Jesus and Women | The God of Missional Justice

Few stories have flowed over the pulpits of churches all across the world than the one given in John 7:53-8:11. Jesus is spending time teaching in the temple when a woman that has been caught in adultery is brought to him to receive his judgment. The scene is tense and seemingly simple. Here is a woman that has broken the law and she deserves, according to the law, punishment. That punishment should be death by way of stoning.

But this passage reveals much about Jesus Christ. I am afraid that for all of those sermons on this passage far too many of them miss the point of the text: Jesus is the just judge. Period. He is the beginning and end of the law. He wrote it. He will defend his people from those who attempt to usurp his authority. Jesus moves in to display what is true and right in places where deep wrongs are occurring.  In short, Jesus is the face of God's justice.

Let's see a few reasons why this is true.

JESUS KNOWS THE HEARTS OF MEN

There a few key verses in the Gospel of John. One of them is 2:23-25. Here Jesus is declared to keep from trusting himself to the Jewish leaders because he is fully aware of what is in the hearts of men. For an answer to what is in the hearts of men read chapters 3 & 5-12!

This is also a wonderful example of the hearts of these Jewish leaders (called scribes and pharisees). Jesus clearly perceives their intentions. They want to place Jesus in a lose-lose situation. They do this by pitting the Roman law (it was unlawful to put other to death) against the Mosaic law (it was commanded to put one guilty of adultery to death). This is not the first or last time that these leaders try to pull this trick. Their point is to gather a "charge" by which Jesus may be arrested. It seems on the face that this woman is on trial but it is actually Jesus.

A HALF TRIAL IS NO TRIAL

But even though Jesus perceives that he is the one that is on the hook. He addresses the sin of this woman. He cuts to the heart of the issue. He cuts to the heart of the men. He reveals what is in their hearts. 

First, there was a crime of adultery. But adultery takes two. There is only one standing here, the woman.

Second, it was against the law to bring someone to punishment without a trial. They are not searching for justice but rather they are conducting a lynching.

Third, Jesus cut to the issue by calling the bluff. To kill this woman without proper proceedings and having the man present is to break the law. This would make everyone taking place in the lynching guilty. So, Jesus says in essence, "anyone who wants to be guilty of this sin throw the first stone."

Game, set, match.

USING THE LAW TO BREAK THE LAW

This interaction with Jesus and the Jewish leaders is paramount for how we see Jesus. How he reveals the Father's justice. How he deals justly with all of his children, even the lawbreakers! Jesus reveals this amazing truth of the gospel as he comes face to face with a woman, a nameless, faceless woman.

The bigger sin in this passage was not adultery. It was using the law to break the law. Using the justice system to commit injustice. This is still common among us and as the people of Jesus Christ we must still stand with the afflicted. 

Jesus never forgave this woman (at least as far as we know). This passage is not about forgiveness (my apologies to 95% of the sermons preached on this) this passage is about justice. This passage is about the Father's heart and the Son's willingness to stand next to the guilty in the face of injustice.

There are many ways we could take this one simple truth.

Instead of trying to exhaust them I will simply say, the justice system is not our standard of justice.

Jesus alone is our measure of what is just.

Jesus and Women | The God of Missional Grace

The narrative of the Samaritan woman is a story of a broken heart and a broken soul. She represents a broken people living in a broken land. John 4 shares how Jesus makes his way into all of this brokenness and displays one of the millions of reasons why we can say that God is a missional God.
 
In perhaps one of the most well known portions of the Bible Jesus makes his way into a land that was expressly avoided by good Jewish people. He was not afraid to go into places of need, places that other people avoided. Why would he go there? Simply, because God loves Samaritans. Not because they deserve love but because God is a God of grace. How ironic that a people who celebrated God choosing them would try to withhold him from others. How much more ironic that many try to do the same today.

