The Court of Public Opinion is nothing new. Since time began, people have been charged, tried, and been found guilty during the court sessions before they ever came before an actual judge. In the Old Testament, the laws, and those found guilty of violating them were for elders, judges, kings and priests to preside over, to prevent people from taking the law in to their own hands. What is more, they were severe, on purpose, so that one does not bring accusations against someone else frivolously. What God intended for purity of His people, however, became, as does anything meant to protect us, used to subdue people, and protect a certain class from the crimes of others.
In Jesus' day it was no different. In John 8, the Pharisees, stones in hand, bring a woman caught in adultery before Jesus (notice that they did not bring the man). They were ready to stone her to death. She was caught, she was guilty. Jesus did not immediately respond to their calls for judgement or mercy (they were trying to entrap him). He, instead, bent down and began to write with His finger (a call back to the time when God, to Moses, wrote with His finger on two stone slabs). The men were judging according to their interpretation of the Law of Moses. She was clearly Guilty, and so, at least according to my assumption, Jesus was reminding them of the Law of Moses, and declaring Himself to be the One who wrote the law. At the end of it all, Jesus' judgement was "You who is without Sin, cast the first stone," and one by one, from oldest to youngest, they dropped their stones and left.
What is the point of all of this? We are all emboldened by having a voice to say whatever it is we desire with the online venue. We are constantly throwing stones at sinners online, while conveniently ignoring our own. We're not qualified to judge. None of us is without sin. We are not to excuse sin, Jesus after all, told the woman "Neither do I condemn you, but go and sin no more," but we're not on that judgement seat either. Our aim should always be restoration, even should we suffer the consequences of our actions, not condemnation or judgement. God sits on that seat, and it is too high for any of us to reach.
John 8:9-11
But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
Comentarios