The Grace of Distraction

Jesus spent the night, alone, on the Mount of Olives.

Early in the morning, He came down to the temple,
and people gathered around Him, and He sat down
and taught them.

Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him
a frightened, weeping woman,
whom they had caught in the very act of adultery.

The man was nowhere to be seen.
Women cannot commit adultery by themselves,
but it was a man's world,
and not only did they not care about her,
they wanted to use her to trap Jesus.

"Excuse me, Teacher.
This woman
was just caught in the very act of adultery.
The law of Moses says we should stone her.
What do you say we should do with her?"

I imagine they jabbed each other's sides
with their elbows,
nodding knowingly with their heads,
sure that they had finally trapped Him.

Instead of answering them,
Jesus stooped down to the ground.
He acted deaf and wrote something
in the dirt with His finger.

I've always been distracted by this action.
I've always wanted to know what He was writing.

Today,
I realized, that "distraction" was probably the plan.

Jesus distracted them from their self-righteous fury of the moment.

He distracted the attention that focused on the guilty woman
and brought it to His finger,
writing in the dirt.

He bought her a moment of grace
to recover her breath
and a bit of dignity.

They continued to ask Him what they should do,
so slowly He stood
and said to them,
"He who is without sin among you,
let him throw the first stone."

He stooped down,
and began writing with His finger again.

This time,
it was the shame-filled men
who benefited from the grace of distraction.

Jesus could have stared them down.
He could have gone around the circle
naming their sins,
putting them on the spot.

He could have stoned them with His words.

But He gave them a way out.

While He was busy,
writing with His finger,
they slipped out one by one,
convicted by their conscience.

His distracting words of grace
rescued the wretched woman
from the loneliness of iniquity,
for suddenly,
the men knew that they were
in the same boat as the woman,
caught in the very act of sin.

Jesus stood up.
The woman was standing there, alone.

"Where are your accusers?
Has no one condemned you?"

"No one, Lord," she answered.

"Neither do I condemn you,"
He said.
"Go and sin no more."

And then, He turned to the crowd of people
who had been watching this whole drama,
and He said,
"I am the light of the world.
He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness,
but have the light of life."

I believe that woman followed Him
and walked in His light from that day forward.

I wonder if the men who had been ready to stone her
decided to walk in His light as well.
I hope so.

No one was stoned in the presence of Jesus that day.

No one is ever stoned in the presence of Jesus.

Oh, the grace of distraction.
Oh, the distraction of grace.
And, oh, how I want to be like Him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(John 8)