I want to tell you a little about Raymond Kolbe, the son of a poor weaver in Poland. As a young boy he had a powerful experience of God and he became a monk. He went on to work among the poor in India, but in 1936 he was back in Poland running a monastery near Warsaw. When the Nazis invaded he took in many refugees, including Jews, into his monastery. In May 1941 the Nazis closed down the monastery and sent Father Kolbe to the terrible prison Auschwitz. The Nazis had a rule that if someone escaped, ten other prisoners would be starved to death as a punishment. In July they thought someone had escaped. So they came to choose the ten prisoners to be starved to death. Father Kolbe was not chosen.
But the man next to him, Franciszek Gajowniczek, was. When he was chosen Franciszek cried out – ‘My wife, my children...’. Now Father Kolbe stepped forward. He asked the Nazi guard if he could take Franiciszek’s place because he had no wife or children. The Nazi agreed. And so Father Kolbe was led off to be starved to death.
Father Kolbe died a horrible death in 1941. Franciszek Gajowniczek lived for 54 more years -till 1995. He lived because Father Kolbe had died.
Father Kolbe truly loved. He took Franciszek Gajowniczek’s place. This morning we want to look a little at the man he was following that inspired him: Jesus Christ. He also took someone else’s place.
Read story John 8
In this story we learn a life changing truth
The judge that must condemn sinners is condemned for sinners - so we can be forgiven
What scenes in this story reveal this truth to us?
There are three scenes that reveal this truth in the story
Scene One – verse two to five
Sin is brought before the judge
It’s early in the morning at the Temple in Jerusalem. It’s a busy place, like the shrine for Reza in Mashad, or some of the huge cathedrals in Europe. It’s a place to meet God, a place to have a special experience. There are always people at temples. So when Jesus comes to teach, there’s soon quite a crowd. They’re enjoying his teaching – it’s a perfect scene...Jesus in his Father’s house teaching his people, feeding his people.
Suddenly the perfect scene collapses. Loud screams are heard from a woman. Harsh words are heard from the temple guards. All heads turn. And through the crowd these rough looking guards are pulling a young woman. Her clothes are torn, her face is streaked with tears, her eyes are full of anger. Behind the soldiers and the woman come a group of scribes and Pharisees. They are all wearing smart religious robes. Their beards are freshly trimmed, their hair neatly combed, their eyes determined. They have a plan to humiliate Jesus.
The woman is pushed before Jesus, her feet wobble. Her screams die down. There is silence. Now the chief Pharisee steps forward.
‘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?
The temple has become a court. And Jesus is the judge.
What do you say?
It is easy for us to think about the suffering woman. But let’s pause here first and acknowledge something.
The sin of adultery is horrible.
Yes we know the Pharisees were using this woman – but that doesn’t mean make the sin of adultery ok.
However it happens, whenever it happens adultery is horrible.
I know of a little boy. He was just ten or eleven years old. He was sitting on the top of the stairs at his home and he heard his parents having a terrible argument. His mother was crying and crying. His heart was full of fear. Then he heard his father driving away. About half an hour later his mother called him and his two brothers into the sitting room and choking back her tears she told them that their father was an adulterer.
That young boy was devastated. He hardly slept that night. Of course he wanted the father to come back. But the father never came back. That family broke up.
The world over adultery is still a major cause for divorce. It is a destroyer of families and children. Sometimes the wounds never heal. It is a sin and all sin is serious.
Adultery is betrayal. It’s theft. It’s deceit. We don’t want adultery in our families. We don’t want adultery in our society. We don’t want adultery in our churches.
And the Pharisees didn’t want adultery in the temple.
So they are bringing it to Jesus who is speaking in the name of God and quite rightly they remind him of what the Bible says about adultery.
It’s in Leviticus 20:10
If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbour, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
Adultery is horrible. Our justice says the adulterer should be punished. God’s law says the adulterer should be punished.
Let’s face it – the woman’s situation doesn’t look good. Jesus has come to fulfil the law, and the law says the adulterer should die.
That’s the first scene. The sin is brought to the judge. And the judge must condemn sin. He can’t just click his fingers and say...oh, poor girl, it doesn’t matter. It does matter.
