Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.
And with this simple sentence, the adulterous woman was not stoned do death. This story is about judgment, and intolerance, and hypocrisy. All of these are things that I can loudly and proudly claim others should not practice. Like Jesus, I can stand on the side of the event, and question who’s without sin. And to be clear, we are called to do that, to stand witness when judgment, intolerance and hypocrisy occur in our presence.
But what about when I’m the one holding the stone? What about when there’s no one around to remind me who should be casting a stone, and perhaps why I should not be?
Granted, I’ve never participated or seen a public stoning, as the result of adultery. But I have behaved just like the crowd – judgmental, intolerant and hypocritical. I have decided that others deserve something bad, because of my standards of good. I have been intolerant of differences that are an affront to what I consider the right way to do things. I have judged others, when I’m far from ‘without sin’.
This morning, I’m thinking about being the person who calls out the hypocrisy of judgment, and about being the person who’s called out. More insidious and dangerous are the instances when I’m behaving like the crowd, and no one is around. When it’s just me and God. I pray that I have the ears to hear Jesus’ simple sentence, ‘let anyone among you…’
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