DAILY BYTE
It was a dark and violent time for the citizens of ancient Rome. Nero the Emperor was presiding over a city suffering through severe food shortages. The people were hungry, some were even starving, and almost everyone was wondering where their next meal would come from.
At the same time, there was an abundance of food in nearby Egypt, so one would have expected that the merchant ships sailing between Rome and Alexandria in Egypt to be filled to overflowing with corn and wheat.
But instead these ships were filled with sand to be used in Emperor Nero’s gladiator games. There was so much blood being spilt onto the circus floor that they needed tons and tons of sand every week to soak it all up.
Ships filled with sand for gladiator shows of all things! Sand to fulfil deathly purposes rather than the life-giving food that was so desperately needed.
This week’s focus reading – John 8. 1-11 (the story of the woman caught in adultery) is a story about many things. It’s about religious people offering boatloads of sand to a world starving for something more life-giving. Boatloads of sand stained with blood caused by the violence of religious condemnations and accusations.
It is a story about a woman who was caught in the act of doing wrong, but who was shown that the way out for her was through love and forgiveness, and not fear and condemnation.
But mostly, it is a story about Jesus – Jesus who came to teach us that God designed this universe around principles like relationships and love, grace and radical forgiveness rather than hurt, accusations and religious self-righteousness. It is a story about Jesus who refused to engage in dark debates with angry men, and instead began offering people what they were really starving for ... boatloads of food like mercy and truth and freedom.
John 8 is really a story about all of us and a story for all of us. It’s a story that has the atmosphere of a dark, dank dungeon but when Jesus acts and Jesus speaks, it’s like he switches on the lights and throws open the doors and windows.
And when that light comes on – just as in so many different places in John’s Gospel, we are meant to then find ourselves in the story. Different layers of ourselves within different layers of the story because if we don’t do that, then we will just not understand this story as we should.
Read the story carefully and ask God to open your heart up to its truth during the next week.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Gracious God, thank you for sending us Jesus who brought humanity what we are truly starving for – forgiveness and love. Help us to offer this food to others through the way we treat them and relate to them. Amen.
FOCUS READING
John 8.1-11 MSG
Jesus went across to Mount Olives, but he was soon back in the Temple again. Swarms of people came to him. He sat down and taught them. The religion scholars and Pharisees led in a woman who had been caught in an act of adultery. They stood her in plain sight of everyone and said, "Teacher, this woman was caught red-handed in the act of adultery. Moses, in the Law, gives orders to stone such persons. What do you say?" They were trying to trap him into saying something incriminating so they could bring charges against him.
Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger in the dirt. They kept at him, badgering him. He straightened up and said, "The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone." Bending down again, he wrote some more in the dirt.
Hearing that, they walked away, one after another, beginning with the oldest. The woman was left alone. Jesus stood up and spoke to her. "Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn you?"
"No one, Master."
"Neither do I," said Jesus. "Go on your way. From now on, don't sin."
