I treasure the Gospel of John a lot, because there are many personal love encounters (interviews) with the Lord. Raise your hand if you have ever gone for an interview. I believe all of you who are working have been to interviews. It’s so precious that this eternal Lord, the infinite One, has personal love encounters with each one of us. The Gospel of John specifically records some of them. Some of the situations were really terrible, and yet, the Lord changed them. It’s precious that all of them are personal. These examples show us how to enjoy our personal love encounter with the Lord.
John 8 talks about the woman who had been caught in adultery. Can you imagine how miserable and ashamed she must have felt? The people asked the Lord what to do with her. They wanted to stone her to death.
John 8:3-11
The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery.
Indeed this alone was very shameful for the woman.
Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such woman. What do you say?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him.
Then what did the Lord do?
Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.
If you want to know what the Lord wrote, you can ask Him in the future. I think He will tell you.
And as they continued to ask, 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.
I don’t know what the Lord wrote. He might have written down the sins those people committed, or other more precious things.
But when they heard it, they went away one by one,
At least these people had self-awareness. Nowadays, a lot of people aren’t even aware of their own situation. These people in fact admitted that they were sinners.
and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.
After all the people left, the woman could have left as well. But at that moment she found love. She was left alone with the Lord.
Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.”
What the Lord said afterwards is very precious.
And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
We know the Lord’s love towards us. Yet, it’s hard to have any words that are more precious than what the Lord had said, “Neither do I condemn you.” The Lord’s words gave me great comfort, since I’ve suffered a lot from accusations. The Lord knew that for Him to say these words, He had to die for our sins. If the Lord was not prepared to be crucified, he wouldn’t have been able to say this. The Lord loved her and had to die for her. He didn’t condemn her. He wants us to be saved, not condemned; but for us to be saved, He had to die. His last sentence was very precious: “Go, and from now on sin no more.” It gives us such great hope. He’s the glorious Saviour. He died for us so that we could sin no more. What a great hope He has given us! We can sin no more. I was so touched when the Lord said He did not condemn. So precious that He died for us, and asked us to take this bread and drink from this cup.