The judge that must condemn sinners is condemned for sinners so you can be forgiven
Let’s go onto the second scene.
Scene Two – verse six to nine a
The judge proves that all are sinners
Jesus is silent. He just puts his head down and starts writing in the sand. The Pharisees keep on repeating the question – just in case he hadn’t heard.
And Jesus keeps on writing.
Some of them are looking around to see where the biggest and best stones are.
Then Jesus speaks.
Jesus doesn’t say adultery is ok. He doesn’t say there should be no punishment.
But he has a challenge for the pharisees.
‘He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone’
He who is without sin.
Jesus’ eyes are burning into the eyes of the men who want to throw stones at an adulterous woman. Their eyes turn away. Their arms, raised to attack, fall by their side.
The Holy Spirit is at work. The Holy Spirit is showing these men their sins. The lies; the lust; the cheating; the anger; the violence; swearing; the pride; the cunning; and for some, exactly the same sin as the woman – adultery.
Maybe Jesus had been writing some of them down in the sand.
Maybe as God in the flesh he was writing down some of the other commandments those men had broken.
He who is without sin.
Nobody in the crowd had the right to throw a stone at that woman.
They were all guilty. That’s what the Bible says. We are all guilty. The family of Adam and Eve is guilty.
All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God
If we say we have not sinned we are a liar and the truth is not in us.
The Holy Spirit was at work back then; the Holy Spirit is at work today. He speaks deep into our hearts when we sin
Have you had that experience? There are some who sin and they keep on sinning, but they think...well, I’m not such a bad sinner...God will forgive me. They don’t take sin seriously.
But the Holy Spirit does. And when the Holy Spirit shows us our sins we realise our situation is as desperate as the woman in our story.
I remember the battle that raged in my soul just before I became a Christian. The Holy Spirit was showing me very clearly that I was not OK at all. I found out that I enjoyed swearing. I realised there was evil within me. I needed help.
The man who found out about chloroform, Dr Simpson, was once asked whether this was his greatest discovery. He said no. He said his greatest discovery was that he was a sinner.
Is that your greatest discovery? Or do you think you are better than the woman in the story? You have never had adultery or anger or deceit in your heart? That you are pure.
The Holy Spirit convicts us and we know we have no right to throw a stone at anyone else, and we know we have no right to be in the presence of God.
Justice for us would be like it should be for the adulteress: we should hear – depart from me you evildoers into the fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
We have sinned against almighty God. He will not clear the guilty. He will surely punish.
And so as the Holy Spirit gets to work, so all these men slink away.
The judge proves that all are sinners.
Scene one – sin is brought before the judge
Scene two – the judge proves that all are sinners – but the judge must still condemn the sinner.
What is going to happen? Let us move to scene three.
Scene Three - verse 9 b to eleven
Neither do I condemn you
The place where the angry crowd were is now empty. Just dust is hanging in the now hot air. And the woman is all alone with Jesus. Her eyes are down. And she is still frightened. Why?
Because there is one man there who has the right to judge her. There has been one man there who is without sin.
Like the others there, she has looked into his eyes. They shine with a holiness she has never seen in others. She knows that this man indeed has the right to pick up the first stone and kill her for the sin she has committed.
So she waits. She has sinned and the judge must condemn. That is the law.
A question comes.
Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?
She still doesn’t look up.
She replies, ‘No one, sir.’
But she knows it doesn’t matter what the crowd think. What matters is what Jesus says.
So she waits.
And then she hears such beautiful words.
‘Neither do I condemn you’.
The judge who must condemn her, doesn’t condemn her.
Why?
Is Jesus just waving away adultery? Is the one who came to fulfil the law not ready now to do so?
Why doesn’t he condemn her?
You probably know the answer.
The judge doesn’t condemn her, because the judge was going to die for her.
He was in Jerusalem. In a few weeks time he who was without sin would be arrested by those same temple guards and dragged like that woman was to a dusty place and thrown down on a cross. Nails would be banged into his hands and feet and for a few hours he would hang there between heaven and earth. Then Jesus would cry out: it is finished.
The punishment for that woman’s sin of adultery, for all the sins in that crowd, the punishment for my sins and your sins, the punishment for the sins of the whole world – is death, separation from God. Jesus died for that woman, Jesus died for me, for you.
