“O taste and see that the Lord is good!” Psalm 34:8. This woman had tasted an apple before; the forbidden fruits of several male lovers. For less than an hour she would be held, kissed and wanted. Her soul was in need of such wanting. There seemed to be nowhere else to find it except deep inside this lifestyle of sin. She never actually experienced the love she desperately longed for, but this was better than nothing. She settled. Her heart had to have a little food and a little clothing even if it was barely enough to fill a quarter of her hunger and the clothing left her soul mostly exposed. Shroud after shroud hung itself over her heart through the years, like a light coating of dust. The passing of time managed to dull the initial sting of agony that used to tug at her desire to live joyfully. It was just a matter of surviving now. She didn’t even feel the old remorse. It had become somewhat triumphant to seduce a man and make a little money. She had stopped caring how the sins affected the lives of her customers. She didn’t care much about life at all. It hadn’t proved to be anything pleasing.
When they came to get her, she was fully engrossed in her work. She could tell that this pleased them. They knew what she did for a living but hadn’t bothered saying anything until now. She was barely given enough time to put on her robe. This band of Pharisitical leaders grabbed her away with a great deal of pomp and circumstance. Her shameful appearance was paraded through Jerusalem streets into the temple court. She was recklessly pushed into the arena of onlookers before a plainly dressed Jewish Rabbi. Suddenly her whole person was washed with a steady, warm stream of sadness. Her flesh was tingling all over and shivers went up and down her spine. She felt shame in the strangest way. She could hear suggestions of pure affections towards her and a blush of foolishness colored her skin. She felt like someone was holding her and kissing her and wanting her. She felt like His hands were all over her soul, but it didn’t feel wrong or wicked. The contrast between her former lover and this new Lover was staggering. She was ashamed for allowing any existing entity to consume her precious life with disgraceful use, when there was a Lover out there who created her for Divine, pure, sensitive hugs and kisses. She felt ashamed for having ever consumed another life that way. Life was precious and enjoyable! She was tasting and seeing the Lord that loved her and her whole body was tingling with ….resurrection! “Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, ‘Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.’ And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 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, ‘Women, 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.’” John 8:6-11.
The moment you encounter and receive the verdict of Christ, is the moment of your justification. The Son of God judged the Woman Caught in Adultery within her respective story. He knew ALL of the “whys”. But the glorious part is the punch line: “now go and sin no more”. You see, it’s fabulously beautiful that He knows all the reasons for our current depraved condition, but it’s more fabulously beautiful that the internalization of His perspective has the power to deliver us from the destruction that we live in because of our own deficient perspective. Wow! That was a mouthful! But a mouthful of truth. The good news of the gospel is that we are personally known and personally delivered by His powerful personal Word. AMEN!
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