Devotions Archive Archive: 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 Search Archive Print This Article Confession Monday, March 14, 2005 John 8:1-11 Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" "No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin." Jesus hates self-righteousness much more than he hates promiscuity. The "thou-shalt-nots" of the Ten Commandments might begin to bring me into line with God's plan, but Jesus' Beatitudes pick up where they leave off, and take me much further. In "A Modest Proposal" Richard Mouw notes a suggestion made by novelist Kurt Vonnegut: Vonnegut noted that there is a lot of talk lately about making the Ten Commandments visible in public places, but no one ever seems to mention the Beatitudes as having any meaning for our public life. Why not? He asks ... So, proposes Vonnegut, let's put "Blessed are the merciful" signs in our courtrooms. And let's have a big "Blessed are the peacemakers" billboard in the Pentagon ... People like me can push for this sort of move, but no one will really pay any attention. But if the President and a well-known novelist were to team up in urging the justices of the Supreme Court to endorse the public display of the Beatitudes - well, then we might actually get somewhere. The more I think about the idea, the more I like it. President Bush, please contact Kurt Vonnegut immediately. Jesus insisted that both the accusers and accused look only at themselves, not at each other. Self-examination, not self-righteousness, became the goal. The result then must be confession and submission, not defensiveness or self-pity. When I need God's love, he will pour it out. And when I am filled up with that love, I will pour it out too. "Speak the truth in love," I am told. I cannot do that unless and until I am filled up with God's love - which I only experience in the midst of recognizing and telling him about my own evil, my own nastiness, my own sin. Open my eyes, Lord, to how I turn away from you, turn toward myself, turn against others that you have made. And give me the courage to speak out to you. "; Add      Edit    Delete