CASTING STONES

CASTING STONES
Tuesday, June 13, 2023 by Linda Wood Rondeau

Categories: TUESDAY'S TREASURE

Photo by Yana Druzhinina on Unsplash

TUESDAY’S TREASURE

Linda Wood Rondeau

When should we cast the first stone?

A few years ago, the #metoo movement started ... the hashtag symbolizing someone who’d been sexually mistreated. The movement caught fire and many came out boldly to declare they were a member of the group. casting stones at the powerful … past or present.

Not just related to sexual mistreatment. We declare injustice against us in many ways … usually acting out of anger, rather than working toward effective change. We tear down statues, take a knee during the anthem, sling accusations of mistreatment, and fill social media with our venom about how badly we’ve been treated without offering a path to rectification.

Motivation for the rant may come from various conscious or unconscious reasons:

Fifteen Minutes of Fame
Retribution
Deep-seated anger
Elevating self
Mob psychology

The truth is, because sin exists, most of us have at some time or another been treated inappropriately by someone who has power over us. And many of us who scream, “How unjust!” may very well have been the abuser at some time or another in some other area of our lives.

We somehow think we are more righteous than the one we condemn. Whether we tear down statues, take a knee during the anthem, accuse anyone with power over us of sexual misconduct, smear our forefathers, or any other masked form of self-righteousness, we puff ourselves up in our antagonism … no matter how much we feel the sinner deserves judgment, as well they might.

*Jesus encountered an angry mob who discovered a woman in the act of adultery. Many are quick to ask, “Where was the man?” But let us focus on the woman who won Christ’s compassion. We don’t know the circumstances that brought her to commit sexual sin. We do know the law condemned her, and justice required she be stoned to death.

They brought the frightened woman to Jesus. “What should be done to her?” They didn’t care. They only wanted to trap Jesus in a no-win predicament. If he let her go, he was not following the law … not adhering to the standard of justice the law required. If he said to stone her, he was contradicting his teaching about turning the other cheek.

His answer?

“Those who are without sin, cast the first stone.”

Whether they desired retribution against this woman or not, no one dared be the first to throw a stone. More than likely, if they dared, someone else in the crowd would surely remember a time when that man sinned.

When no one picked up a stone, Jesus then asked the woman, “Where are your accusers?” Since none came forward, Jesus told the woman … “Go and sin no more.”

Forgiveness and forward-thinking had more power than the stones that could have been cast to change the woman’s behavior.

Believers, do you feel wronged? Are your memories producing anger and resentment? Not to ignore the sin, but to remember your sin and learn to forgive. Then and only then can we move forward collectively to make positive change.

“For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23NIV).

*John 8:1-12

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