REBUILDING THE BROKEN LIVES - (PART 2)

THE WORKS OF THE KINGDOM (PART - 2)

Rebuilding the Broken Lives

Rev. S. Asap Singh

Passage: John 8:1-11 – “Jesus and the Woman caught in Adultery”

The work of the Kingdom of God is reversing the curse that came through the disobedience and establishing God’s reign over the lives of the people. The kingdom of God was perfect in the Garden of Eden – it was through the disobedience of the first couple, the human life is broken and sin overtook humanity.

SIN – The foundational problem which prevents people getting into the kingdom of God. Rebuilding the lives include breaking the chains of sin/tradition and lifestyle. Jesus being the Kingdom worker – he liberated people from their sins and rebuilt the broken lives. We see the same thing in the above passage.

Jesus speaks about His Kingdom mission of rebuilding the lives of downtrodden – poor people in various passages. Few of them mentioned below,

Luke 4:18-19 – Heal the broken hearted and release the oppressed.

Matthew 12:20 - A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he has brought justice through to victory.

Matthew 11:28 - Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Luke 5:32 - I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

All the above verses we see the Kingdom work of Jesus included the least – weak – sinful – rejected to rebuild their brokenness and make them a blessing to many.

John 8:1-11 we see the broken life of the woman because of the society and her sinful lifestyle. Jesus as the liberator broke the thought of the society and the sinful lifestyle of the woman in personal level. Even today the Kingdom works include rebuilding the lives of the people who are broken in various levels.

The passage Luke 7:53-8:11 was not found in some earlier manuscripts – we have no idea why the passage left out. But certainly there is some problem we could notice here.

1.      BROKEN BECAUSE OF THE SOCIETY (JOHN 8:1-5)

Jesus in this chapter was in the temple courts of Jerusalem. There were several people listening to the teaching of him - there comes the problem. A woman was brought before Jesus probably with less cloths – caught red handed in the act of adultery – v.4 ““Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.” Jesus did not bothered about it and started to write something in the ground –when they asked persistently he commanded the person without sin to throw a stone first – all of them left the place in guilty.

The problem in the passage is the life of women under Jewish society. The Pharisees and teachers of the law brought this woman before Jesus. As a patriotic society they had less or no regards for the woman. We see the reflection of the Jewish culture in the Biblical writings.

Matthew 1 – We see about the genealogy of Jesus (several other genealogies in the Old Testament). The records witness Abraham begot Isaac… etc. No man begot someone but Jewish society counted man as the responsible head of the family. No credit goes to the woman in the childbirth – it was counted as the fruit of men.

As for the issue of impurity in Old Testament law – the duration for impurity for a mother for male baby is 7 days – as for female baby 14 days and doubled the further impurity days (Leviticus 12:1-5)

Female witness is not considered admissible compared to that of men (in Talmud).

Luke 24:10 - 11 - The witness of Mary Magdalene was considered stupid.

Acts 12:13-15 - The witness of Rhode in was simply neglected as Peter arrived home.

Jewish man thanks God daily for not being made as Gentile, Slave or a Woman. The exact prayer lines are,

"Blessed are you, King of the Universe, for not having made me a Gentile"

"Blessed are you, King of the Universe, for not having made me a slave"
“Blessed are you, King of the Universe, for not having made me a woman"

This prayer is said every morning by millions of Jews around the world.

Adultery is sin (Leviticus 20:10) but the punishment for adultery is death for both man and woman who involves in it. A lady caught in the act of adultery where does the man go? (v.3). They should have brought them together – the society gave lenience to the man to escape. The life of the woman is broken because of the society. The problem is not in the commandment of the Lord but the society that broke the life – Jesus being the Kingdom worker rebuilt the brokenness that is caused by the society.

The missionaries in 17-19 centuries did the same in India. The people who are broken because of social evils were removed. Caste system, Untouchability, Education, Health care, Removing of social evils are parts of those initiatives. Kingdom people must seek to rebuild the brokenness caused by the society.

2.      BROKEN BECAUSE OF HER LIFESTYLE (vv.4-5)

This woman identified as adulteress – a sinful person. We have no idea what was her background? What was the financial status? What made her to involve in adultery? The answers whatever it may be. It is a sin – she is responsible for her lifestyle. The way of her living now brought brokenness that would lead her to death.

The entire crowd wanted her to die because her lifestyle was exposed while others yet in the same lifestyle but was not revealed to others. Her life is broken because of the way she lived. The crowd quoted the Law of Moses to justify her killing (v.5).

The entire humanity is in sin through Adam and Eve. The Bible says, “Everyone who sins is a slave to sin” (John 8:34). Christ Jesus came into the world to save the sinners (1 Tim 1:15). Jesus do not condemn the lifestyle of the people rather he is the way to get rid of the lifestyle. He rebuilds the brokenness caused through sin. In several occasions Jesus said the people “Your sins are forgiven” (Mat 9:2; Luke 7:48) – Go and sin no more (John 8:11). Jesus being the remedy of sin – he rebuilds people who truly repent from their sins.

Jesus exactly demonstrated the Kingdom works by rebuilding the brokenness of her sinful lifestyle. We see lot of people in the world is broken because of their lifestyle – many commit suicide due to the brokenness in their life. As the people of the Kingdom we must rebuild the broken life through our message that is from God, “Go and sin no more.”

THE MESSAGE THAT REBUILT HER (vv. 7-11)

John 8:7-11: When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

The bold writings are the message that rebuilt the life of the woman caught in adultery. I am sure that was the point of transformation in her life. She certainly would have left the sinful life and become a follower of Jesus Christ. The words of Christ reconstructed her remaining life.

Jesus the liberator rebuilt what is broken in her life. Everyone who repents from the sin is rebuilt. Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save the world (John 3:17). The rebuilding process may be difficult but the Kingdom worker must rebuild the broken life.

As a Kingdom worker we must seek to rebuild the broken lives through Christ – the King of the Kingdom.