God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin so we might become the righteousness of God.
Jesus knew all this as he looked at that woman. The judge did not condemn her because he was going to die for her.
Neither do I condemn you.
Jesus did not come into the world to condemn, but to save; not to take away life, but to give life. He is the friend of sinners, and his cross proves it. This is Christianity. This is the Gospel. Is there any better news in the world?
Can you imagine the joy that surged up in that woman’s heart as she heard those words? She truly deserved to die. She had been caught in the act of adultery. She was guilty. And there is one man who has the right to judge her. And he says – neither do I condemn you.
She looks into Jesus’ eyes. They are pure. And they are full of love, a love that was willing to suffer. She walks away completely forgiven, completely free.
I am sure she never forgot that love. I am sure she never wanted to sin again.
Franciszek Gajowniczek never forgot the love shown to him by Father Kolbe. On August 14th every year he went back to Auschwitz t to pay homage to the man who took his place. To the man who died for him. The idea that he would have ever sinned against Father Kolbe is almost mad.
That woman had every reason to be more grateful to Jesus. Father Kolbe died for a man who had not committed a crime as such. It was just reprisal. But Jesus died for a woman who had sinner. She was guilty.
And he has died for us who have sinned. We are guilty.
The judge that must condemn sinners is condemned for sinners so we can be forgiven
CONCLUSION
This story is written for us – for us to learn this:
The judge that must condemn sinners is condemned for sinners so we can be forgiven
In scene one a terrible sin is brought to the judge
In scene two the judge proves that all are sinners – that’s you and me too
In scene three we learn that the judge will forgive, because he will be condemned.
There is a winner in this story – and losers....which are you?
The winner is of course the woman. She is the only one who learns from Jesus that He does not condemn her. She accepts this. She walks away knowing this.
The losers are the people who slunk away. Jesus asked them to throw the stone if they were without sin. The Holy Spirit convicted them. They had sin. They had a problem. They needed forgiveness. And before them was the one man who would die for them so they could be forgiven. But they walk away. They keep their pride, and their sin, and so they lose.
The woman went on her way with a song of freedom in her heart. For she had gone to the feet of Jesus and found mercy.
They went home with a weight in their heart, because they hadn’t not gone to the feet of Jesus. They are the losers.
What about you? What about me?
Only Jesus has died for our sins – but we must come to him, we must confess, we must hear him say to us personally – neither do I condemn you.
But the man next to him, Franciszek Gajowniczek, was. When he was chosen Franciszek cried out – ‘My wife, my children...’. Now Father Kolbe stepped forward. He asked the Nazi guard if he could take Franiciszek’s place because he had no wife or children. The Nazi agreed. And so Father Kolbe was led off to be starved to death.
Father Kolbe died a horrible death in 1941. Franciszek Gajowniczek lived for 54 more years -till 1995. He lived because Father Kolbe had died.
Father Kolbe truly loved. He took Franciszek Gajowniczek’s place. This morning we want to look a little at the man he was following that inspired him: Jesus Christ. He also took someone else’s place.
Read story John 8
In this story we learn a life changing truth
The judge that must condemn sinners is condemned for sinners - so we can be forgiven
What scenes in this story reveal this truth to us?
There are three scenes that reveal this truth in the story
Scene One – verse two to five
Sin is brought before the judge
It’s early in the morning at the Temple in Jerusalem. It’s a busy place, like the shrine for Reza in Mashad, or some of the huge cathedrals in Europe. It’s a place to meet God, a place to have a special experience. There are always people at temples. So when Jesus comes to teach, there’s soon quite a crowd. They’re enjoying his teaching – it’s a perfect scene...Jesus in his Father’s house teaching his people, feeding his people.
Suddenly the perfect scene collapses. Loud screams are heard from a woman. Harsh words are heard from the temple guards. All heads turn. And through the crowd these rough looking guards are pulling a young woman. Her clothes are torn, her face is streaked with tears, her eyes are full of anger. Behind the soldiers and the woman come a group of scribes and Pharisees. They are all wearing smart religious robes. Their beards are freshly trimmed, their hair neatly combed, their eyes determined. They have a plan to humiliate Jesus.
