Into the Fulfillment of Her Possibilities
From Jesus and the Disinherited, by Howard Therman, pp. 105-106:
One day a woman was brought to Jesus. She has been caught in the act of adultery. The spokesman for the group who brought her said she was caught red-handed and that according to the law she should be stoned to death. "What is your judgement?" was their searching question. To them the woman was not a woman, or even a person, but an adulteress, stripped of her essential dignity and worth. Said Jesus: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone." After that, he implied, any person may throw. The quiet words exploded the situation, and in the piercing glare each man saw himself in his literal substance. In that moment each was not a judge of another's deeds, but of his own. In the same glare the adulteress saw herself as merely a woman involved in the meshes in a struggle with her own elemental passion.
Jesus, always the gentleman, did not look at the woman as she stood before him. Instead, he looked on the ground, busied himself with his own thoughts. What a moment, reaching beyond time into eternity!
Jesus waited. One by one the men crept away. The woman alone was left. Hearing no outcry, Jesus raised his eyes and beheld the woman. "Where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee?"
"No man, Lord."
"Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more."
This is how Jesus demonstrated reverence for personality. He met the woman where she was, and he treated her as if she were already where she now willed to be. In dealing with her he "believed" her into the fulfillment of her possibilities. He stirred her confidence into activity. He placed a crown over her head which for the rest of her life she would keep trying to grow tall enough to wear.
Free at last, free at last.
Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last.
One day a woman was brought to Jesus. She has been caught in the act of adultery. The spokesman for the group who brought her said she was caught red-handed and that according to the law she should be stoned to death. "What is your judgement?" was their searching question. To them the woman was not a woman, or even a person, but an adulteress, stripped of her essential dignity and worth. Said Jesus: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone." After that, he implied, any person may throw. The quiet words exploded the situation, and in the piercing glare each man saw himself in his literal substance. In that moment each was not a judge of another's deeds, but of his own. In the same glare the adulteress saw herself as merely a woman involved in the meshes in a struggle with her own elemental passion.
Jesus, always the gentleman, did not look at the woman as she stood before him. Instead, he looked on the ground, busied himself with his own thoughts. What a moment, reaching beyond time into eternity!
Jesus waited. One by one the men crept away. The woman alone was left. Hearing no outcry, Jesus raised his eyes and beheld the woman. "Where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee?"
"No man, Lord."
"Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more."
This is how Jesus demonstrated reverence for personality. He met the woman where she was, and he treated her as if she were already where she now willed to be. In dealing with her he "believed" her into the fulfillment of her possibilities. He stirred her confidence into activity. He placed a crown over her head which for the rest of her life she would keep trying to grow tall enough to wear.
Free at last, free at last.
Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last.
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