Speaker's Corner, Facebook, and How we should love....

 

 

I love all things English. In a corner of Hyde Park in London, there is a famous historical spot called Speaker’s Corner. At this corner near the Marble Arch, speakers gather especially on Sundays and tell the world what they think. This is a tradition that dates back to the mid-19^th century and originally began as a method to exercise free speech. Nowadays, the park attracts those who are serious and not so serious and the crowds love to heckle speakers unmercifully.

I wondered why we don’t have something like that in America. Then I thought we do! It’s called Facebook. Just a few days back I posted a status update where I stressed Christians should just let the statement to love one another stand alone. If we did that it would be a grand marketing strategy for the Church.

It didn’t take three minutes before someone posted something hateful about my status. Hateful about how we should love others unconditionally? About how that is a good idea for the church? Stop judging so much and start loving?

Yes and it was posted by my Christian friends, not my atheists ones. Immediately some people become very uncomfortable when I mentioned unconditionally loving others. Why? Didn’t Jesus say that?  People have said: “Well does that mean we don’t take a stand for what is right? Does that mean I love everything you do? We still need to be able to make statements on what is right and what is wrong?  We need to love the sinner but hate the sin, right?”

Or maybe folks will tell you that this is a dangerous world nowadays. You can’t simply just love and expect to make a difference. Christians need to be strong and stand up for injustice and against immorality in this world. We need our voices to be heard! In the immortal words of Dr. Phil: “How’s that working for ya?”

 As a historian I realize how complicated and dangerous this present time is. However, I will tell you that this message of love was just as radical in the first century. In fact to be quite honest, the first century was a more hostile field to try to sow that seed than today.

For instance during the reign of the Roman Emperor Nero, he persecuted Christians unmercifully. Fed them to lions, blamed them for the fire in Rome, even put them on crosses in his personal gardens with shirts of wax and set them on fire to be night lights for his night time parties. And this was the setting for a message for love. Surely that won’t make a dent in the evil Roman Empire. We have to stand up, picket, organize and protest against this religious persecution. 

But strangely enough that silly naïve impractical message of love gradually transformed the Roman Empire. In a little less than three hundred years Christianity went from an outlaw religion to the official religion of the Empire. All because of love. Not because of protest groups, not because of the power of the press, not because of any other reason than they stayed true to their message. They loved. Tertullian, one of the early church fathers from the 2^nd Century, wrote that even the common folks looked at the Christians and said “see how they love each other.” They said this in amazement. Christians were different than the regular world. They didn’t say: “Wow they are strict. Or wow they are super moral. Or wow they judge too much that bothers me.” Many still felt Christians were weird but were impressed with the way they treated each other. The way they loved was attractive and threatening at the same time.  

This makes me think of the story of the woman caught in adultery in John chapter 8. I have had recent discussions with Christians who actually use this story to justify why the Church need to stand up to homosexuals who seek civil rights in America.

One early remark I had made was: “Well even if it is a sin (homosexuality), it isn’t the unforgivable one.” I felt this was a pretty tight answer. However, someone responded that if they continued in persistent sin with no desire for forgiveness that separated them from the love of Christ and would eventually, in their judgment, lead to an eternity in Hell. And they cited this story of this woman caught in adultery as exegetical proof. Jesus clearly said “Go and sin no more.”

Well if he really meant that, I submit we all are in trouble. I am telling you that I don’t think that is what Jesus meant. Take a look at the situation. The Jewish religious leaders, aka the “church folk of the day” you know the ones with perfect attendance in Sunday school, brought a woman to him that had been caught in the VERY act of adultery. Really?

Where’s the man? Did they set her up? Odds are this woman was a prostitute. Probably a well-known one and may have been well known to them. Someone they didn’t care about and someone in their mind who was expendable.

Their treatment of the woman is cold-hearted and derogatory in nature. If she had committed adultery, it most likely was done during the night before (which is perhaps more likely than around dawn, v. 2). Therefore, it safe to say if that is the case these religious types had quite possibly been holding her hostage all night and early in the morning waiting on Jesus to show up so they could trap him. She would have been terrified. And they further added to the humiliation by making their accusations public. 

