Encountering Jesus--Forgiveness Forged

Pastor Burcham’s Sermon

 Sermon, Sunday, March 18, 2007

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

How many of you have seen a blacksmith at work? Maybe either something on PBS or maybe you’ve been out to Living History Farms, you’ve seen a blacksmith at work. They take a piece of metal, usually steel or iron, they put it into a super hot furnace, and they heat it up until it’s glowing red hot. And then usually they take it out and with hammer in hand, they come over to an anvil and they start beating the thing into shape. Maybe they’re making a horseshoe. Maybe they’re making a latch. Maybe they’re making some piece of art.

But the whole process of heating the metal up and then hammering it into shape is called forging. It’s called to forge the metal. The unique thing about forged metal is that it’s actually stronger once the process is over than at the beginning. So the piece of iron or the piece of steel, once it’s been heated up and pounded into shape, that piece of steel is actually stronger, more durable once it’s been forged. They say the grains in the steel are aligned and straightened. I don’t understand that but I’ll take their word for it.

Obviously, it must be true because if you go through your garage and you take a look at some of the tools you have in there, have you ever noticed on them often, this one says “Drop Forged” on it. Or we have our handy Craftsman here guaranteed for life tools, right? Well, if they’re going to guarantee it for life, do you know what it says on that? It says “Forged in the U.S.A.” They’re not doing that just because they need to fill in space there. They want to tell you something about this tool. They want to tell you this tool was forged into shape. They didn’t heat up the metal and pour it into a die cast because that’s inferior to forged steel. They didn’t just take a hunk of metal and machine it down into the shape of this wrench because that’s inferior. If you want something that’s strong and durable, something they’re willing to say “We’ll guarantee it for life,” it’s going to be forged because forged steel is strong. It has a durability about it.

Maybe that’s why through time, we’ve used the word “forged” in other contexts besides just that of metal. Have you ever heard of a friendship that has been forged? What does that mean when we say they forged their friendship? We’re trying to say something about that relationship, right? More than likely, that relationship came about because they’ve gone through some adverse situation together. They’ve gone through some challenging event and because of that, they forged a friendship. And what we’re saying about that relationship is that it’s unbreakable, that these two people will remain friends through thick and thin, that there is a strength in that relationship, there’s a durability in that relationship. So friendships that have been forged.

Well, this morning we want to study a woman who did more than just forge a friendship with Jesus. It certainly was an adverse situation as she stands in front of Jesus accused of adultery. And certainly there is a friendship there with her Savior but more than just forging a friendship with Jesus, we find out Jesus forges forgiveness on her heart. In other words, He doesn’t just pass it off. This isn’t an event she’ll soon forget about. That moment in time when Jesus forgave her sins will always be etched in her memory. If you will, forgiveness is forged on her heart forever.

This morning, I hope you’ll encounter Jesus with me once again and I hope you forge more than just a friendship with Jesus. But through His Word, I hope you come to a deeper understanding of forgiveness and I hope His forgiveness is forged in your heart. But as always, when we encounter Jesus, we encounter two things, right? We encounter reality and we encounter what? Are you all here for the first time? You haven’t been with me for three weeks? I recognize some of your faces. We encounter reality and we encounter grace whenever we encounter Jesus.

The encounter of reality happens at the temple courts this time. Temple courts, Jesus is there and He is teaching. And the Pharisees and the teachers of the law come in to see Jesus. Now they’re not interested in Jesus’ teaching, far from that. They want to see Jesus stop teaching. So they’re dragging along with them this woman who has been, did you catch the word, caught in the act of adultery. That’s significant. Not accused of adultery, not rumors of adultery, caught in the act of adultery. One can just sort of imagine the scene, as through the streets of Jerusalem, they’re dragging this half dressed woman through the streets. She’s kicking and screaming and trying to get away from them, causing quite a stir I’m sure, exactly what they wanted. And so now this crowd gathers around as they toss this woman in front of Jesus. And they say, “Teacher, instruct us on this. The woman was caught in the act of adultery. Now we know in the law, it says this woman should be stoned.” True enough. You go to the Old Testament, you’ll find out that anyone who is caught in the act of adultery and there has to be two eye witnesses, sounds a little weird to me but that’s what the law says, two eye witnesses caught in the act of adultery, then judgment would be passed down and that person was to be stoned to death. Now one has to wonder that there has to be two involved here for adultery so where, pray tell, is the man who is involved here? But that’s not the point. You see, they don’t really care about the woman. They don’t really care about the law. What they do care about is trapping Jesus so they can get rid of Him.

