When Jesus wrote on the ground; studies, expositions and meditations in the life of the spirit

Front matter

PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY

The Estate of the Rev. John B. Wiedinger

Wh9en6Jesus wrote on the

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I THE TOWEL AND THE BASIN 1 3

Study of an Unconventional Portrait of Jesus.

II When Jesus Wrote Ox The Ground

"The Scarlet Letter" in our Lord's Time. An Exposition of John 8 : i - 1 1

[But Jesus went unto the mount of Olives. And early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came unto Him; and He sat down, and taught them. And the scribes and the Pharisees bring a woman taken in adultery; and having set her in the midst, they say unto Him, Teacher, this woman hath been taken in adultery, in the very act. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such : what then sayest thou of her ? And this they said, trying Him, that they might have whereof to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground. But when they continued asking Him, He lifted up Himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again He stooped down, and with His finger wrote on the ground. And they, when they heard it, went out one by one, beginning from the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus lifted up Himself, and said unto her, Woman, where are they? Did no man condemn thee? And she said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said, Neither do I condemn thee : go thy way ; from henceforth sin no more.]

II

There is a curious fact in connection with this passage of Scripture. In the Revised Version, the eleven verses together with the last verse of the preceding chapter are set off by themselves and bracketed. At the bottom of the page is a notation which reads, "Most of the ancient authorities omit John 7 :53, 8 :i- 11. Those which contain it vary much from each other." What does this mean? It means that this particular Scripture is not a part of the original manuscript of John's Gospel. It signifies, not that the incident is unauthentic, but that it is not entitled to a place in this particular book or gospel without explanation. Even a casual student of the Scriptures will observe that the incident has little or no connection with what goes before or comes after; that it breaks in unexpectedly upon John's quiet discursive narrative. It is an interloper, so to speak, and properly belongs set off and bracketed, by itself.

The interesting question is, how does an interpolation of this kind come about. It is not an isolated instance, but one of two or three. The sixteenth chapter of Mark, from the ninth to the nineteenth verses, is of a similar character; that is, it does not belong to the original Gospel of Mark. The explanation is simple. 29

There is recorded in the four Gospels only a small portion of what Jesus said and did. John himself says in the last verse of his Gospel, "There are also many other things which Jesus did, the which if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that should be written." This is, of course, a dramatic and emphatic way of saying that only a few of the incidents in the life of Jesus have been preserved in the sacred writings. Before these records were written down in the form that we now have them, they were committed to memory and passed on from person to person orally. It must be true in the very nature of the case that we have only fragments of Jesus' teaching, although they are sufficient for their purpose. It would not be at all surprising, however, now that the Turk has been driven out of Palestine, that excavations in the vicinity of Jerusalem should reveal additional manuscripts of sayings and events in His life, and possibly epistles of Paul.

With these facts in mind we are in a position to understand why this memorable incident is bracketed and set apart in the Revised Version of the Holy Scriptures. To summarize: it does not belong properly to John's Gospel, but the truth of the incident is not at all questioned. Indeed the episode bears upon its face the credentials of fact. It paints a portrait of Jesus, in perfect keeping with the record of His life in the Gospels, in the midst of a very unusual and trying situation.

The incident evidently occurred at that period in Jesus' ministry when His popularity with the masses had intensified the hatred of the Scribes and Pharisees against Him. Moreover His denunciation of many of the religious leaders of His day as "Blind guides," "Hypocrites," "Whited sepulchers," had fed their wrath to a white heat. Thus while He is teaching in the Temple the Scribes and the Pharisees bring a woman before Him, and charge her with having broken the seventh commandment. They testify against her and aver that beyond any doubt she is guilty. They cite with unction the Law of Moses, which commanded such a transgressor to be stoned, and submit the case to Jesus with the query, "What then sayest Thou of her?"

Now the purpose of this most unusual occurrence is indicated in the sixth verse, "That they might have whereof to accuse Him." They did not bring the woman to Jesus because they were deeply grieved or shocked at her conduct. They were not interested in the morals of Jerusalem particularly. They brought her that they might confuse and entrap Jesus. There is something diabolical in such a purpose, and the method the enemies of Jesus resorted to in this instance to carry it out. To come bringing this woman into the presence of Jesus with such a charge reveals a hardness of heart that is almost incredible. The wily Scribes and Pharisees tried upon numerous occasions to entrap Jesus in His talk, but in no other record of their malignant trickery is there such a vehicle employed as in this incident. They simply took advantage of the guilt of this woman to further their own evil designs against Jesus. They reasoned that He would be disconcerted, to say the least. They believed they had Him between the horns of a dilemma, and that they had Him fast. If He said "let the woman die in accordance with the Law of Moses," they could frame an accusation against Him before Pilate, that this new King or religious teacher was actually presuming to judge cases involving life and death. If, on the other hand, He bade them to let the woman go, they could charge Him with heretical teaching, and brand Him as a traverser of the Law of Moses. We may believe that they fairly chortled in their malicious glee.

