Dear Friends,
A weird thing about being a pastor is that people often expect you to respond publicly to current events. People urge you to express concern for victims of natural disasters in other parts of the world, take sides on political issues, celebrate heroes, condemn violent crimes (as if it might otherwise be unclear whether you are, in fact, in favor of violence, murder, etc.), and respond to the actions and public comments of politicians and celebrities. Sometimes this can be presented as a crisis situation in which you must say something right away or face judgment. Have you ever felt pressure to say or do something right away in a messy situation? Maybe because someone else expected it of you? Or maybe because you were having strong emotions? Sometimes when I feel offended or embarrassed by something someone else does or says, I feel in the moment like I have to respond right away in order to save face. But this is usually a bad idea, and I often wish I had taken some time instead. Have you ever been in a situation like that?
John 8:3-11 describes a situation in which Jesus is presented with a demand for a public statement in a crisis situation. The beginning of the story reads as follows,
As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.
“Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”
They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger.
- John 8:3-6
I've been reading a book called Let Me Ask You a Question, written by a friend named Matthew Croasmun. In one chapter, Croasmun reflects on this incident from John 8, saying, "Imagine the scene: Jesus is teaching in the temple. People are everywhere. All of a sudden, the scribes and Pharisees come to Jesus, accompanied by a crowd. They demand that Jesus preside over an impromptu stoning right then and there. There's this sense of urgency, or crisis."
This is, of course, intended as a trap for Jesus. In Croasmun's words, "If he lets the woman off the hook, he looks like he's 'soft on crime.' . . . Letting her off would only further confirm the growing suspicion that Jesus is, in fact, a loosey-goosey libertine without regard for religious law. But if he lets these men go through with the stoning, he allows the poor woman to die."
Rather than responding, Jesus quietly and calmly bent down and wrote or drew in the dirt. Like a lot of people, I have always wondered what Jesus drew in the dirt that day. Did John leave this information out on purpose? Did he not know? Was it something people in the crowd were able to read? This week, as I was re-reading this story, I was helped to see purpose in the act of writing on the ground itself.
Croasmun goes on to say, "He is unmoved by their sense of crisis. In this moment, Jesus offers them time to consider what's really going on here and whether they're really doing what God would have them do. And perhaps Jesus is taking a moment for himself in the middle of the madness - to pray, to listen for God. . . . The scribes and Pharisees are hurried - in fact they're trying to create a crisis and use it to their advantage. In the face of that crisis, Jesus is nonetheless deliberate, unwilling to fall into their manufactured sense of urgency. The scribes and Pharisees merely use the woman for the sake of their test, whereas Jesus is actually interested in the woman herself, in her plight, and in her well-being."
I've been thinking about this a lot this week. Those who brought the woman to Jesus were essentially using her situation for political optics and demanding that Jesus do the same. The sense of urgency on the part of the religious leaders was entirely fabricated. We don't know when this woman's crime was discovered, who her sexual partner was, or why he was not dragged before the crowd along with her. This moment didn't just arise on its own. It was a stunt timed and staged to suit the agenda of the religious leaders. (Though the woman's life may genuinely have been in danger.) Jesus didn't let himself be manipulated. He didn't buy into the implication that he was obligated to make a statement. Instead, he slowed way down in a way that defused the hype around the situation. Then he took the time to see the woman in front of him and to recognize that the thing that mattered was not who won a political optics game that treated this woman like a poker chip but the woman herself, the actual and vulnerable person in front of him.
I won't get into what Jesus did next today. Perhaps I will write about it next week. In the meantime, I'm left thinking about those times I feel pressure, either from myself or from others, to respond to an apparent crisis quickly and/or publicly. I'd like to be more like Jesus and not be manipulated into thinking about what I look like in front of anyone. I'd like to make sure I'm never part of using someone else's situation for my own posturing game. I'd like to grow in always seeing and caring about the person in front of me. If you'd like this for yourself as well, pray with me.
Jesus, teach me to be more like you. Help me to avoid posturing and being drawn into hyped up crises. Help me to see all people as valuable human beings and not as categories, labels, or pawns. Help me when things seem urgent to slow down, calm down, and listen to you. Amen.
Love in Christ,
Michelle