In Samaria, Jesus comes to an interaction with a woman that has come to the well at midday. She comes at a time of low social interaction around the well. She is about to be surprised. The interaction with Jesus displays at least two things: One, this woman is deeply affected by sin and shame. She had been married many times before and she was still not done (she lived with another man). These attempts at "fixing" her deepest needs with these poor substitutes had taken its toll on her life. The second display is the need for a better reality. She needed something more real that what she thought was real. Relationships are real. They cause hurt and pain and longing and despair. Relationship without foundation and purpose becomes a cheap alternative to the real thing. Reconciled relationship with the Father of all things is what makes real, become real. She interacted with Jesus over her sin and shame and water. She found grace that addressed all of these. She found a satisfaction for her real thirst.

The grace of Jesus Christ doesn't stop with this woman. Even the confused disciples needed the missional grace of God. Why? Well, because they did not understand mission...at all. So Jesus explains to them the mission that he is on. They got it. Well, maybe not right away but in the book of Acts we find Peter and John back in Samaria, back among these people, preaching, laying hands on them, and praying for them to know the love of Jesus by grace through faith. They were unaware at the time that they met this Samaritan woman how this missional grace would change their future. But eventually they got it...by God's grace we will too.

Finally, the missional grace of God becomes contagious. Grace is like that. This woman declares that she is known. She calls the people that she purposely avoided to come to know the one that knows her. What good news! You are known. Really known. Known by grace. Known for all of your faults...failures...shame...guilt...and yet...grace. Grace that moves toward you. Grace that steps into your mess. This grace is overwhelming to those that know the depths of their failure. This grace is life-giving to those that have failed at life.

Here, with this woman that is not known by name... not pictured or described... just a nameless, faceless woman, the savior of the world declares his mission of grace, openly, for the first time. The cosmic purposes of God, that have been millennia in the making, collide here...in Samaria...with this woman...such amazing grace.

When Jesus was moved to mission, even mission to people unlike himself, he did not pack up his stuff and move to a new country. He did not buy a house in Samaria. He did not stop doing all that he had been doing in his life before this time to make room for mission. Why do we?

Why do we feel that mission is moving? Or mission is special training? Or that mission is something foreign and forced? Mission is meeting. Meeting people that God is calling and sharing with them cosmic moments of God's amazing grace. They are your neighbors, friends, acquaintances, and even strangers...for now. God's grace transforms us all into his adopted children.

We have people all around us that are broken and seeking to quench an unquenchable thirst with water that will never suffice.

Pray that our hearts are ripped by grace.

Pray that we step out of our patterns and see the people that God is calling all around us.

Pray that we equip and encourage one another to offer living water.

Pray we follow Jesus, the face of the God of missional grace.

Jesus and Women: The Missional Face of God

I wanted to introduce a series of blog posts that will be forth coming. Each week I will interact with a passage where Jesus meets and engages with women. These moments can be powerful and instructive to our current way of "doing church" but can also have a great impact on our way of "being church". I have the suspicion that we target the former at the expense of the latter.

I have studied the interactions between Jesus and women in the Bible for some years now. I have been moved by the way that the author shows Jesus reaching into deep areas of need and shifting hardened hearts. Lately, I have been awakened to the way that these interactions display Jesus as missional. I think that there are some vast lessons that we can grasp by leaning in and spending some time with the passages that Jesus engages with women.

One reason I want to wrestle with these passages is because of the view of women by the people of the Bible. I think that we would be wise to keep our chronology in order as we view these passages. There are many implications that Jesus' interactions with women would have had on society in the 1st century and we should remember how "counter-cultural" they would have been.

Another reason is a recent influx of "Jesus Feminist" claims. I want to show the way Jesus' interactions with women point us the the heart of the Gospel. Many claim to be "Jesus Feminist" yet do not understand or proclaim the Gospel. Without the Gospel you are just Feminist not Jesus Feminist. If you proclaim the Gospel then there is no need for a tag like "Jesus Feminist" you are simply a follower of Christ.

Finally I want to wrestle with the missional implications of these passages. Specifically, I would like to apply them to the "missional church". I will use rhythms and missional community as a mechanism of application. At the end of the day, the overall thrust is the way that God is a missional God that breaks through barriers beyond our capacity but we can join him there in his activity.

Some of the books that I will be interacting with are:
Women in the Genesis of Christianity Ben Witherington
Women, Class, and Society in Early Christianity James Arlandson
The Social World of Luke-Acts Jerome Neyrey, Editor