The scene was one of shameful depravity, a strange commingling of indelicacy and brazen effrontery. Behold that strange court! There is the calm and purehearted, clear-eyed Christ; there the company of Scribes and Pharisees, self-righteous, hating the Galilean teacher, congratulating themselves that they have caught Him at last in the snare from which He cannot escape; and there in the midst is the pitiful spectacle of the woman charged with the transgression of the Law. The poor woman shrinks from such cruel and uncalledfor public arraignment, knowing full well that her accusers have not haled her before this Teacher because they are shocked by her guilt or interested in the morals of Jerusalem. It is a most unlovely scene. No wonder few sermons are preached upon this incident, or that commentaries touch lightly upon this fragment appended to John's Gospel.

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It is difficult to portray what must have been the feelings of Jesus, but there is a wealth of suggestion as shown by His actions that followed this unseemly act. Jesus stooped down and wrote with His finger on the ground. The very act is significant and is one of those little human touches which bring Jesus close to us. For instance, a friend engages you in conversation at a street corner. The talk takes a personal turn, and as you listen you draw lines or figures in the dust of the street with the toe of your shoe, your cane or umbrella. Or again, you are talking over the telephone, and the while you draw pictures or make figures on a piece of paper, or scribble on the cover of the telephone directory. This is characteristic of human nature; it is sometimes a token of emotion or confusion, oftener a mere diversion. In Jesus' case, however, it indicated something more than embarrassment and something less than confusion. The sheer coarseness of the thing, the indelicacy of the act on the part of the woman's accusers of bringing her before Him; their malignant desire to entrap Him — all this reacted upon the keen mind and pure heart of Jesus in such a way that He did not care to look upon the guilty woman, nor meet the impudent stare of her hardhearted accusers. Therefore, He stooped down and wrote on the ground.

The accusers of the woman mistook the action of Jesus. They thought they saw in His averted face and His writing upon the ground confusion and deep embarrassment. They assumed He did not know how to answer them. Therefore, they pressed Him the more for an answer. Alas ! for them, they got an answer they little expected. Jesus lifted Himself up and said unto them, "He that is without sin among you let him first cast a stone at her." Then He stooped down and with His finger again wrote on the ground. That was a surprise to the group of Scribes and Pharisees. They never surmised such an answer as that. Instantly each man was compelled to sit in judgment upon himself. Immediately after Jesus' answer, not only the accused but the accusers were on trial. In this connection there is a most interesting flashlight upon this entire passage of Scripture. The notation in the Revised Version informs us that this incident varies much in the various manuscripts where it is found. In one of the manuscripts there is a startling difference in the eighth verse. The sentence is made to say, "He wrote upon the ground the sins of each single one of them," and the ninth verse, "And they when they read it, went out one by one, beginning from the eldest even unto the last." This gives an extra dramatic setting to Jesus' answer and the writing on the ground.

Imagine the scene according to this reading. The Pharisees bring in the woman, they make their charge. Jesus, affecting not to hear them, writes on the ground They continue to badger Him until He looks up and says, "He that is without sin among you let him first cast a stone at her." Then again he stoops down and writes upon the ground. What is He writing there? The foremost Pharisee is, of course, the oldest, for according to the custom of the Orient the oldest in the company is at the front. This old Pharisee looks down on the ground where Jesus is writing, and there he sees that Jesus has just written the record of a great sin that he has committed, and which he thinks is known to no one but himself. His conscience awakes with a flash. He turns swiftly and edges away from the crowd. Jesus has swept His hand across the ground to smooth it over and writes again. The next Pharisee reads and recognizes a hidden scene in his life, and he too, flees, and thus it goes on until all the accusers one by one, having seen written on the ground their own secret sin, depart silently and swiftly, leaving the woman alone with Jesus.