The woman is pushed before Jesus, her feet wobble. Her screams die down. There is silence. Now the chief Pharisee steps forward.
‘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?
The temple has become a court. And Jesus is the judge.
What do you say?
It is easy for us to think about the suffering woman. But let’s pause here first and acknowledge something.
The sin of adultery is horrible.
Yes we know the Pharisees were using this woman – but that doesn’t mean make the sin of adultery ok.
However it happens, whenever it happens adultery is horrible.
I know of a little boy. He was just ten or eleven years old. He was sitting on the top of the stairs at his home and he heard his parents having a terrible argument. His mother was crying and crying. His heart was full of fear. Then he heard his father driving away. About half an hour later his mother called him and his two brothers into the sitting room and choking back her tears she told them that their father was an adulterer.
That young boy was devastated. He hardly slept that night. Of course he wanted the father to come back. But the father never came back. That family broke up.
The world over adultery is still a major cause for divorce. It is a destroyer of families and children. Sometimes the wounds never heal. It is a sin and all sin is serious.
Adultery is betrayal. It’s theft. It’s deceit. We don’t want adultery in our families. We don’t want adultery in our society. We don’t want adultery in our churches.
And the Pharisees didn’t want adultery in the temple.
So they are bringing it to Jesus who is speaking in the name of God and quite rightly they remind him of what the Bible says about adultery.
It’s in Leviticus 20:10
If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbour, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
Adultery is horrible. Our justice says the adulterer should be punished. God’s law says the adulterer should be punished.
Let’s face it – the woman’s situation doesn’t look good. Jesus has come to fulfil the law, and the law says the adulterer should die.
That’s the first scene. The sin is brought to the judge. And the judge must condemn sin. He can’t just click his fingers and say...oh, poor girl, it doesn’t matter. It does matter.
The judge that must condemn sinners is condemned for sinners so you can be forgiven
Let’s go onto the second scene.
Scene Two – verse six to nine a
The judge proves that all are sinners
Jesus is silent. He just puts his head down and starts writing in the sand. The Pharisees keep on repeating the question – just in case he hadn’t heard.
And Jesus keeps on writing.
Some of them are looking around to see where the biggest and best stones are.
Then Jesus speaks.
Jesus doesn’t say adultery is ok. He doesn’t say there should be no punishment.
But he has a challenge for the pharisees.
‘He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone’
He who is without sin.
Jesus’ eyes are burning into the eyes of the men who want to throw stones at an adulterous woman. Their eyes turn away. Their arms, raised to attack, fall by their side.
The Holy Spirit is at work. The Holy Spirit is showing these men their sins. The lies; the lust; the cheating; the anger; the violence; swearing; the pride; the cunning; and for some, exactly the same sin as the woman – adultery.
Maybe Jesus had been writing some of them down in the sand.
Maybe as God in the flesh he was writing down some of the other commandments those men had broken.
He who is without sin.
Nobody in the crowd had the right to throw a stone at that woman.
They were all guilty. That’s what the Bible says. We are all guilty. The family of Adam and Eve is guilty.
All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God
If we say we have not sinned we are a liar and the truth is not in us.
The Holy Spirit was at work back then; the Holy Spirit is at work today. He speaks deep into our hearts when we sin
Have you had that experience? There are some who sin and they keep on sinning, but they think...well, I’m not such a bad sinner...God will forgive me. They don’t take sin seriously.
But the Holy Spirit does. And when the Holy Spirit shows us our sins we realise our situation is as desperate as the woman in our story.
I remember the battle that raged in my soul just before I became a Christian. The Holy Spirit was showing me very clearly that I was not OK at all. I found out that I enjoyed swearing. I realised there was evil within me. I needed help.
The man who found out about chloroform, Dr Simpson, was once asked whether this was his greatest discovery. He said no. He said his greatest discovery was that he was a sinner.
Is that your greatest discovery? Or do you think you are better than the woman in the story? You have never had adultery or anger or deceit in your heart? That you are pure.
The Holy Spirit convicts us and we know we have no right to throw a stone at anyone else, and we know we have no right to be in the presence of God.
Justice for us would be like it should be for the adulteress: we should hear – depart from me you evildoers into the fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
We have sinned against almighty God. He will not clear the guilty. He will surely punish.
