Beeson Podcast, Episode #610 Dr. Robert Yarbrough July 12, 2022 >>Announcer: Welcome to the Beeson podcast, coming to you from Beeson Divinity School on the campus of Samford University. Now your hosts, Doug Sweeney and Kristen Padilla. >>Kristen Padilla: Welcome to the Beeson Podcast. I’m your host, Kristen Padilla. We have three weeks left of our summer sermon series, and we hope that it’s been edifying to your faith. If you’ve enjoyed this series, let us know by sending an email to either Doug Sweeney, dsweeney@samford.edu or me, kpadilla@samford.edu. The day this episode releases, July 12, some of us will be at the EK Bailey Preaching Conference in Dallas, Texas. We have several Beeson alumni speaking at this conference, including Dr. Ralph West, Dr. Darrell Hall, Reverend Cokeisha Bailey-Robinson, and Dr. Maurice Watson. We’re very proud of these alumni and are glad that we can be there to support them. So, if you are also at the conference we really hope to see you. We’ve been announcing all summer long about our Beauty of God conference, which we’re really looking forward to. The following month after that conference in November we’re hosting our second annual alumni conference with Gavin Ortlund as our guest speaker. If you are an alumnus or an alumna of the school, we really hope you’ll make plans to join us. Be sure to earmark www.BeesonDivinity.com/events on your web browser so that you can stay up to date regarding all of our events. You can learn more information about both of these conferences there. Today’s sermon that you will hear was given by Dr. Robert Yarbrough for our annual biblical studies lectures this past spring. His sermon is entitled, “Reckoning with Jesus.” Which came from John 7:53-8:11. He explains why this passage, which is disputed regarding its authenticity should be taught and preached in churches. And Dr. Yarbrough’s sermon was very pastoral and christocentric. And as I listen to him preach and listen to him describe reckoning with Jesus as we find him in this text, my heart was moved. It was a beautiful sermon. And just a remind of what a beautiful and loving God we serve. Dr. Robert Yarbrough is professor of New Testament at Covenant Theological Seminary. He was a guest on the podcast not long ago on May 10th. If you missed that conversation I would highly recommend it to you. But for now let’s go to Hodges Chapel and listen to a sermon that Dr. Yarbrough preached called, “Reckoning With Jesus.” >>Yarbrough: It’s a joy to worship in a place that’s so new and so beautiful and so full of so many longtime good friends. I begin with a question to students. What stood out to you when you heard that famous bible passage read? The story of the woman taken in adultery? Given the title of the sermon you might well reply, “What fascinates me is how Jesus seemed to be calculating or reckoning – writing on the ground. The fact that he wrote twice. This is the only time in the New Testament Jesus is pictured as writing anything.” And you would be correct. And you might continue, “Some have proposed that he was just doodling, a sort of nervous reaction to buy time until he had the situation sized up and could reply in a measured way. And there are other views. But what he wrote was a conundrum that many have tried to solve, going back to Augustine and Jerome and even before.” If you were to answer like that I would reply, “Wow, Beeson students are really smart.” Because it’s true that Jesus wrote twice. No one knows what he wrote. And speculation on this incident is ancient. What do you reckon Jesus was reckoning as he wrote? It’s an outstanding question. People less well informed than a Beeson student probably zeroed in on something else when this text was read. And there are five other responses that are readily imaginable. In terms of the structure of the sermon we can call this Point One: How Do We Reckon With Jesus? What do we make of his actions and his utterances in this passage? So, response one, panic. Some of you thought to yourselves, “Don’t tell me this passage is being read in chapel and we may hear, ‘this is the Word of the Lord.’ And then say ‘thanks be to God.’” Because modern English translations place brackets around this passage. A footnote will say something to the effect that the verses are not found in most of the old manuscripts, which is what my old New American Standard says. Or there may be more words like these from the NIV. The earliest manuscripts and many other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:53-8:11. A few manuscripts include these verses, wholly or in part, after John 7:36, John 21:25, Luke 21:38, or Luke 24:53. And those same words basically will be in the ESV or the CSB. Some important commentaries don’t even mention the passage. This is true of Rudolph Boltmann’s John Commentary. It’s also true of Adolf [inaudible 00:06:22] scholarly John commentary. Can we, should we read this as scripture when its canonicity is uncertain? Scholars seem agreed that the passage was no part of the original text of John’s Gospel. I’ll come back to that. First, let’s look at other responses, other ways we reckon with the Jesus of our text. Response two, disdain and embarrassment. Actually, probably no one here was seized by those sentiments when the text was read. And it hit them that a sermon would be preached on this pericope. But I can imagine a New Testament guild expert feeling embarrassed that a preacher in 2022 would show such ignorance of all the well-known reasons why this story cannot be regarded as genuine. Reasons like the non Johannian vocabulary and the many textual variants. In this view, the story is even more legendary than all the other tales about Jesus in John’s gospel that aren’t historically factual either. The German scholar, Hartvic [inaudible 00:07:39] has enumerated the issues at length in the 13th of his 49 meaty essays in his [inaudible 00:07:47] volume [inaudible 00:07:48]. To view this pericope as Johannian in this view is as gauche as thinking that the apostle John wrote Revelation. Three other