This version of the memorable incident may not be the correct one, but it is interesting and precisely to the point. Whether or not Jesus actually wrote on the ground the specific sin of each man, His very act of silence and of eloquent indictment sent a chill of selfjudgment to every man's soul. What ! only those without sin cast a stone at this sinful woman. It was an embarrassing answer. It went straight home. Not a man could meet the test. They went out from the eldest to the youngest, having adjudged themselves to be guilty. There is a far-reaching rebuke and warning in the answer of Jesus to the Scribes and Pharisees. Nothing is easier than the picking out of a person who has committed a notorious sin and in self-righteous pride pointing the finger of scorn at the poor unfortunate. It has been one of the travesties of justice that individuals have been made to suffer for crimes, while communities that were particeps criminis have gone scot-free. Every wrong that is committed by an individual has in one way or another a rootage in the wrong of a community. We are under obligation to revise our methods of dealing with sin and transgression of the moral law. As members of society we are in part to blame. Each one of us has a share in the crime of poverty, drunkenness, and the long list of sins. Not each one of us is individually guilty, but we are a part of an order of society that has produced and sometimes fostered these delinquencies.

in

The accusers one by one go away and Jesus is left alone with the accused. Again it is not difficult to imagine the scene. There is Jesus with His stainless life, His pure heart and clean mind; and there before Him is the woman who feels in her soul the searching purity of the Teacher to whom she has been brought. She makes bold to look in His eyes and upon His face, and in the presence of such wholeness of character, she sees her own life, and away deep down chords begin to vibrate that have been silent for years. What will Jesus do with the woman ? Will He rebuke her? Will He deal with her as He did with the Scribes and Pharisees? Never. He lifted Himself up and said unto her, "Woman, where are they? Did no man condemn thee?" And she said, "No man, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn thee; go thy way, from henceforth sin no more." Jesus saw that this woman was self-condemned, and out of penitence there comes always a new life. He sought to restore confidence and impart hope to this woman by letting her know that He believed in her. Others might expect her to sin; He expected her to abandon sin. The very attitude that Jesus took toward her brought about a new attitude on her part toward her sin. There is no making light of her sin on Jesus' part, but the dealing with the situation in such a way as to bring about repentance which is a ceasing to do evil and a learning to do well.

We do not know what became of this woman. She drops out of the narrative as abruptly as she came in, but we may believe that from that hour she was a changed soul. The recollection of that experience would be a memory to bless and burn. We have a right to believe that she went away from the presence of Jesus that memorable day with hope singing in her heart. Oh, that the world would begin to deal with men and women according to the standard of Jesus Christ. Society has been slow to adopt the single standard of morality. Woman is the age-old sufferer — man the long time privileged sex. On the whole this is "a man's world." Only since the great war has England placed both sexes on an equality in the matter of divorce. Hitherto the husband could divorce his wife for infidelity to the marriage vow, the wife had no recourse against her husband for a similar wrong. In one of our states, until a few years ago, the law permitted a husband to obtain a divorce upon proof of a single violation of the marriage vow, while the wife was compelled to prove habitual violation on the part of her husband. The debt of woman to the teachings and spirit of Jesus is unpayably great. He championed her rights as He did the rights of the child. In this singularly impressive incident of the lone woman and her accusers, there is more than a suggestion of the right method to pursue in dealing with sin and society. Penalizing the woman and letting the man go free is neither just nor expedient.

"Christ's method of dealing with the social evil," said Dr. Lyman Abbott, "is in principle precisely the same as His method of dealing with crime — the method, not of permission and regulation, not of mere prohibition and punishment, but of compassion and cure. It is the method which Christian charity is pursuing with reasonable measure of success in individual cases — but, alas! in too few. It condemns licentiousness in man and woman alike — in one no less than in the other. In so far as this licentiousness is a violation of the social order, Christ's method would prohibit it by law. The lawbreaker would be arrested, not to be punished for her sin, but to be cured of it, to be separated from the evil influences which would lead her into paths of virtue, and wherever the cure could not be effected, to be kept in confinement for the rest of her life, not to punish her for past sin, but to protect her and to protect the community from sin in the future. Not until our civilization shall have wrought out in life what Hawthorne wrought out in 'The Scarlet Letter' and the man takes his stand in the pillory by the woman, and the scarlet letter is on the breast of the one as on the breast of the other, and both alike bear the ineffable shame, and each helps the other back to the ineffable glory, shall we find Christ's remedy."

