Lectionary Reading: Luke 14:25-33
When Jesus stood with the woman caught in the act of adultery and challenged the crowd to examine themselves instead of looking at her he gave a bold statement. “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”. The crowd, shocked or shamed by the sin they saw inside themselves, put down their stones and walked away. But, what if they hadn’t? What if some person convinced of his or her own righteousness or deluded by rationalizations about the law tossed a rock in the woman’s direction? What if one single rock flew over the heads of the onlookers and struck her vulnerable body? I know what would happen and so do you. She would soon die under a barrage of similarly thrown stones.
In my mind’s eye I can see the disciples holding Jesus back from shielding her with his own body. After all, this was not how Jesus was to die. I can see Peter wrapping his strong fisherman’s arms around Christ to prevent him from diving to her rescue and Jesus straining against them to save her. I envision the silent cries of anguish emanating from him as he sees her life blood flow from the hard jagged surfaces of stone judgment. Her family would come and take her body away. The crowd, feeling good about their moral policing, walking away quietly when the reality of what they had done set in and the horror of the act became inescapable. Then I begin to wonder. What would Jesus do next?
I imagine he would go back to the place and slowly pick up the stained stones still lying on the ground. With his tears he would wash the blood from those stones, and clean them on his own robe. Stacking them beside him as he again sits and draws on the ground; he creates a plan. What will he do with the stones? Perhaps he will use them to build a lasting memory – something functional like a well, a table or a bridge so people could see the reclamation of these stones. Yes, I believe he would make a bridge of stones so that others may cross the waters into Grace. From his bold belief in people would come a monument to second chances for them, and for the rocks they threw. Fortunately, for that woman and that crowd, we will never know because self-righteous justification was not present on that day and the stones stayed on the ground where they belonged.
In the lectionary passage today, Jesus makes another bold statement. It is one that challenges some of the very ideas we have come to expect from Christianity. It, again, shows Jesus’ unrivaled belief in people and their ability to look inside instead of around.
Anti-Family Values?
We hear a lot about family values from Christian groups, political bodies and organizations. Whether it’s preserving the “traditional family” from external unknown assailants, reinforcing ideas about gender roles, or advocating spanking and home schooling as a way to control the behavioral development of kids, “family values” has become the buzzword for the religious right’s crusade to get Christians to reflect the kind of image that they think is Christian. In a more profound and meaningful way, different from the public image, family values is the idea of a close knit family tied together not only by blood, but by their faith and what it means to them as a source of identity. What does Jesus say about family values?
Hate your father and mother.
WHAT? That’s not right! Let’s look at it again…
Break away
Jesus is not asking for you to pull away from your loved ones in some riotous teenage rebellion but he is making a bold statement to challenge you to break away from crowd mentality. It is mob mentality, family peer pressure and inherited religion without thought or mercy that Jesus is trying to eliminate. Jesus is telling the masses (and us) that following him will not give you the right to throw stones. It will commit you to a life of God’s desire to leave the rocks on the ground.
In a culture of people whose religion was handed down to them from their family for generations, change comes hard. That’s what repentance is – drastic change. For the people of that age to embrace Christianity means breaking away from what your parents, siblings, spouse and kids think is the only way to do things. Christianity will ask its followers to put the law of God’s love above the mosaic law of judgment and habit. Christianity will require people to let go of the old system of synagogue sacrifices and days of atonement, and accept one sacrifice for all people for all time. Christianity means letting go of everything you know, are, and were prophesied to be and accepting God’s version of you.
“If you are going to follow me,” Jesus warns, “make sure in advance that you can pay the price.” If your father’s idea of the perfect you is that you will be perfect, non-argumentative, take no risks that won’t pay off, and always arrive prepared and on time for every assignment – you may have to repent of that image. Life in Christ is full of the unexpected, challenging and amazing turns required to stay in the path God has placed us. You may have to think new thoughts. You may have to raise your voice. You may show up late for church because God asked you to help your neighbor. If your spouse has gotten used to you being the person you always were, life in Christ may change you into a new creation. Christ is asking us to acknowledge with both conviction and assurance that all we have to be is who God made us to be.
Christianity is not a religion, it’s a relationship. It isn’t meant to be inherited from others. It is meant to be forged as a daily walk of learning and hope. It changes us. It changes the world. Grace and hope for all people are family values worth having.
Free in Love
Why does Christ give us this bold challenge? To free us. We cannot choose our DNA, but we can choose what we do with it. We cannot choose our family, but we can choose Jesus Christ as Lord, and we can bring others into the family of God. We must free ourselves from duty to the past, Jesus tells us, to walk without fetters into God’s future.
In the world we inhabit now, you usually don’t have to leave your family identity to become an active believer in Jesus Christ. However, you should be prepared for God to change you in ways your family never imagined. God wants to free you to be in love with God, and share that love throughout this world. No parent, sibling or spouse will stand in between you and God. It’s a unique relationship built on Christ and no one else.
When life is brought before you – like the adulterous woman – it is a freeing thing to realize it was not your family name that put you in that crowd. It was the name of Jesus. It is not who you are married to (or if you are married at all) that gives you the ability to pick up stones or put them down; it’s the relationship you have with Christ that tells you what to do. It is not your children who are your future in heaven, but the blood of the lamb who died on the cross. Whether you damage or deliver is not about the outside influences. It’s about who is inside you.
The world kneels before you: sinful, scared and vulnerable. The stones are on the ground. You are free to decide. Will you blindly follow the rules you were taught and without listening, prayer or mercy pick up a stone to throw or will you follow Jesus and use the stones to build a bridge to God?
