I’ve been skipping around lately in my devotions but I made my way back to John this morning, continuing from where I left off a few weeks ago with chapter 8. I read the story of the woman caught in adultery and, as is usually the case, I noticed something I hadn’t seen before. You know the story, the Pharisees hide out to catch an adulterous woman in the act of adultery, they do, she does, they’ve caught her completely guilty, and they bring her to Jesus as is says, “to test Him.” Then, as it continues in verse 6, is says “Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, AS THOUGH HE DID NOT HEAR.” Verse 7 
continues the story that the Pharisees persisted and continued asking Jesus what they should do with the woman, hoping to trip Him up. Only then does it say that “He raised Himself up and said to them, ‘He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.’ ” Then, in verse 8, Jesus returns to writing in the dirt. And in verse 9 we read, “Then those who HEARD it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one…”
I’ve sat through many teachings on this passage, listened to different studies, read a few commentaries and until this morning I had never gained another perspective on what happened this day. The majority of the commentary on this passage seems to suggest that what Jesus was writing in the dirt was the significant factor in the event. Questions will be raised about what He wrote: was it the individual sins of the Pharisees that Jesus wrote out? Was it a scripture reference (though those didn’t exist in their writings)? Was it the word “LOVE”? Was it song lyrics? A haiku? A proverb? I’m not convinced that it matters. As I read this morning, it seemed more and more clear to me that the writing in the dirt was the least significant part of this passage. It even said that He wrote, not to get their attention, but to ignore them. He fumbled in the dirt to display His annoyance and non-support for the Pharisee’s feeble attempts at trapping Him, and their utterly detestable representation of the Law and the Lord. What He wrote, if it was even words, was not the thing that provoked the hearts of the Pharisees to abandon their shameful acts. Verse 9 says, “those who HEARD it…” speaking about Jesus’ previous statement in verse 7. It doesn’t say, those who read it. It doesn’t say, “when the Pharisee, who was positioned in such a way as to read what Jesus wrote, passed the message along to the rest of the Pharisees, they marveled and were convicted by their conscience.”
I think we can get too tied up in what the scritpre “really means”, and in doing so fail to see the forest for the trees. I love how simple and understandable the Bible is and remains to be. God says what He means, He means what He says, and He speaks in such a way that makes sense to us, and has given us His clear, simple, plain word so we can live by it. I love that about God.
It’s been an eventful opener for the 2009 NFL season. The much anticipated return of Tom Brady to the Patriots, the countless QB questions from the offseason, the endless list of possibilities for playoff prediction. The build up has been excruciating, but the payoff has been worth it…so far. The opener on Thursday night was well worth the wait. Though the Titans and Steelers didn’t do much on offense, sending it to overtime was a bonus for NFL fans that waited far too long for this season to roll around. Sunday’s games proved to be additional icing on the celebratory cake, Chicago vs. Greenbay was a roller coaster of anxiety and excitement. My dad is a HUGE Bears fan, thus I watched intently as Cutler struggled and Urlacher got himself injured for the season. Yet the game itself was no disappointment. The trench warfare proved to be worthy of the League’s oldest rivalry. Topping it all off were yesterday’s salutes to the most American of all sporting events (no, I’m not talking about the World Series), I’m talking about Monday Night Football. Here were two games that boasted sure gridiron battles as each games’ underdog had not won a game against their respective opponents in 11 outings. Unfortunately for those underdogs those streaks were stretched by 1 by the time the clocks expired.