“Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”John 8:10

I just read today’s commentary written by Michael Brown of “The Stream” about the Anthony Weiner scandal. He does not excuse Weiner’s gross misconduct and nor should we. Instead, he reminds us that here is a stark situation where Christians are to live differently than the world. Instead of joining in the all too familiar media shark fest circling the most recent fallen person, Brown admonishes us to pray for the man, for his salvation. Reminding us that we should never cast the first stone at any one else, Brown   writes the following :

What if our worst failings and most embarrassing moments were broadcast on national TV or posted all over the internet? How much different would we look than Weiner?

I couldn’t agree with him more. The Holy Spirit’s inner conviction is desperately needed today to counter a culture feasting on others’ transgressions and failures. Pointing out the speck in another’s eye, as Jesus said to the Pharisees, we ignore the rotting beam in our own.

In John 8:11 when the Pharisees brought the woman caught in adultery before Jesus, they were trying to trap him into blasphemy so they could arrest him. Instead, the Lord revealed their hypocrisy and self righteousness. He did three things.

First Jesus knelt and wrote in the sand. No one knows what the Lord wrote, but one by one, the woman’s accusers dropped their stones and walked away, from the youngest to the oldest. It’s generally believed each man saw his own sin exposed. We don’t know if everyone in the crowd was able to see the accusers’ secret sins or if Jesus wrote more kindly for individuals. Whatever it was, they walked away. The Lord’s revelation convicted the Pharisees of what lay secret their hearts. But even in this, He did not condemn them outright, but turned to the woman.

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.”John 8:10-11

 The second thing Jesus did was to forgive her. His forgiveness was not based on legal traps but on His divine love. There’s something else intended because Jesus asks the woman a question: Where are those who accuse you? Isn’t there even one? She says, No Lord.” He replies, Neither do I.” There is no accusation; there are no accusers; there are only Jesus and the woman and Love.

Finally, Jesus told the woman to go on and sin no more. The mercy and grace of Jesus is so great that he forgave her before he commanded her to repent.   For me, there’s no “people” story in the Bible which demonstrates Jesus’s compassion for sinners and forgiveness more than this one. Such is God’s love for us that the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 5,

But God demonstrated his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us

Anthony Weiner’s public disgrace is  today’s example of how unforgiving the world has become and how much we need to show Christ’s forgiveness to others. Last week it was someone else in the headlines; next week there will be new bait. In our morally shifting country Christians have to be different. We are called by His Name. We need to act like it. What if right now there were no accusers  in the public square to  destroy a person like Weiner  but  instead, everyone  lay down his   stone piles of ridicule, mockery and revenge? What might happen if the Christian’s response to Anthony Weiner’s  crimes   was a prayer, “Lord, be alone with him!”

I’d like to suggest that we read this encounter between Jesus and the woman again, but in current context.   Substitute the name of Anthony Weiner – or anyone else in the public arena. The challenge becomes harder. Dare we substitute pornographer for adulterer?  Ask the Holy Spirit to put us as Christians in the crowd also. Ask the Spirit to reveal the stones in our hearts which we raise to hurl at another. Look to the Lord, not at the accused. Jesus doesn’t even have to write in the sand. By the Holy Spirit, He knows us all too well. Like the woman, we are convicted not condemned by the Lord who commands us also to “Go and sin no more.”

How quickly we’d have to drop that heavy stone and walk away. We dare not to accuse anyone. Humbled and forgiven ourselves, do we not want to pray for the person finally left all alone with Jesus? If not us, then who? If not now, when?