Recreated

John 8: 1-11; Luke 23:33-34

As he sat in the temple, teaching,
The Pharisees brought him a test.
She was a woman who had sinned.
A woman who had committed adultery.
By the law, she should have been stoned.
Killed for her sin.
Killed by her sin.

What would he do?
Ignore God’s law?
Ignore the law of the Romans?

“Whichever one of you has committed no sin.
Whichever one of you is without sin,
May throw the first stone.”

One by one, they all walked away.
Each, burdened by his own sin,
They dropped their stones
Which thudded to the ground,
A testament to their own failings.
Perhaps one of them had shared her sin?
None of them were blameless.

“Go, and do not sin again.”
So she turned, and left.
Forgiven.
Remade.
Recreated by the work of God.

Later, they nailed him to a cross.
The earth groaned; the sky turned black.
He said, “Father, forgive them.
They do not know what they are doing.”
He died.
He died a horrible, tortured death,
In payment for sins he did not commit.

I stand at the foot of the cross,
And each day, I turn.
Forgiven.
Remade.
Recreated by the work of God.

Thanks to Lewis Smedes, as quoted by Philip Yancey, for the image of forgiveness as re-creation. Thanks to Jeff the Methodist's comment linking that to Jesus' last words.

Image: Honeysuckle on the VA hill. Notice how the light changes it.