Faithful Answers—No Labels, No Accusations: Daniel 9: 4-9; John 8: 1-11
A few years ago, my good friend decided to give up caffeine for Lent. Given the tremendous amount she drank, I was nervous how this would go. Day one, she was all smiles and said she felt better than ever. Day two, she said there was some anxiety and jitters, but it was probably normal. Day three I went to check on her. She was sitting in a dark office. I cautiously asked if she was alright. She was sitting there with a tremendous headache, hands jittering, a clear lack of sleep. She said, “I love Jesus with all my heart, but if I don’t get a cup of coffee immediately, I’m going to need more help than the Holy Spirit to hold me back!”
For some, the discipline of fasting in Lent is a bit more complicated by years of coffee addiction. She began to cry saying that she had failed, this meant she was a sinner, that she couldn’t do anything right faith-wise. I’m pretty sure it was the un-caffeinated insanity talking, so I told her that living with struggles and shortcomings does not indicate failure. The whole ordeal is a reminder—we are a society that likes to accuse and label both others and ourselves.
If you live with Alzheimer’s or dementia, society acts as if you are helpless. If you have a disability, society tends to infantilize you or treat you like a child. If you have mental health struggles, there’s a sense of repulsion in society. We have labels and associations for everything: race, age, ability, gender, sexuality, employment, social status. One could say that our society is very judgy. It makes things easy to label, compartmentalize, and follow whatever associations we may have with those labels and accusations.
The problem is that all of them tend to operate in a place of condemnation or they summon up the idea of something bad. And we all know this. If you say someone is an older adult, there are associations of slow driving, being fussy, going to S&S Cafeteria. If you say someone is really young, we think inexperience, emotional immaturity, and so on. Think how many of our labels carry a weight of negativity with them. When we label someone based on what we see, it almost always carries some measure of condemnation for that person.
We see that in the Gospel. A woman is brought to Jesus with a label, an accusation—adulterer, caught in the act, a sinner. And I’m sure that for someone caught in adultery there were much worse words that could be said. The crowd has two devious plans going at the same time: to get this woman punished by death and to trap Jesus into saying something they could turn around and label or accuse him of in return. It was a double whammy both to bring condemnation to the woman and a plot to entrap Jesus.
But I’ll give you a more recent example of such negative language. My good friend is working on a new business venture. He and a buddy are doing a mobile pet grooming business. We were talking about getting the corporation set up, advertising, and such like that. He said to me, “Don’t get me wrong…I’m scared of failing.” As I was writing this sermon, I decided to go full on pastor mode. I responded, “It’s never failing It’s finding new ways to do something, and I’ve got your back in this.” To those who gleefully wanted to have this woman stoned to death for her sin, Jesus said that the one without any sin can cast the first stone. Society’s problem is there’s a lot of stones being cast, but not a lot of self-examination to see if the caster of stones is blameless enough to pick up that stone in the first place.
There are ample places where Jesus does not condemn folks. Romans 8 says there is no condemnation in Christ. Romans 3 reiterates the same. And here, Jesus asks the woman where her accusers are, and did not one of them condemn her. Jesus then says, “Neither do I.” But it’s not so simple as just that. There is still one issue remaining here.
This woman was caught in the act of adultery. And adultery is still wrong, no matter how you much love and forgiveness is found in the story. It still breaks the sacred promise of the covenant between two who are married. There’s no way around the fact that she did, in fact, do something wrong. Jesus’s words of forgiveness and restoration for this woman are still followed by, “Go and sin no more.” We also read the power of a humble repentance in Daniel.
Daniel confesses, on behalf of the people, their rebelliousness, their selfish ways, their bad behavior before God. But just as badly as the people had behaved, God’s forgiveness and grace is equally as expansive. Daniel says, “But the Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against [God].” I believe it’s implied in the Gospel that Jesus knew the woman was sorry and repentant. And the whole purpose of Jesus’s ministry was not to stone people to death when they were truly sorry, but to offer forgiveness.
The faithful answer to any shortcoming, sin, or perceived failure is repentance and restoration. The words “I’m sorry” may not fix every bad thing we have ever done, but they get us on the road to realigning ourselves with faith and love in this world. But for those who seem unable to see the harm they’ve caused or don’t ever care to apologize or repent, remember to move on. They will never find a place of repentance and apology until God has dealt with them. The people Daniel prayed for were in slavery and conquered because of their bad behavior. The woman in the Gospel was brought literally to the brink before Jesus intervened. God will deal with hearts and minds. Just let it go and let God work.
Lastly, many folks struggle with this idea of no condemnation. Surely, we have to call out what is wrong, right? Surely, we must stand against people’s wrongdoing, sin, the things we collectively know as evil, right? Consider the perspective The problem is not that we are letting people go free in their wrongdoing, nor is it an issue with holding others accountable. The question is this…are we the ones without sin who can cast the first stone? If we are guilty, then we cannot condemn. We must work out our own repentance and restoration. It’s Jesus’s polite way of saying, “Mind your own business.”
Lent is the season of fasting. We tend to give up something as a spiritual discipline to remove that particular distraction and focus on our relationship with God more. My friend tried this. She was bound and determined to give up coffee. I think where she lost her way was only going half the distance. Lent is not just about giving something up. It’s purposeful. It’s about giving something up to work on our relationship with God. Now, if she had given up coffee to focus more on health or to add in more communion, or to use the coffee-making/drinking time for prayer, it would have been more purposeful.
Pope Francis said a few years ago that there is a better way to fast for Lent. Fast from hurting words and say kind words. Fast from sadness and be filled with gratitude. Fast from anger and be filled with patience. Fast from pessimism and be filled with hope. Fast from worries and trust in God. Fast from complaints and contemplate simplicity. Fast from pressures and be prayerful. Fast from bitterness and focus on life’s joy. Fast from selfishness and be compassionate towards others. Fast from grudges and find healing. Fast from words and be silent enough to listen.
Let me add to that for you. Fast from condemning, labelling, stereotyping, and seek to make disciples for God’s kingdom. Fast from self-harm, self-hate, and personal negativity, and seek gentleness. The entire work of Jesus’s ministry was to take a world of suffering and condemnation and offer a way to forgiveness and love. I pray we find ourselves doing this same work as we seek to follow Jesus.
Worship video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/368707449383634