17 May 2023
Selective obedience
"
As they stood there asking him questions, he straightened himself up and said to them, “Whichever one of you has committed no sin may throw the first stone at her.” Then he bent over again and wrote on the ground.
When they heard this, they all left, one by one, the older ones first.
Jesus was left alone, with the woman still standing there. He straightened himself up and said to her, “Where are they? Is there no one left to condemn you?”
“No one, sir,” she answered.
“Well, then,” Jesus said, “I do not condemn you either. Go, but do not sin again.”
"
(John 8.7-11 GNB)
It is human nature to have bias, consciously or unconsciously. And we are biased to perceive ourselves favourably and to be unaware (or less aware) of things that make us unfavourable.
And so we need a baseline or a benchmark to check ourselves against. Are we living up to all expectations or just few selective expectations?
For example, I do not murder. That is good. But that is only one. What about the other nine of the Ten Commandments? They were not given to us as a 'multiple choice' menu - pick any of the ten.
No. We are told to do all ten.
The summarisation of the ten into "the Great Commandment" (Mark 12.28-31) does not reduce the expectation. If we satisfy these two, we satisfy the ten.
But on top of these, Jesus summarised it further to the heart of the matter, which is our heart. The goal is not outward obedience, but pure heart after his own. There are a few passages for this in the Gospel and the quoted passage above is one of them.
In the story above, Jesus challenged the crowd. From the perspective of outward obedience to the Law, they were indeed granted the possibility of stoning the woman. Jesus did not argue against this.
Jesus told them, “Whichever one of you has committed no sin may throw the first stone at her.” That was not required in the Law. It did not have the power to stop them from stoning.
Jesus reminded them what the true motive in their heart was! And that was why they left.
Lord,
help me have a pure heart like Jesus.
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