7 April 2014 - eye on it

7 April 2014 - eye on it

“Teacher, this woman was caught
in the very act of committing adultery.
Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.

Our own sinfulness renders us unfit to carry out God's justice.  Our own sinfulness means that we are likely to use God's law as a pretense to satisfy our own passions.  We may know some of the letter of the law but we are unable to let our eyes look to heaven to validate our understanding. 

They suppressed their consciences;
they would not allow their eyes to look to heaven,
and did not keep in mind just judgments.

Our sinfulness makes us prone to condemn the innocent.  They hold back from the passions in which we still indulge.  Our flesh insists that they join our revelry and when they hold back it arouses anger and even violence in our hearts. 

Our sinfulness makes us prone to twist even justice to the guilty.  Instead of genuine concern for the law, for holiness, or especially, for people involved in the situation themselves, the Pharisees are only interesting in validating their own holiness.  They are willing to destroy other peoples lives in order to emphasize their own supposed holiness.  We are often all too willing to hurt other people's reputation for the same reason.  Why else do we spread gossip and tell stories about others which reveal what ought to be concealed?  Jesus hears us tell these stories and in response to these we  hear, "Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone".

Jesus wants to purify us from these motives.  He wants to make us like Susanna who is able to trust in God even in the face of her human oppressors, even in the face of an apparent death sentence.  Because she looks to heaven she is able to trust in his justice.

Through tears she looked up to heaven,
for she trusted in the Lord wholeheartedly.

It is this trust in God's justice that causes her to realize that "it is better for me to fall into your power without guilt than to sin before the Lord."  Human concern for justice would quickly dismiss this concern.  It is oriented toward the survival of the prideful flesh.  It is unable to lift its eyes to heaven.  It is ultimately a facade.  But the absence of true concern for justice leaves a vacuum which the flesh readily fills.  Without lifting our eyes to put God first there is nothing else with which to fill our hearts except self love. 

We are not so surprised to see the innocent vindicated in Susanna.  But in Jesus we are surprised.  We realize that we do not truly understand justice because the guilty, including the woman caught in adultery, go free and the innocent, the only one who is truly innocent, Jesus Christ, dies for us all.  This is the justice to which we must lift our eyes.  It is the cross.  It is intimately tied to God's love and mercy.  Selfishness can make no sense of it at all.  But to those who can lift their eyes it inspires profound hope.

The whole assembly cried aloud,
blessing God who saves those who hope in him.

Therefore let us trust in God.  Let us lift our eyes to him even when the times are dark.  If we do not lift our eyes to him we will only see the dark valley which surrounds us.  We will be pushed into survival mode.  We will consume ourselves and one another.  But when we trust in him, great are his promises to us.

Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side
With your rod and your staff
that give me courage.

Even though we stumble in this valley if we just keep lifting our eyes to him we hear:

Has no one condemned you?”
She replied, “No one, sir.”
Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.
Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”

And not only are we not condemned but we are welcomed into the eternal banquet where Jesus himself is our portion.

You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;

 We are welcomed into the very house of the Father to dwell for all eternity.

And I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.