Friday | Week 7
The scene from John 8:1-11 is familiar to many. The Pharisees could care less about socially scorning the woman guilty of adultery. They knew she deserved death (see Leviticus 20:10), so their real ambition that day was to put Jesus to the test. “What do you say we do with her, Jesus?” Letting her live would break the Mosaic Law. Letting her be killed without witnesses testifying in court would break the Roman law. One commentator refers to this scene as a “First Century Private Investigation” set up by the Pharisees.
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Thursday | Week 7
Do I matter?
Am I seen?
Two questions I spent a good bit of my adolescence trying to answer. I came from a great family, and I knew they loved me, but that wasn’t enough for some reason. I wanted to matter to people that weren’t required to love me. The way this played out for me was spending a lot of time on my looks, constantly wanting to be with my friends, and doing pretty much whatever it took to be popular.
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Wednesday | Week 7
John 8 begins with “…but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.” You have to read the end of chapter 7 to learn why the “but” is there. Jesus had been teaching in the temple courts and had once again claimed to be the Messiah. This sent the chief priests and Pharisees into a tizzy, and they discussed among themselves what to do about him.
And then they all went home—everyone, that is, but Jesus. He went to the Mount of Olives.
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Tuesday | Week 7
Jesus’ ministry was attacked by the religious leaders at every turn. They were on a diligent mission to destroy His influence, His message of forgiveness and grace. The Pharisees’ job was to enforce Moses’ Law as the only authority to gain acceptance by God. Jesus’ message of grace was totally foreign to their paradigm of thinking. Jesus’ entrance as the fulfillment of that great sacrificial system shook their power structure, so they eagerly take another opportunity to discredit Jesus.
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Monday | Week 7
This passage, an encounter between the teachers of the law, Jesus, and the woman caught in adultery, is one of my favorites. It’s as if Jesus uses this encounter to provide a “show-and-tell” of how to apply the teachings from the Sermon on the Mount to a real life situation.
However, prior to the next few days of digging into this passage, a few words are in order about the unique history of it.
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