Grace Calls

So you and I, and we and us and everyone, we all sit in our places of accusations don’t we? Those places where those critical words are thrown at us and though, we might not want to admit it, those places where we throw ’em out with snide remarks and judgemental airs about us! Oh those judgement calls, are catchy aren’t they? Sometimes they trip us up. We dangle a trap for those we think deserve it and sometimes get caught ourselves. What goes around, comes around they say and so often it does, so we need to practice daily the golden rule and do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Matthew 7:12, says it this way, “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them…” . With that in mind, you and I and we and all of us, need to practice grace calls instead. We need to be givers of grace ‘cuz we don’t know when we’ll need the grace coming back to us in and through and during this long journey of life.

Accusations? Yeah…The Pharisees relentlessly threw them out all over the place with their smug, religious attitudes, proud of their knowledge and strict rules under the law! ~ Nope ~ no grace there, not in their circles of influence. Oh such strict rules they lived by and without a hint of mercy, caught anyone who didn’t oblige or fell short. They were good at deceit and twisting words for their own agendas and so they did. They baited a subtle, sly trap for Jesus upon confrontation with Him in the temple courts, where they presented before Him a woman caught in adultery. According to the law, she needed to be stoned but what would His answer be? John 8: 6,7,8, “They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.…” We don’t know what He wrote, but I don’t think it’s important for the lesson hidden here, or we would have been told. What I love is the fact that Jesus stooped or bent down before these “high in religious authority” types. Jesus, the divine Truth and the Light bent down low enough to write before His accusers, but we don’t have any record of what He wrote.

How dare they try to undermine His credentials and His authority! How dare they try to trip Him up with their manipulative techniques and trick questions. Yet, don’t we? Don’t we undermine His authority, as the one and only True judge, when we pass judgement on others? It’s really not our place it’s His. In spite of their attempts, Jesus would not be tripped up. He knew them! He knew their hearts and was familiar with their secret agendas and I love it, love it, love it how He didn’t react in any kind of human stereotype to such a scandalous scene. What a divine example when, instead of throwing insults back with His perfect and True authority, He stooped and bent low to the ground before the woman’s accusers and those who set Him up!  I love the true, gentle humility that Christ always exemplified, always displayed, and always acted out. True humility! It was just His nature. It is His nature and we are so needy to be more like Christ in our reactions to unfair circumstances. True humility is a difficult thing. It’s not an easy action to bend and flex in our attitude before one who accuses and one who lies and one who tries to catch us off guard with their own selfish agendas and plans. Our “default” nature is to “Rise up” and accuse back with anger and fight back with words and could or should we use the catch phrase of sticks and stones? Oh…so often we throw them don’t we? But…. Who could throw that first stone in that scandalous scene there in the temple courts…no one! Absolutely no one, and so they left one by one and they left quietly and they left the woman alone with her Savior and the Saviour of the world and our Saviour ~ the one who saves us from the sin and ruin of our own lives.

So for all the accusations that come our way, for the rumours, true or untrue ~ let’s be honest and face the music, if need be, but let’s face them with true repentance and true humility,  “cuz there is God’s grace for our mess ups for sure.  True repentance will receive true forgiveness and find God’s sweet grace there.  And let’s remember ~ before passing on a rumour or harshly handing out a judgement call ` to check our own hands for cleanliness, ‘cuz the sand that we throw into the eyes of others will stick to the hand that throws it! Instead of judgement, give a grace call, just one more time,   ‘cuz down that long road ahead, we might just be thankful for it!

Romans 2:1
“You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.”