But 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.” (John 8:1-11)

I love this story.  I shared some thoughts about this passage in my sermon on grace a few weeks ago, and I want to revisit John 8 today, especially the words Jesus says to the woman caught in adultery.  Most people remember this story for his words to the Pharisees – “If any of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”  With those powerful words, Jesus forever leveled the playing field, so to speak, by putting saints and sinners alike in the same boat – sinners in need of forgiveness, unqualified to condemn another. 

I’m most struck, however, by what Jesus says to the woman.  Read more »

When I was a junior in college, I studied in London for a semester.  During my time over there, I remember watching a three-episode BBC series on who Jesus really was, and watched as historian after historian dismissed Jesus as just another Jew, as nothing special.  They talked about how there were other first-century people who were thought to be the Messiah, other miracle-workers in the time of Jesus, and how there are other myths throughout history of god-men who rise from the dead. 

I will never forget the narrator’s conclusion as he wrapped up the series.  Read more »

Today at sundown marks the beginning of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.  If you’re not familiar with the Jewish calendar and holidays, ten days ago was Rosh Hashanah (see my last Pulse), which began the ten Days of Awe, during which the people of God were to spend time in soul searching and repentance in order to prepare for this most holy day.
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This past Sunday, I finished up a five-week series called Why Believe?, where I tried to answer some of the major objections people have to the Christian faith and the God of the Bible.  I have found the series to be very strengthening for my faith, yet at the same time incredibly challenging as I spent a great deal of time reading and listening seriously to the objections that people have.  The general attitude of many of the new atheist books has been summed up as “God isn’t real, and frankly, I don’t like him very much either,” and believers in God are generally characterized as unsophisticated, pre-scientific, arrogant people who enjoy having someone tell them what to do and have serious wish-fulfillment issues.  While I have heard many fair criticisms that should motivate believers towards repentance and discipleship to the true gospel of Jesus, I obviously disagree with their main conclusion and much of the route by which they get there.

I wanted to end my interaction with the objections to the faith today by dealing with a challenge that Christopher Hitchens, author of God is Not Great:  How Religion Poisons Everything, throws out in his book and in most talks I have seen him give.  His challenge is meant to communicate the fundamental unnecessariness of religion, and goes something like this:

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And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.  Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead…

1 Corinthians 15:17-20 

I’ve written many words on this blog over the last year on many different topics.  Some have probably challenged you; others have angered you.  Some have increased your love for God and other people; others have left you scratching your head.  This week, I want to leave all the other issues on the periphery, where they belong.  Only one thing truly matters, as Paul wrote in the verses above:  If Christ has not been raised from the dead, our lives are pitiful; all my pontificating and sermonizing has been “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”  But if Christ has indeed been raised from the dead…

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If Jesus were running our church, what would his priorities be?  What values would be at the top of the list if Jesus were running the show?  And how would our priorities compare to His?

Today, I’m wrapping up my study of Jesus’ criticisms of the religious leaders of his day in Matthew 23.  I’ve been shocked by the directness of his rebukes over the past few weeks, and today’s words are no less harsh.  In Matthew 23:23-24, he deals with the contrast between the priorities of the religious leaders of his day and those of God, and in the process I think Jesus has a lot to teach today’s church about what it means to follow God:

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices– mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law– justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.  You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.”

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The controversial rapper Eminem and the Galilean carpenter/teacher Jesus may not seem to have much in common at first glance, but as I’ve been meditating on Jesus’ challenging words to the Pharisees in Matthew 23, it almost feels like I’m reading a first century Palestinian version of a freestyle rap battle.  In this jaw-dropping passage, Jesus slams the religious leaders and what they call spirituality in pointed putdown after putdown, and if you listen closely you can almost hear the crowd yelling “oh, snap!” (or whatever the Aramaic equivalent would be).

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Pop quiz:  What famous religious leader is quoted as calling the other religious leaders of his day the following:

“Hypocrites”
“Sons of Hell”
“Blind fools”
“Full of hypocrisy and wickedness”
“Snakes and a brood of vipers”

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Maybe you can relate to me when I say that I’ve never understood the whole “second coming” thing.  I mean, I have to admit that I have been motivated to greater faithfulness by God’s love, by the challenge of reflecting Him to this world, and even by His discipline, but the reality of the second coming has never motivated me to do anything.  Now, it is clear from the teaching of Jesus and other New Testament writers that Jesus will one day return to this world, bringing history to its consummation and the kingdom of heaven completely to earth, so that, as the author of Revelation says, “the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them” (Revelation 21:3).  That part I understand.  The part I don’t get is the language of urgency and watchfulness that Jesus uses when discussing how we should live in light of his second coming.  After all, shouldn’t we always be living in the light of God’s truth and judgment?  Why do we need the second coming to convince us that we need to be consistent in our faith?

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Last week I ended my post by promising to deal this week with how Jesus used Hell in his teaching.  I’m not sure what I was thinking.  I mean, what made me think I could possibly do justice to this massive and excruciatingly important/touchy/difficult subject in one blog post?  So, instead of attempting to write the next great book on Hell, I think that the best thing I can do today is to share some observations on Jesus’ use of Hell that you may not have considered.  I think these observations will help us as we continue to look at how evangelical Christians use manipulation and urgency in order to scare people into the kingdom of God and motivate believers to action. 

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