What Jesus Wrote

The other day my 8 year old son said this: "Mom, I wish I had a time machine so I could go back in time and see what Jesus wrote." I said, "Son, Jesus didn't really 'write' anything... but He spoke a lot and we have His words recorded in the Bible so you don't have to travel back in time." My son was thinking on a different track than me and said, "He did wirte mom. He wrote something on the ground and I want to go back in time and see what it said."

This was really an interesting moment with my son. I was impressed with his thinking. (I had to eat a little crow!) Jesus did write something and it must have been something very powerful:

4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. 5 Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” 6 This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.7 So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” 8 And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. (John 8:4-9)

This is one of my favorite passages. The Pharisees were prime utilizers of the 'political gamesmanship' we see in religious disagreements throughout time. Someone doesn't appreciate the religious views or practices of another and so they try to trick them into a conundrum. (Once or twice it occurred to me to try this myself in internet debates with Calvinists, but I wasn't clever enough to think of a good strategy!) I'm not saying it's wrong to use questions to try to get someone else to think through to the logical conslusion of their views. Jesus used this method too! But it is the spirit in which you do these things that can be deadly.

Jesus wrote on the ground. What do you think he wrote? Do you think it was anything of significance that He wrote... or was it just the "zinger" of a statement that he made which caused them all to leave?: “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”