Act Like Jesus?

Good Morning,

John 8:1-11 (NIV)
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."

We know that as Christians, those who have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, that we are supposed to do all we can to act as much like Jesus as we can. We have the popular "WWJD" bracelets, T-shirts, and the like being worn and seen in many places. But, here's the tough question now, do we really act like Christ?

I'd like us all to put ourselves, individually, into a situation where someone in one of our congregations, some woman or man it doesn't matter which, is caught in an outright act of adultery. That is, he or she is seen with someone who isn't a spouse leaving a motel room, or some other evidence equally as damning and unexplainable. Okay. Got that? Now, I want each of us to stop a moment and think about what it is we would do when that person is confronted with this evidence and is accused openly of an act of adultery. What, really, would you do? What, honestly, would I do?

Unfortunately, what we most often see...and it borders on 100% of the time...is that we, like the Pharisees of those thousands of years ago, would condemn and ostracize such a one, wouldn't we? Be honest now. We've all been involved in some situation or other in our congregations where someone was "caught" in some sinful act or other. After all, our congregations are filled with people, not angels from heaven! So, I know, without any doubt, that every one of us has been exposed to something at least akin to the woman caught in adultery that we read in today's Scripture verses. Think now, what happened? What did people say? What did people do? How was this person treated? How was this person thought of?

All right...Now, what we learn from our reading is that Jesus did NOT condemn this woman. Not at all. What He did was to gently tell this woman that He, now let's not forget exactly WHO Jesus is here, He did not condemn her or ostracize her in any way. God didn't condemn her. No, He just advised her to "Go now and leave your life of sin."

So, back to the original premise of what we're talking about today. We KNOW what Jesus would do if He were here today and someone even in this day and age were caught up in some kind of sinful behavior or other. After all, we read EXACTLY what He DID do in a similar situation, don't we? So, now we need to examine ourselves and our congregations to see if we are acting like Jesus would when we face something similar.

Act like Jesus? Or, act like other, worldly, "normal" human beings?

Which will it be?

Love, peace, and blessings,

David