Crowd Speak

Today's lesson is about falling into the trap of having to go along with the crowd.

Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’ They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, ‘Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’ And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, sir.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.’ - John 8:2-11

It is easy to go along with the crowd these days.  In fact, there is a lot of pressure to do just that.  Who wants to be the one lone voice in the wilderness with an opposing view?

In today's Gospel reading, Jesus is singled out.  The Pharisees suspect that he will not want to stone the woman to death, so they must believe he will want her to go free.  If he chooses to forgive her, they will have him, and they will stone him instead.

So, it appears we cannot hide our true selves.  Even if we are silent, people will suspect we are different, and our views will be challenged.

I guess, then, that we should be ready for the challenge.  At some point, we will be called out and we will have to defend our position, so maybe we should make it known.

Jesus wanted his followers to shine their light in the world, not to keep it hidden, and he warned them that they may be persecuted for it, so we can take a lesson from him and be prepared to be challenged.

The crowd will want us to be like them, but they will know that we are not, so why try to hide it?

It is better to be true to ourselves than to live a lie.

More to come...