Writing in the Dirt

 

8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground.   John 8:8 

When the woman caught in adultery was thrown before Jesus’ feet, the Pharisees were using her as a pawn in a religious quibble. They didn’t care about the woman, they just wanted to use her to entrap Jesus. “The Law of Moses commands that this adulterer be stoned to death, but do you say Jesus?” Jesus did not directly answer the question, but He ducked it by stooping and writing something on the ground that was so convicting and incriminating that the religious lynch mob dropped their stones and walked away. We don’t know what Jesus wrote, though many have speculated – maybe it was the Ten Commandments, perhaps the names of their mistresses – either way it has been lost with the sands of time.

While studying this passage the other day, I noticed something I hadn’t before. Jesus stooped to write in the dirt twice. This little nugget sent me into digging mode. Where had I seen something like this before? Then it dawned on me – when the Law was originally given to Moses at Sinai. When you go back and investigate the scene in Exodus, you see some interesting parallels.

·         Twice God “descended” upon Mt. Sinai to write the law on tablets of stone with His finger (Ex. 19:20; 31:18; 34:5, 16). Likewise, two times Jesus stooped to the ground to write with His finger (John 8:6, 8).

·         When Moses received the Law, there was some shady stuff going on back at the camp. Remember, they were worshipping the Golden Calf, dancing and partaking in immorality. In other words, Israel was committing "spiritual adultery" against God (Ex. 32:6-8). They were caught “red handed.” Just so, when the woman was brought to Jesus she was caught in the act of adultery.

·         God in His jealous wrath promised judgment upon Israel for their sin (Ex. 32:10) and the Pharisees stood in judgment over the woman, picking up stones (John 8:5).

·         However, Moses interceded for Israel, as a result God relented in His judgment (Ex. 32:11-14). Likewise, Jesus interceded for the guilty woman, calling out the sin of her accusers (John 8:9).

·         Instead of judgement, which Israel deserved, they received God’s mercy and a second chance (Ex. 34:5-9). Same for the woman, because of Jesus she got mercy (John 8:11).

Jesus was rehearsing the scene from Sinai in front of the Pharisees. In effect, saying through the symbolism “I AM the same God who wrote and gave you the Law and I AM the same God who gave your ancestors mercy, just as I am giving mercy to this woman.”

John 1:17 says , “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” The law condemned Israel just as it did the woman and the Pharisees. Yet, because of an intercessor both Israel and the woman received mercy. Jesus would die for the adulterer and the self-righteous, proud. The Law could only condemn, but Jesus fulfilled the Law so that mercy could be extended. It was God plan of salvation in the OT and it was made complete in the NT.

Thank God we can have our “case dismissed” today. In the presence of Jesus, stones of accusation fall to the ground with a thud. Our guilt is removed by His grace. Hallelujah for a stooping Savior. He stooped to write in the dirt, stooped to wash nasty feet, stooped to pray in Gethsemane and stooped to pick up a cross that should have been ours. He stooped by this broken woman to raise her up and He will do the same for you. -DM   

A Lost Wallet

 

8 “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!’ 10 Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”  Luke 15:8-10

I recently read about a young man in Detroit, MI named Will Wang who lost his wallet. Will stopped at a gas station to fill up, but he left his wallet – filled with $900 in cash and cards – on top of the trunk. When he drove off, the wallet fell to the ground. In his frustration, Will cursed and blamed God for his own negligence. But the very next day a stranger showed up at Will’s doorstep. The Good Samaritan had found Will’s wallet and was returning it. Will was overjoyed and stunned that someone would have such integrity. Thanking the do-gooder profusely, Will asked him, “Why would you return my wallet and all this money? Most people would just say ‘finders’ keepers.’”

This gave the man an open door to witness. “I’m a Christian,” the man replied. “God wants us to love each other as brothers and sisters. I hope what I have done to you today, you will do to others one day.” That simple encounter led to something more than a wallet. It led Will to receive the riches of mercy and grace found in Jesus Christ. That day, Will renounced a life-long devotion to Buddhism and embraced the Gospel. Will told a reporter, “It was a divine set up. My heart immediately changed. I felt so touched, and at that moment I instantly believed in God.” Will soon joined a church, was baptized and began leading a Bible study.[1]

When I read this story, it made me think about the “lost and found” parables of Luke 15—the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. Like the coin, people have eternal value to God and Christ came seeking the lost (Luke 19:10). The Lord pursued Adam in the Garden (Gen. 3:8-9) and Jonah by sending the great fish to ferry him back to land (Jonah 1:17). Likewise, Jesus rearranged His travel itinerary just to seek out the woman by the well in Samaria (John 4).

