won’t get into that here.

Jesus could have applied the law here, stood up, looked her in the eye, and called her dirty, selfish, trash along with a hundred other names. He could have told her, “You threw away your life for what? A man that isn’t even standing beside you.” He didn’t.

After the crowd of men left and it was just the two of them, he stood up and asked her, 

“Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Neither do I condemn you,”

Jesus cared more about her than applying the law. She was in a helpless condition that her actions and decisions caused. According to the law, she deserved DEATH.

Did you notice something about the last line that Jesus said? It ended in a comma, not a period. The Comma is important, this was not a complete sentence. Jesus had one more important piece to add here.

Neither do I condemn you, now GO AND LEAVE YOUR LIFE OF SIN!!!

This unnamed lady was not ok. She had a lot of issues in her life that led her to cheat. Her story is like all our stories. We were not ok. We all have issues, and Jesus doesn’t condemn us for our issues. He loves us the way we are, but His love is too good to leave us where we are. Jesus didn’t die on the cross to save us from our sins, for us just to continue to live the way we were. He loves us too much to leave us that way. We can live better.

It’s a comma, not a period.

Jesus didn’t just let her go so she could go right back to that man. He saved her to make her life better. He loved her too much to leave her the way that he found her.

Let’s use the imagination for a second. What did she do next? Did she go back to the man’s bed, or did she live a changed life and try to repair her marriage? 

Jesus saved her life just like he did yours when you started a relationship with Him. So, what would you do if you were in her place? Go back to the way you were living or go forward and let Jesus change your life.

This woman’s story is exactly like yours. When you accept Jesus as your savior, He saves you from a life of sin. Sin, no matter what it is, will keep you from having a fully authentic relationship with Jesus. So, like the woman, the choice is yours.

Scripture References: John 8:1-11