In connection with this Scripture I recall an episode which will remain with me as long as memory lasts. A member of the church to which I minister brought to my study a young woman whom she had rescued from the streets. The girl — for she was little more — was the victim of betrayal, and had been driven away from her makeshift of a home and deserted. She was different from most of her type, the charm of modesty was not all gone, the bloom of maidenhood had not been entirely destroyed. She was broken utterly and desired to begin life all over again and accept Jesus as her Saviour and Friend. She had had little, if any, religious training and knew scarcely nothing of the content of the Scriptures, even the Gospels. As I looked at her I was deeply touched by her plight. She resembled a beautiful winged butterfly that had been caught in a driving rain, beaten to earth, bruised and unable to fly. I found speech difficult and decided to read to her from the New Testament. Something prompted me to turn to this passage from St. John which I read slowly and without comment. When I had finished I looked up to see before me a face transfigured, though suffused with tears. Her eyes were wet but eloquent with the speech her tongue could not tell ; they spoke as so many words and said : "Is that in the Bible? Did Jesus say that? O, God be praised ! there is hope and pardon for me, even me!"

Ill

A Summit View From the Mount Blanc of the Scriptures

I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given me to do.

I pray not that Thou shouldest take them from the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil one.

And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, tha£ they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on me through their word ; that they may all be one ; even as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in us : that the world may believe Thou didst send me.

John 17:26.

I in them.

Ill

When John Knox, the famous Scotch reformer, was dying, his wife sat by his bedside and asked if she should read from the Word. "Yes," he replied, "where I first cast anchor." Thereupon she read from John, the seventeenth chapter. As the dying man grew weaker and the power of speech failed him, another standing by called to him loudly as to one journeying afar, "John Knox, hast thou hope?" He slowly lifted his finger and pointed upward. That was all, and that was enough.

Others besides Knox have called for this chapter as the lamp of life grew dim. It is said of Bossuet, the renowned French preacher, that by his request this chapter was read to him sixty times during his last illness. Profounder Scripture than this there is not in all the Bible. It is the great High Priestly prayer of our Lord, and there is none like it. In the course of his last lecture given shortly before his death, Melanchthon said : "There is no voice which has ever been heard either in heaven or in earth, more exalted, more holy, more fruitful, more sublime, than this prayer offered up by the son of God." Fitting, is it not, that at the close of his most remarkable discourse there should follow this most remarkable of His prayers? The 43 twenty-six verses of this chapter fall naturally into four sections : First, Jesus' prayer for Himself ; second, Jesus' prayer for His disciples ; third, Jesus' prayer for subsequent believers; and fourth, a final confidential utterance from Son to Father.

One approaches this intercessory prayer of Jesus' with something akin to awe. A great and devout student of the Scriptures who spent a life interpreting and proclaiming the Gospel, never felt himself equal to attempt a sermon on John seventeen. It is possible to understand such a view without endorsing it. For the same reason an artist might refuse to paint the ocean because the waters of the great deep are so vast and wonderful; or hesitate to put a mountain scene upon canvas because, at its best, such a picture would be partial and incomplete. This great prayer has been preserved, not merely for our admiration, but for our study and instruction. It may be remarked in passing that the key words of the chapter are "glorify," "keep," and "sanctify."

I

"i GLORIFIED THEE ON THE EARTH ; HAVING ACCOM- PLISHED THE WORK WHICH THOU HAST GIVEN ME TO DO. AND NOW, FATHER, GLORIFY THOU ME WITH THINE OWN SELF WITH THE GLORY WHICH I HAD

with thee before the world was." The marvel of these words is twofold. They show that God is glorified most by a life obedient to His will; that character, and not time, is most necessary in order to do our work. There is something positively sublime in the attitude of Jesus here, as fully conscious that He had yielded perfect obedience to the Father's will. This is something more than "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." Here is a life owning such one-ness with the Father and consciousness of duty done, so as to be able to say in truth, "Father, I have done Thy will on earth as it is done in heaven." Only thirty-three years of life and yet completion crowns Jesus' career. What orderliness there was in His life, no haste, no flurry, no perturbation, but calm and quiet doing of His work to the end. How such lofty achievements contrast with our lives, so incomplete, so fitful, so feverish, and unfinished. Thus a great scientist nearing the end of his course cried: "Oh, that I had another century to live! I have just begun to learn." Thus an eminent author, when informed by his physician that he was incurably ill, thought of his unfinished manuscript and exclaimed, "Oh, my book, my book!" Likewise Archbishop Ussher prayed with dying breath, "O God, forgive my sins, especially my sins of omission." Consider our own lives, how fragmentary they are, and particularly our lives as confessed followers of the Christ. Why, we have not fairly begun to live in Him. We are mere novices in the school of prayer ; we are unacquainted with great and rich expanses of His holy Word; we are in the primary grade in the things of the Spirit. Oh, the things undone, what a host they are! "Unfinished!" we exclaim, and truthfully. Yet we catch glimpses here of a way of life possible to us beyond anything we have ever dared to dream. We learn here that life cannot be reckoned by figures on a dial, or dates on the calendar. Three and thirty years He lived in the narrow confines of a little strip of territory not great in the eyes of the world, nevertheless, Jesus could say, "I have finished the work Thou hast given me to do."