The coin was lost in darkness, dirt, and disgrace. Doesn’t that also describe the lost sinner? The sinner loves the darkness rather than the light (John 3:19-20). Life in the gutter and mire of the world stains their life like a filthy rag (Is. 64:6). Then of course shame follows sin like night follows day. Living in sin makes us feel like we’ve lost our value, like we are empty and worthless. Scholars tell us that when a Jewish girl married, she was given a headband of ten silver coins to wear as a symbol that she was now a wife. It was the Jewish version of our modern wedding ring, and it was considered a terrible disgrace if she lost one of those coins. It is likely that this is what Jesus had in mind when He told this parable.[2]   

Like that housewife, Christ searches for us out His infinite love to restore, redeem and rescue (Rom. 5:8). In order to find her coin, the woman lit a candle. That’s what the Holy Spirit does as He illuminates darkened eyes to the truth (2 Cor. 4:6). Then the woman also began to sweep her house. Through conviction, the Holy Spirit will sweep and stir up all of the filth and dirt in your life to reveal the sinner’s condition (John 16:8). Thank God for the Hound of Heaven who doesn’t give up, but searches for us even when we don’t want to be found!

If you are lost, you can be found today. If you have been found by the Lord, then look for opportunities to share the good news with the lost so they too can be found. -DM

---

[1] Roxy Photenhauer, “Lost and Found Wallet Filled with Cash Led to Faith,” God Reports, 7 December 2020 <https://www.godreports.com/2020/12/lost-and-found-wallet-filled-with-cash-led-to-faith/>

[2] Warren Wiersbe, The Wiersbe Bible Commentary: New Testament (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2007), 188.

Broken Things

 A Japanese legend tells the story of a mighty shogun warrior who broke his favorite tea bowl and sent it away for repairs. When he received it back, the bowl was held together by unsightly metal staples. Although he could still use it, the shogun was disappointed. Still hoping to restore his beloved bowl to its former beauty, he asked a craftsman to find a more elegant solution.

The craftsman wanted to try a new technique, something that would add to the beauty of the bowl as well as repair it. So, he mended every crack in the bowl with a lacquer resin mixed with gold. When the tea bowl was returned to the shogun, there were streaks of gold running through it, telling its story, and—the warrior thought—adding to its value and beauty. This method of repair became known as kintsugi, which roughly translates to “golden joinery.” Kintsugi is the Japanese philosophy that the value of an object is not in its beauty, but in its imperfections, and that these imperfections are something to celebrate, not hide.

With the idea of brokenness in mind, I was studying Jesus’ classic miracle of feeding the 5,000, when I came upon this verse: “And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and the two fish He divided among them all” (Mark 6:41).  

Mark mentions the detail of Jesus breaking bread and it caught my eye. I got to thinking to about little boy's lunch that was offered, broken, blessed, and multiplied to feed thousands.

In God's economy brokenness is a channel of blessing. God uses broken things; He doesn’t throw them away. It takes broken clouds to give rain. It takes broken alabaster jars to give off the sweet smell of perfume (Mark 14:3). Broken grain to make bread and broken bread to satisfy hunger.

Jesus, of course, is the model. He later broke the bread at the Last Supper and said it was a picture of his body (Matt. 26:26). Then on Easter, the two Emmaus Road Disciples knew it was Christ when they recognized the way he broke the bread (Luke 24:35). His brokenness led to our salvation.