That’s exactly what they’re doing because they’ve tossed this woman in front of Him. The law is clear, stone her to death, but what also is clear that they understand and Jesus understands, they are under Roman law. The Romans said you, the Jewish people, can rule yourself but there are certain things you can’t do. You cannot impose the death penalty. You may recall Jesus when they wanted to condemn Jesus, they had to go to Pontius Pilate, the Governor, in order to have Him killed because they couldn’t impose the death penalty.

So this is the situation Jesus is in. Either Jesus says, “Yep, she needs to be stoned.” Now He’s in violation of Roman law. Let the Romans deal with Him. Or if He says, “No, she shouldn’t be stoned,” well now He’s contradicting the Old Testament. He’s contradicting the law. He’s contradicting their scripture. One can almost see the glint in the eyes of the Pharisees as they pose this question, smug and proud of themselves of thinking up this great trap for Jesus because He can’t win. “So what say you, Jesus? What do we do with this woman?”

Well, Jesus gives them a moment to kind of gloat, at least that’s my impression, and lets them kind of stew on it for a few minutes. And then He says, “Whoever is without sin, you go ahead and throw the first stone.” Now Jesus is doing more than just being clever here. It’s just not His sharp intellect that’s getting Him out of this situation. What’s actually happening is when Jesus says those words, there is conviction in them. In other words, He speaks with the authority of the Son of God and He pierces their hearts. Maybe they don’t understand why their hearts are pierced, but their hearts are pierced as He said, “Alright, which one of you is without sin? And if any of you are bold enough to say you are without sin, go ahead, toss the stone that’s in your hand.”

Immediately, they’re convicted. You cannot stand before the Son of God and claim innocence. You can’t. Whether you believe in Him, don’t believe in Him, nobody can stand in the presence of the Son of God and claim innocence. So one by one, the rocks drop and they walk away. All that’s left is this woman standing in front of Him. Now make no mistake, she’s guilty. It doesn’t matter she was trapped into this setup from the beginning. It doesn’t matter. She’s guilty. She was caught in the act of adultery and she has to come to the realization just like the rest of the crowd had to come to the realization. And there she stands and I imagine she has her head hung low. She is filled with shame and guilt and regret. She has encountered Jesus and she has encountered reality.

It’s the same reality you and I encounter. The reality is we could have been standing in that crowd or we could have been standing there in front of Jesus. We so easily could have been standing in that crowd filled with self righteousness and indignation looking at that woman, shaking our heads in disgust about her, coming up with derogatory names we would be calling her, if not in our minds, then in our voices as we talk to one another. How often are we part of that crowd that points the finger at someone else? It’s so easy when it’s a public sin. When it’s plastered on the front page of the newspaper and we can stand there in self righteousness and say, “I can’t believe they tried to get away with that.” Or whether it’s the latest gossip in the office or the story that’s going around school, whichever it is, we can look at somebody else and it’s so easy to see their sin and to point out their sin and to remain blind to our own guilt and to remain blind to our own sin. But no one can stand in the presence of the Son of God and claim innocence.

And sooner or later, My Friends, we’re no longer in the crowd. We’re the woman standing before Jesus or the man standing before Jesus. And we’re convicted. And we’re asking ourselves, “What are we going to do?” I’m talking about a deep conviction here. I’m not talking about, “Oh, boy, I wish I wouldn’t have said that.” Or “Shucks, I shouldn’t have done that.” I’m not talking about that. I’m talking when your head is hung low, when you have been caught in the very act, when you’ve done the very thing you said you would never do, the very thing you’ve accused other people about and you’ve looked at them in self righteousness. What do you do?

