It has been tattletale central at our house for about 3 or 4 years now. As my children are getting older, they seem to find a mild amount of joy when tattling on one another. The most recent issue deals with the fact, they enjoy scaring one another. It doesn’t matter the time of day. The goal is to scare the other and cause a fearful reaction. They enjoy doing it to Dad and Mom as well. Recently, our entire family was home enjoying a relaxing day. Early on, my daughter thought it would be funny to scare her brother. While downstairs, I heard the entire scenario unfold. My son lashed out at his sister for what she’d done and stomped to his room. Later that day, the same thing happened. Only this time, the tables were flipped as my son exacted his revenge. Immediately, my daughter came downstairs with a wild and dramatic look in her eyes demanding I do something to punish him. I said, “Okay, go get him and both of you come down for your spankings.” She quickly responded, “Why am I getting a spanking? I didn’t do anything!” I stated, “Not this time. But you do the same thing to him this morning, right?” She began stumbling over her words and couldn’t figure out how to respond. I continued, “I can discipline him. But I’ll need to discipline you as well to make it fair. How would you like for me to proceed?” She immediately rolled her eyes at the realization of her guilt and stomped upstairs to give her brother a tongue lashing.
Isn’t that how we all are? We’re quick to point a finger at someone else for doing something wrong, but we fail to realize we too have been guilty of the same types of things at different times in our lives. This same ideal is exemplified in John 8. Jesus has been teaching great crowds of people. The Pharisees and religious leaders bring a woman caught in the act of adultery and demand Jesus tell them how to punish her. This could have been done in private but they were attempting to make Jesus look bad in front of everyone while embarrassing this woman (side note: where was the guilty man? Seems like this might have been a setup all the way around). They were literally putting him in a losing situation regardless of what He said or did. Should he command her be stoned, He would be breaking Roman law that stated no Jew had the power to pronounce this type of sentence. If He didn’t agree that she be stoned, he would be breaking the law of Moses. His initial response was to stoop down and begin writing in the sand. Scripture states, “They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” John 8:7 NLT They were so caught up with the own spiritual policing, they failed to focus on the mistakes they had made in their own lives. After making this statement, he humbled himself yet again stooping down, as if to lower himself to her level. One by one, the accusers left. Verse 10-11 states, “Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”
Closing remarks and encouragement: Many times, we get so caught up focusing on the mistakes of others, we fail to remember the grace and mercy that has been extended to us. What if we did as the Bible instructed and treated others as we would like to be treated? What if we worried more about our own sins rather than focusing on the shortcomings of others? Let’s face it, ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God. As believers, it’s not our job to hang our Christianity over someone’s head to convince them we’re better in some way or that our way of doing things is better. Just the opposite. We’re to love them and point them to God. You don’t have to tell an unbeliever they’ve sinned. I assure you, they know! What if we treated everyone the same way Jesus did in this situation? Jesus, the one who was sinless, was the only person who had the right to cast a stone at this woman. Yet he chose to humble Himself before her, extend mercy/love/grace, then remind her there was a better way. We could learn a lot by following His example. We would all do well to remember how important it is to throw down (y)our stones and simply love on people. Jesus instructed us to be fishers of men. He never instructed us to clean them up. That’s His job.
Photo by Jarren Simmons on Unsplash