Are you quick to forgive or do you hold a grudge for-stinkin’-ever? Do you find it easier to forgive another person if the offense was against you versus against a loved one? Are you willing to forgive an offense—even if the person who offended you never asks for forgiveness?
In John 8 we find the story of the woman caught in adultery. You remember it, don’t you? The Pharisees are trying to find someway to silence Jesus. They see Him as the enemy, as an interloper, as someone who is drawing the people out from under their control. The problem is that their hatred of Jesus doesn’t just effect them and Jesus. Like a poisonous gas released into the air, their un-forgiveness effects innocent people. Here is the passage:
John 8: 2 – At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.
Jn 8:3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group
Jn 8:4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.
Jn 8:5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”
Jn 8:6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.
Jn 8:7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Jn 8:8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
Jn 8:9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the
older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.
Jn 8:10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
Jn 8:11 “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Do you see the poison of the Pharisees nearly killing the woman? The Word tells us that the Pharisees “brought in a woman caught in adultery”. They brought her in?? Where did they find her? How did they know she was going to be sleeping with someone else’s husband? They set her up…that’s how they knew. On an ordinary day those pious Pharisees would not have been caught dead near someone caught in adultery. Heavens, no! It would tarnish their phylacteries.
How else do I know that they, in their un-forgiveness and hatred, set her up? Take a look at Leviticus 20: 10:
‘If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife —with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.’
Where was the man? According to Levitical law, he should have been charged along with her. The man was likely part of the set up.
Hatred and an unforgiving heart are extremely lethal—and not just to the one who harbors them. Just as the Pharisee’s hatred of Jesus effected the woman, so our own unwillingness to forgive effects and infects others.
Is there someone you need to forgive today? Someone you know that you SHOULD forgive but you just are not ready to turn loose of the hatred and anger? Just do it!!!