What do you do when your wife walks in and you can’t click off the computer screen quick enough? What do you do? What do you do when the teacher finds the cheat sheet you have underneath your desk? What do you do? What do you do when your best friend confronts you and has found out about all the things you’ve said about him or her behind their back? What do you do when your boss discovers all of your reports are bogus? What do you do when you’re caught in the act? There’s no getting around it. There are no excuses. There’s no denying it. There’s no trying to hide from it anymore. Right there, you can’t even look into the eyes of your accuser, much less could you look up to heaven and approach God. What do you do when you’re convicted to your heart and you’re filled with shame and regret?

You have two choices. You can be like the crowd and you can run away. You can walk away and try to get as far away from God as you possibly can, go into the world of denial, go into the world of trying to just push it out of your mind or you can stay put like the woman did. The crowd dispersed and left. They had encountered the reality of Jesus. Unfortunately, if they would have stayed, they would have encountered grace. The woman stayed. She encountered grace. I don’t know why the woman stayed. It defies logic as far as I’m concerned. All of her accusers have left. She’s standing there in the temple courts looking a mess. It would seem to me her first instinct would have been to duck into the shadows and take the back alleyways home, but she doesn’t move. She stands there in front of Jesus with her head hung low. But because she stayed, she encounters grace.

You see, Jesus does not condone her behavior or her activity. But Jesus didn’t come to condemn this woman. If you remember back to John 3, we all know John 3:16. How about John 3:17? “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through Him.” Jesus didn’t come to condemn this woman of her sin. The very reason He came was to save this woman from her sin. In that instant, as Jesus looks at her and says, “Has no one condemned you?” And she says, “No one, Sir.” The words that would be forever etched in her memory were the words of Jesus when He says, “Neither do I condemn you.” The one person who could condemn her, the one person who was without sin, the one person who could have picked up a rock legitimately and threw it at the woman is the man who says, “Neither do I condemn you.” This woman has gone through hell and now Jesus gives her a taste of heaven. She will never forget that moment. She’ll never forget God’s grace. That is forgiveness forged in her heart forever.

That same forgiveness is what God offers you. You can be like the crowd and you can walk away. You can live in denial. You can try to make excuses for your actions or you can stay put and live up to them. John in his first letter says, “Stay put.” He says, “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and He’ll forgive us all of our unrighteousness if we confess our sins,” in other words, if we take down the facade, if we take down all of the excuses, if we stop trying to hide from it and we just come clean with God and we confess our sins to Him. If you really want to taste the sweetness of the gospel, if you really want to know what forgiveness is all about, you have to encounter the reality of your own sinfulness to know just how desperate you are and just how much you need God’s love and God’s grace. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us all unrighteousness.

Now I don’t know where all of you are at this morning and I don’t know if God’s been knocking onto your heart because all of your faces look pretty much the same. It’s what we always do in public. We always put on our face and we look straight ahead but we don’t know what’s going on in your mind and I don’t know what’s going on in your heart. But I just wonder if God isn’t knocking on somebody’s heart, something you’ve been holding back from God, something you’re ashamed of, something you’re trying to hide from, something you don’t want anyone else to know and, you know what? No one else has to know besides God.

But let’s do something a little bit unusual this morning. If you have that on your heart right now, isn’t it time to get rid of it? Isn’t it time to receive God’s forgiveness? If that’s happening with you, just say a prayer right now. You don’t need to let anyone else know and say, “Alright, God, I give up. Here it is. I’m ashamed of it. I can’t even look at you. Here’s my sin.” And if you have that in your mind right now, I want you to hear Jesus’ words. He says, “Neither do I condemn you.” He says, “My Father didn’t send me into this world to condemn you. My Father sent me into the world that through my life, I would save you.” That’s forgiveness forged into your heart.

Forgiveness forged means Jesus went through the fires of hell itself for you. Forgiveness forged says someone picked up a hammer in their hand and they nailed Him to a cross through His hands and through His feet and He hung there between heaven and hell and when Jesus says, “It’s finished,” He paid the payment of your sin and He looks at you this morning and He says, “Neither do I condemn you. My Father sent me here to save you, not to accuse you.”

Have forgiveness forged in your heart. Encounter Jesus. Encounter reality but stick around. Encounter His grace. Have forgiveness forged in your heart. Amen.

Copyright 2007 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church