Dropping the rock...

“Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” John 8: 7b

“The thud of grace,” I certainly never thought about the passage in John 8:2-11 in these terms. Over the past weekend, after attending my church’s annual women’s retreat and watching a video where author, Nichole Johnson referred to this passage as “the thud of grace,” I have been forever impacted.

The “thud of grace” refers to the sound of the rocks hitting the ground after none of the condemning men found the justification to stone the adulterous woman to death. None of the condemning men had the moral authority to execute the sentence. Only one, The One without sin would have been the only one able to carry out the sentence, but instead, He extended His gift of grace to this sinner.

The self-righteous band of accusers brought this woman to Jesus to trap Him. They, however, ended up caught in their own hypocrisy.

It was a trap because the law that they were supposedly carrying out originally says:

If a man is found sleeping with another man's wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel. Deuteronomy 22: 22

Or

"'If a man commits adultery with another man's wife--with the wife of his neighbor--both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death. Leviticus 20: 10

In other words, if they were really interested in the fulfillment of the law, they would have brought the man too, to be stoned as well. All they wanted was to trap Jesus into a predicament, a “lose-lose” situation for our Lord. If He had said, “yes, go ahead and fulfill the law of Moses,” He would have been at fault for they were not carrying out the law as written. If He had stopped the stoning directly, He had been accused of breaking the law of Moses. In His divine wisdom, our Lord did exactly the right thing, which not only taught a lesson to the hypocrites of His time, but to us today too.

The accusing men held on tightly to the rocks they carried in their hands. Can you picture it? In their anger, self-righteousness, and desire to finally defeat Jesus, they squeezed those rocks with piercing excitement, anticipating the moment they’d get to fiercely throw them at the frightened woman standing in the middle of this scene.

With each passing second, they tightened their grip on those rocks. The jagged edges cut through their skins, and instigated their thirst for blood. The fear in the eyes of the adulteress fed their hunger for vengeance. The other men around them provided safety in numbers, and validated their misguided sense of justice. Boy, have I been one of them…?

I was deeply convicted by the “thud of grace” lesson, mainly because, the more I thought about it, the more I saw myself as one of the accusers. I am a rock “clencher.” More often that I’d like to admit, I’ve been clenching to that rock, waiting to throw it with all my might. More often than not I’ve been tightly gripping the rock, feeling the jagged edges piercing through my own skin, feeding my frenzy in anticipation of the moment when I get to throw it at the culprit.

I also realized that the rock is a weapon, but it is also a burden. The rocks I carry around in my hands, readily available to be thrown at a moment’s notice, represent a burden that weighs heavy in my soul and slows down my walk with the Lord.

I’m so ready to condemn because I am so unforgiving. I am so ready to condemn, because I am greedy with grace. I am so ready to condemn, because I am selfish. I am so ready to condemn, because it is all about me and how I feel. I am so ready to condemn, because I forget that I am nothing, and that the only thing that makes me righteous is the righteousness of my Lord and Savior, which He gave me as an undeserving gift of Grace.

I heard the “thud of grace” this past weekend, as I dropped my rock. Yes, a few days ago, I finally opened my hand and dropped it. I opened my hand and let it rolled out of my palm. I had sat there listening to the lesson with a rock clenched in my fist until the time came for each one, who chose to do so, to drop it. I was slow to stand up, but, after many other women had dropped theirs, I got up and let it slip out of my fingers. After flying in the air for a split second it hit the bottom of a box where other rocks had been dropped.

I heard a solid, heavy, somber and sobering thud as my rock hit the surface, and my soul felt lighter. It felt lighter because I relinquished my constant desire to condemn. It felt lighter also because I released heavy burdens that I’d been carrying around for too long. I am exhausted and weary so as I let go of my rock, I took up the Lord’s word at face value when He said: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11: 28.

I come to You, Lord, and I rest in You. Justice and vengeance and judgment belong to You, and to You I defer. Help me to remember this truth next time I am tempted to pick up a rock again.