And so as the Holy Spirit gets to work, so all these men slink away.
The judge proves that all are sinners.
Scene one – sin is brought before the judge
Scene two – the judge proves that all are sinners – but the judge must still condemn the sinner.
What is going to happen? Let us move to scene three.
Scene Three - verse 9 b to eleven
Neither do I condemn you
The place where the angry crowd were is now empty. Just dust is hanging in the now hot air. And the woman is all alone with Jesus. Her eyes are down. And she is still frightened. Why?
Because there is one man there who has the right to judge her. There has been one man there who is without sin.
Like the others there, she has looked into his eyes. They shine with a holiness she has never seen in others. She knows that this man indeed has the right to pick up the first stone and kill her for the sin she has committed.
So she waits. She has sinned and the judge must condemn. That is the law.
A question comes.
Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?
She still doesn’t look up.
She replies, ‘No one, sir.’
But she knows it doesn’t matter what the crowd think. What matters is what Jesus says.
So she waits.
And then she hears such beautiful words.
‘Neither do I condemn you’.
The judge who must condemn her, doesn’t condemn her.
Why?
Is Jesus just waving away adultery? Is the one who came to fulfil the law not ready now to do so?
Why doesn’t he condemn her?
You probably know the answer.
The judge doesn’t condemn her, because the judge was going to die for her.
He was in Jerusalem. In a few weeks time he who was without sin would be arrested by those same temple guards and dragged like that woman was to a dusty place and thrown down on a cross. Nails would be banged into his hands and feet and for a few hours he would hang there between heaven and earth. Then Jesus would cry out: it is finished.
The punishment for that woman’s sin of adultery, for all the sins in that crowd, the punishment for my sins and your sins, the punishment for the sins of the whole world – is death, separation from God. Jesus died for that woman, Jesus died for me, for you.
God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin so we might become the righteousness of God.
Jesus knew all this as he looked at that woman. The judge did not condemn her because he was going to die for her.
Neither do I condemn you.
Jesus did not come into the world to condemn, but to save; not to take away life, but to give life. He is the friend of sinners, and his cross proves it. This is Christianity. This is the Gospel. Is there any better news in the world?
Can you imagine the joy that surged up in that woman’s heart as she heard those words? She truly deserved to die. She had been caught in the act of adultery. She was guilty. And there is one man who has the right to judge her. And he says – neither do I condemn you.
She looks into Jesus’ eyes. They are pure. And they are full of love, a love that was willing to suffer. She walks away completely forgiven, completely free.
I am sure she never forgot that love. I am sure she never wanted to sin again.
Franciszek Gajowniczek never forgot the love shown to him by Father Kolbe. On August 14th every year he went back to Auschwitz t to pay homage to the man who took his place. To the man who died for him. The idea that he would have ever sinned against Father Kolbe is almost mad.
That woman had every reason to be more grateful to Jesus. Father Kolbe died for a man who had not committed a crime as such. It was just reprisal. But Jesus died for a woman who had sinner. She was guilty.
And he has died for us who have sinned. We are guilty.
The judge that must condemn sinners is condemned for sinners so we can be forgiven
CONCLUSION
This story is written for us – for us to learn this:
The judge that must condemn sinners is condemned for sinners so we can be forgiven
In scene one a terrible sin is brought to the judge
In scene two the judge proves that all are sinners – that’s you and me too
In scene three we learn that the judge will forgive, because he will be condemned.
There is a winner in this story – and losers....which are you?
The winner is of course the woman. She is the only one who learns from Jesus that He does not condemn her. She accepts this. She walks away knowing this.
The losers are the people who slunk away. Jesus asked them to throw the stone if they were without sin. The Holy Spirit convicted them. They had sin. They had a problem. They needed forgiveness. And before them was the one man who would die for them so they could be forgiven. But they walk away. They keep their pride, and their sin, and so they lose.
The woman went on her way with a song of freedom in her heart. For she had gone to the feet of Jesus and found mercy.
They went home with a weight in their heart, because they hadn’t not gone to the feet of Jesus. They are the losers.
What about you? What about me?
Only Jesus has died for our sins – but we must come to him, we must confess, we must hear him say to us personally – neither do I condemn you.
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