Joni Eareckson Tada wrote, “A friend made a special cross for me. She had placed, in the wet plaster of paris, small pieces of broken china, all different colors and some pieces with gold trim. And because the cross was made of shattered things, of broken china, it just meant so much. It was a reminder that Christ is building His kingdom with earth’s broken things—broken people. People want only the strong, the successful, the victorious, the unbroken, in building their kingdoms but God? He is the God of the unsuccessful, of those who have failed, of those who have suffered and suffered deeply. Of those who are broken, heaven is filling with earth’s broken lives, and there is no bruised reed that Christ cannot take and restore to glorious blessedness and beauty.”[1]

Just as the boy offered what he had to Jesus, so too we can offer to Jesus what we have - even if it's just the broken pieces of our life. Jesus can use it as a means of multiplied blessing to others. And just like there was nothing wasted in the mass feeding (John 6:12-13), God will not waste our broken pieces either. -DM

---

[1] Joni Eareckson Tada, “Broken Things,” Joni & Friends, 23 November 2017 <https://www.joniandfriends.org/broken-things/>

The Danger of Drifting

English explorer William Parry became famous for his expeditions to the North Pole. In 1827 he took a crew to the Arctic Ocean for the purpose of making charts of unmapped territories. His expedition led him farther north than anyone had ever been previously. Of course, in those days there was no GPS, so Parry and his men calculated their position by the stars. As they started an exceedingly difficult and treacherous journey marching north, they walked hour upon hour until they were totally exhausted and finally stopped. Taking their bearings from the stars they discovered that they were further south than when they had started. How could this possibly be? Parry discovered the shocking fact—his men had been walking on an ice float that was drifting south faster than they had been walking north![1]

What happened to William Parry geographically, can happen to us spiritually with even more disastrous results. The writer of Hebrews warned us, “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it” (2:1). Spiritual drift can happen to any Christian, no matter how long or how faithfully we have been serving the Lord. In fact, I would wager that spiritual drift is responsible for more castaways of the faith than even the storms of life.

C.S. Lewis wrote in his classic book Mere Christianity, “If you examined a hundred who had lost their faith in Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have been reasoned out of it by honest argument? Do not most people simply drift away without realizing it?”[2]

Perhaps, one sign of spiritual drift that we can clearly point to is the headline from FOX NEWS which ran a few days before Easter 2021, “Church attendance drops below 50% in US, poll finds.” The article reported that church attendance has hit an all-time low in the US, of course the main culprit was the COVID pandemic, which caused many churches to shut down for good.^[3]

The unique circumstances of COVID revealed which believers were anchored in Christ and those who were not. 2020 created a disrupted world in which drift was a greater danger than ever.

 When I think of spiritual drift three words come to mind. First, its imperceptible; meaning that we can slowly fade away from Bible reading, prayer and church fellowship without even realizing it’s happening. In fact, drifting is the easiest thing to do, because it takes no effort at all. It’s our default setting because our tendency is never to drift towards godliness. Second, its irresponsible. Note the key admonition in Hebrews 2:1, “we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard.” Drifting happens because we let carelessness creep in. Like a mariner who adjusts his sails and rudder with the winds, we too must be making constant course corrections in our spiritual lives, lest we become a castaway. Third, spiritual drift can be irreversible. One thing I’ve learned about drifting – the longer you drift the harder it is to get back to harbor. I know stories of people who drifted too far, too long and they ended up shipwrecked. There is a point of “no return” and if we don’t stop the drift, we can be pulled over the falls!

Spiritual drift may be a deceiving force, but it doesn’t have to be a decided fact. We can resist the under-toe of the flesh, the winds of worldliness and Satan’s squalls. We have a captain who walks on the water and can pull us out of the high waves! I’m glad James 4:8 is still in the Bible,  

“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” The old question is still worth pondering, “If you find yourself far from God, then guess who moved?” Have you drifted from God? Cry out to Jesus and you will find Him to be a sturdy anchor! -DM  

 

I was sinking deep in sin / Far from the peaceful shore  

Very deeply stained within / Sinking to rise no more

But the Master of the sea / Heard my despairing cry

From the waters lifted me / Now safe am I

Love lifted me / Love lifted me

When nothing else could help

Love lifted me

---

[1] David Jeremiah, Hebrews: The Supremacy & Sufficiency of Christ, vol. 1 (San Diego, CA: Turning Point, 2012), 32.  

[2] C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (San Francisco: Harper One, 1952), 141.

[3] Peter Aitken, “Church attendance drops below 50% in US, poll finds,” FOX NEWS, 29 March 2021

<https://www.foxnews.com/us/church-membership-below-50-percent-gallup-poll>