 A certain attitude of male-chauvinism comes across in their statement that the law of Moses commands the stoning of such women (v. 5). To be correct, the TORAH actually says both the man and woman should be stoned. (Lev 20:10; Deut 22:22-24). The religious elders are also being quite dishonest in their accusation. There is no historical evidence that this punishment was carried out on a regular basis by the Jews. The Romans simply would not have allowed that form of vigilante religious punishment. So they test Jesus with a situation in the name of upholding the sacred law given by Moses with a section of it to which they most likely didn't even subscribe. 

Well-versed Christians know the rest. Jesus saved her but at the end told her to “Go and sin no more.” That is literally what the text says but it leaves out an important part—how Jesus actually treated her. We know from the text that all the religious leaders had left. However, I wonder if others were there who had been listening to Jesus’ teaching and were watching to see what Jesus would say to her.

So Jesus gets his big step to show mercy but also to make his point that her lifestyle was wrong. And what did he say: “Neither do I condemn you.” Jesus lets her off scot free. He doesn’t look at her as I have looked at my kids many a time and asked with a very pointed stare…okay…why are you in timeout? Explain to me what you have done wrong. And now say you are sorry. Do you repent?  He doesn’t ask any of that of her.

The text leaves so much out. But I am sure that Jesus probably looked at her and perhaps even smiled. And said I don’t condemn you either. You are my child. You are precious in the sight of God. He gives her forgiveness unconditionally. He forgives her before she says anything.

But wait you may say. That’s not the end. But what about the second part of verse 11? How are we to take, “Go your way, and from now on do not sin again”?  

Misguided Individuals will typically reference this story and specifically the go and sin no more part as a basis for the belief that it is their duty to tell others to stop sinning. Jesus said to her don’t sin anymore. If you keep sinning like that Jesus can’t forgive you.

When we read this first century story we get no background. It like the difference between reading Shakespeare (brutal in my mind) and seeing it acted upon a stage (wondrously moving). It’s like a text message from a friend when you ask “Are they mad?”  

I imagine that Jesus looked at her and might have even smiled, maybe he winked at her. Remember Jesus was a charismatic fellow who attracted crowds and children loved him. No kid wants to go hang on a stern disciplinarian’s arms and lap.  

He told her she was free to go. She was free from her judgment but also she needed to be free from that lifestyle that was going to cause both her spiritual and physical death. “don’t live like this anymore.” Maybe he meant stop her life of prostitution. He had better things in store for her than that. Go live a better life. It wasn’t a conditional forgiveness. Because please let’s be reasonable here. How practical is it for him to tell her to go on her way and oh by the way don’t do anything bad ever again. That can’t be what he meant. It wouldn’t be possible and it wouldn’t make sense in the context. To rescue someone from death and judgment and then say live a perfect life and all will be well. Thanks a lot. No pressure.

I have only found one other instance where Jesus commanded someone "to stop sinning." In the Gospel of John 5:1-15, after he healed a man of a physical problem, he later found him and told him to stop sinning so that something worse doesn’t happen to him. Once again, this command ringed more like a warning to live a better life than an unreasonable command to be perfect. And it also was given by Jesus after he too healed the man and altered the very course of his life. 

So I would say it could be a warning to this lady. She was almost stoned to death. If she keeps living that way, they may try to stone her again or other bad things may happen to her. Her lifestyle was dangerous. This was not some kind of moral judgment on her. It was helpful advice. It was loving advice. 

And we need to remember when Jesus said to her to stop her sinful behavior. It was after he saved her life. After he stood up to the entire town’s leaders, the religious leaders of the day. Do you think that that made them mad the way he embarrassed them? lOh yes. Jesus preserved her dignity and in so doing was able to connect to her in such a way that she would probably do anything he asked. And his treatment of her surely opened the door for her restoration to the community as well as gave her the opportunity to follow him. Who wouldn’t want to follow a guy like that. What Jesus did was bold, it was dangerous and it was all due to love.

So the next time you want to throw down that Jesus said: “Go and sin no more.” Remember the context first. Have you shown unconditional love and forgiveness to that person? That’s right love with no strings attached. That is why the true message of Christianity is scandalous. It was then (to the religiously confident) and it still is. But in it are the words of life.