It is because He has finished His God-given task that Jesus is able to pray to the Father, asking that He glorify Him with the glory which He had, before the world was. The life with which we have to do in this chapter of chapters, neither began nor ended in the Palestinian country. Geography can have little, if any, bearing upon things Eternal. "Before Abraham was, I am." Thus He once spoke simply and as a matter of course of the life He had with the Father before "the World was." In Christ, and only in Him, have we an understandable conception of eternal life; our relation to God and to one another in the terms of the Spirit. Nor are we to think of Eternal life as merely the prolongation of our days, but a life under new conditions and deriving power from new sources. A life of one dimension, however extended, is not necessarily a full or desirable life. To summarize Christ's prayer for Himself : He presents Himself as the dutiful Son, who has glorified the Father by perfect obedience; a life like a perfect mirror reflecting untarnished the glory of God Himself. That a mere human being could ever pray like this is difficult to believe. There is a grandeur and a sublimity in this intercessory prayer that is of the Infinite. It is of a humanity exalted to the highest degree plus a divinity as potent as it is difficult of definition.

ii

"i PRAY NOT THAT THOU SHOULDEST TAKE THEM OUT OF THE WORLD, BUT THAT THOU SHOULDEST KEEP

them from evil." Jesus prays now for His disciples. They had been with Him for nearly three years; they had continued with Him through His temptations; they were His pupils, His friends, His companions ; or, to use a pastoral word that Jesus loved, His "sheep." During the years He was with them He had been their shepherd, and now that He must leave them the flock will be scattered. Therefore He commends them to the Father tenderly and compassionately ; but He does not ask that they be taken from the world ; He prays that they may be saved from evil. Some have eloquently advocated the separation of Christians from the world in order to be safe from its seductions. Thus, the members of certain religious orders withdraw from the world, take the vow of perpetual silence and become as living dead men. But such a manner of life does not bring immunity from temptation; one has to struggle and battle with himself even on a desert isle or in a hermit's cave. Moreover, such a way of life is not without its selfish side. What is the meaning of the New Testament terms "Salt of the earth," "Light of the world," and "leaven" unless they teach a witnessing for Christ where there be men and women to know, to see, to hear ? The disciples were in the world of sin, suffering, and death, but not of the world that perishes, the world of mere sight and sound and touch. Jesus accomplished His ministry among the people, with the people and for the people. He

"went about doing good." He visited the people in their homes; mingled with them on the street; sailed with them on Galilee; met with them in the synagogue; and during the first part of His ministry the multitude thronged Him on every side. Wherever Jesus went He brought with Him such a sense of God's presence that men, women and children were never the same again. For such a way of life of the part of His disciples He now prays. He does not pray that John, Peter, James, or any of His disciples be taken out of the midst of the teeming life of the world in order that they may be removed from evil. He prays that they remain in the world and be kept from evil. And that is His prayer for you and for me, fellow-disciple of the Lord. We are not to flee from the crowd, nor avoid contact with people ; we are to mingle freely with them ; our lot is cast with them ; we be brethren and neighbors, children of one Father, all.

Mingling thus with our fellows daily and amidst error, we are to witness for the truth ; amidst the fleeting and falling things witness for "the things that cannot be shaken" ; in a generation which regards sin lightly, witness for Him Whom the sins of others put to death. Jesus was holy, but God be praised, His holiness did not restrain Him from touching the hand of the leper, from declining an invitation to the homes of the publicans and sinners, or from embarrassing Him in His conversation with the woman at the well of Jacob. He was in the world of suffering, sorrow, joy, gladness, but not of the sinful world of sight and sound and appetite. And this is the great ideal He has left for His disciples. To love mankind and be willing to serve the least and lowliest; to be very much and often in the darkest and foulest places of earth, and there bear a flaming torch and bring a spirit of purity, is to be Christian where the need is the deepest and redemption the most Christlike. If sin cannot be segregated, neither can holiness be isolated.