When Jesus stood with the woman caught in the act of adultery and challenged the crowd to examine themselves instead of looking at her he gave a bold statement. “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”. The crowd, shocked or shamed by the sin they saw inside themselves, put down their stones and walked away. But, what if they hadn’t? What if some person convinced of his or her own righteousness or deluded by rationalizations about the law tossed a rock in the woman’s direction? What if one single rock flew over the heads of the onlookers and struck her vulnerable body? I know what would happen and so do you. She would soon die under a barrage of similarly thrown stones.
In my mind’s eye I can see the disciples holding Jesus back from shielding her with his own body. After all, this was not how Jesus was to die. I can see Peter wrapping his strong fisherman’s arms around Christ to prevent him from diving to her rescue and Jesus straining against them to save her. I envision the silent cries of anguish emanating from him as he sees her life blood flow from the hard jagged surfaces of stone judgment. Her family would come and take her body away. The crowd, feeling good about their moral policing, walking away quietly when the reality of what they had done set in and the horror of the act became inescapable. Then I begin to wonder. What would Jesus do next?
I imagine he would go back to the place and slowly pick up the stained stones still lying on the ground. With his tears he would wash the blood from those stones, and clean them on his own robe. Stacking them beside him as he again sits and draws on the ground; he creates a plan. What will he do with the stones? Perhaps he will use them to build a lasting memory – something functional like a well, a table or a bridge so people could see the reclamation of these stones. Yes, I believe he would make a bridge of stones so that others may cross the waters into Grace. From his bold belief in people would come a monument to second chances for them, and for the rocks they threw. Fortunately, for that woman and that crowd, we will never know because self-righteous justification was not present on that day and the stones stayed on the ground where they belonged.
In the lectionary passage today, Jesus makes another bold statement. It is one that challenges some of the very ideas we have come to expect from Christianity. It, again, shows Jesus’ unrivaled belief in people and their ability to look inside instead of around.
Anti-Family Values?
We hear a lot about family values from Christian groups, political bodies and organizations. Whether it’s preserving the “traditional family” from external unknown assailants, reinforcing ideas about gender roles, or advocating spanking and home schooling as a way to control the behavioral development of kids, “family values” has become the buzzword for the religious right’s crusade to get Christians to reflect the kind of image that they think is Christian. In a more profound and meaningful way, different from the public image, family values is the idea of a close knit family tied together not only by blood, but by their faith and what it means to them as a source of identity. What does Jesus say about family values?
Hate your father and mother.
WHAT? That’s not right! Let’s look at it again…
Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: "If anyoneIf the entire anchor of Christianity is love, then why is Jesus saying this? It seems about as anti-family, anti-love and anti-sense as you get. This is a hate speech. He isn’t serious, is he? How could a rabbi who was taught “Honor your mother and father” from birth turn around and say this?
comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his
brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. And anyone
who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. (Luke
14:25-27).
Break away
Jesus is not asking for you to pull away from your loved ones in some riotous teenage rebellion but he is making a bold statement to challenge you to break away from crowd mentality. It is mob mentality, family peer pressure and inherited religion without thought or mercy that Jesus is trying to eliminate. Jesus is telling the masses (and us) that following him will not give you the right to throw stones. It will commit you to a life of God’s desire to leave the rocks on the ground.
In a culture of people whose religion was handed down to them from their family for generations, change comes hard. That’s what repentance is – drastic change. For the people of that age to embrace Christianity means breaking away from what your parents, siblings, spouse and kids think is the only way to do things. Christianity will ask its followers to put the law of God’s love above the mosaic law of judgment and habit. Christianity will require people to let go of the old system of synagogue sacrifices and days of atonement, and accept one sacrifice for all people for all time. Christianity means letting go of everything you know, are, and were prophesied to be and accepting God’s version of you.
“If you are going to follow me,” Jesus warns, “make sure in advance that you can pay the price.” If your father’s idea of the perfect you is that you will be perfect, non-argumentative, take no risks that won’t pay off, and always arrive prepared and on time for every assignment – you may have to repent of that image. Life in Christ is full of the unexpected, challenging and amazing turns required to stay in the path God has placed us. You may have to think new thoughts. You may have to raise your voice. You may show up late for church because God asked you to help your neighbor. If your spouse has gotten used to you being the person you always were, life in Christ may change you into a new creation. Christ is asking us to acknowledge with both conviction and assurance that all we have to be is who God made us to be.
Christianity is not a religion, it’s a relationship. It isn’t meant to be inherited from others. It is meant to be forged as a daily walk of learning and hope. It changes us. It changes the world. Grace and hope for all people are family values worth having.
Free in Love
Why does Christ give us this bold challenge? To free us. We cannot choose our DNA, but we can choose what we do with it. We cannot choose our family, but we can choose Jesus Christ as Lord, and we can bring others into the family of God. We must free ourselves from duty to the past, Jesus tells us, to walk without fetters into God’s future.
In the world we inhabit now, you usually don’t have to leave your family identity to become an active believer in Jesus Christ. However, you should be prepared for God to change you in ways your family never imagined. God wants to free you to be in love with God, and share that love throughout this world. No parent, sibling or spouse will stand in between you and God. It’s a unique relationship built on Christ and no one else.
When life is brought before you – like the adulterous woman – it is a freeing thing to realize it was not your family name that put you in that crowd. It was the name of Jesus. It is not who you are married to (or if you are married at all) that gives you the ability to pick up stones or put them down; it’s the relationship you have with Christ that tells you what to do. It is not your children who are your future in heaven, but the blood of the lamb who died on the cross. Whether you damage or deliver is not about the outside influences. It’s about who is inside you.
The world kneels before you: sinful, scared and vulnerable. The stones are on the ground. You are free to decide. Will you blindly follow the rules you were taught and without listening, prayer or mercy pick up a stone to throw or will you follow Jesus and use the stones to build a bridge to God?
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