Jesus Did Not Confront Adulterous Men and Women Because???

In the story presented a few days ago about the woman caught in adultery was used to indicate that Jesus, unlike many of us, did not teach that believers should verbally point out moral failures.  As a result, he did not confront the woman.

Nor did he directly confront the men involved in the adultery. In fact, those men were not mentioned but indeed, if she was guilty as charged, must have been involved with at least one male. (In those days no one was confused about sex and gender roles.)

What was the situation Jesus faced? It can be called, "The Devil's Predicament". It is the way the tempter often appears when we are interacting with a friend or acquaintance that has a difference of opinion, especially about moral choices.

If we are busily building a solid relationship of trust based on mercy and grace, we know that Uncle Screwtape will get mighty nervous. Screwtape gets nervous anytime one of his disciples becomes friends with a true believer. At that point he will go to work to divert our attention from grace to jump on the morality bandwagon.

It is almost impossible for a nice, gentle, pious believer to resist one kind of temptation. It is not just pretty women or strong drink that diverts our attention away from Kingdom activities, it is the need to call balls and strikes when we smell the awful sulfurous stench of SIN!

So, Jesus was in the middle of carrying out Kingdom business when Screwtape saw it on streaming video. He quickly sent a text to Wormwood for an immediate intervention.

Dear Nephew, you must intervene. Jesus is teaching and gaining converts. Stop him now.

Dear Uncle. How?

Dear Nephew. Don't ask stupid questions. Have you completely forgotten "The Favorite Predicament" of our Master? Find a legal scholar to ask an embarrassing question and divert him from the Kingdom.

Dear Uncle. I apologize. I know just the people to bring over and confront Jesus. He will not get out of this one. No one can resist the one about judging sin!

See John 8 for the full story. (But with Screwtape and Wormwood hidden from view.)

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