responses to this episode could focus on particular words of Jesus. Response three, some will zero in on Jesus’ words, “Neither do I condemn you.” Taken out of context, one could imagine Jesus here turning the tables on someone hateful enough to condemn sexual sin. I just browsed a new Romans commentary in which the author can see that Paul thought same-sex sexual relations were wrong in God’s eyes. He notes that EP Sanders said the same thing. Paul held the view that was universal among first century Jews and their scriptures. But the commentator then was at pains to affirm that a Christian view for us must be welcoming and affirming of sexual relations are our society has come to understand them. Jesus’ words, “Neither do I condemn you,” are a useful sound byte in support of today’s evolving moral outlook. Response four, the words “let him who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone,” will attract the immediate applause of some. And I favor this line myself. It comports with numerous scriptures that warn against condemning others for what we may be even more guilty of ourselves. The sermon on the mount comes to mind. Matthew 7:3. “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” We could also cite Romans 2:1, “Therefore you have no excuse, oh man, every one of you who judges for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself. Because you the judge practice the very same things.” You could do worse than to highlight, “let him who is without sin cast the first stone” if you teach or preach this passage. Response five, “Go and sin no more” may bear magnetic attraction for some of us. For one thing they balance out the words, “Neither do I condemn you.” Taking both statements together we see that Jesus implies forgiveness, “neither do I condemn you” on the assumption that she get her life in order, as she repents, and ceases this kind of sinning. But the words, “Go and sin no more” could be attractive for a less noble reason. I might love these words because I imagine myself morally superior to an adulteress. I could use Jesus’ words to confirm my self-righteousness. When I look around and see other people sinning I could silently condemn them because they ignore Jesus’ words, “Sin no more.” While I of course ignore my own sins. No doubt this is a misuse to which these words have been subjected. So, there are six responses to this passage. But before I come to a seventh one. Let me respond to the question I posed a minute ago. Can we, should we read this as scripture and teach it in the church? I deeply feel the bite of that question. I had a college student TA for three years actually – she was a wonderful TA. And she was converted through reading these verses. And I’m sure her experience is not unique. She could not conceive of it not being the Word of God. Yet brackets, like at the end of Mark’s Gospel, are an important testimony to the limits of our evidence and our knowledge. Over the years when I have taught John’s Gospel my view has been that this episode is probably historical. But not canonical in the sense that we can demonstrate it to have been part of John’s original gospel. But bear with me while I get technical for just a minute. The meaning of the double brackets in the [inaudible 00:12:18] edition should be recalled, and I’m quoting now from the introduction. [inaudible 00:12:23] 28. “These texts, if they have brackets or double brackets, derive from a very early stage of the tradition and have often played a significant role in the history of the church.” And they cite John 7:53-8:11 specifically. Augustine thought that the pericope was in the original text but was later omitted out of fear that some might use it to soft pedal adultery. We know of no earlier Greek text containing it than [inaudible 00:12:56] from the fifth century. But Augustine knew of earlier old Latin manuscripts that did contain it. And it is possible that Papyrus of Heliopolis knew of the incident. And he along with Ignatius and Polycarp was a hearer of the Apostle John in the 80-90’s. And he claimed to get his information from reliable sources. It’s often noted that you can remove this section, John 7:53-8:11, and then 7:52 snuggles up very well against 8:12. In other words, from a literary flow standpoint, the text can be seen as an insertion. On the other hand, [inaudible 00:13:42] points out that the pericope illustrates Jesus’ call in 7:24, just before this pericope. His call to judge with a righteous judgment as well as Jesus’ statement just after in 8:15, “You judge according to the flesh, but I judge no one.” Our incident is not completely out of place in the discourse. In the end, I concur with Herman [inaudible 00:14:13], and I quote, “We have here such a precious and in the judgment of many historically authentic tradition from the life of Jesus that not only does its place in the fourth gospel have to be maintained but also exposition of it rightly remains in most commentaries on John.” With that in mind and given how true the pericope is to Jesus elsewhere in the gospels, I conclude that it is justified to preach from this portion of our de facto canonical text despite the questions surrounding it. So, what is the seventh response to this text? What is left to leap out at us that we have not already considered? Well, here we move from Point One, How We Reckon With Christ to Point Two, How Christ Reckons With Us. People look at a bible text and they make of it what they will. But as you hear often in biblical hermeneutics, we don’t interpret God’s Word so much as it interprets us. It is the Living Word of the Living God. Now our sermon title means reckoning with Christ the sense of coming to grips with and internalizing what Christ sees as he surveys the human situation, including your life and mind. We will now view things from his angle, we will reckon with him. First, this whole incident reminds us that Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. That describes the people around him in the temple that day. And it describes us. Jesus was on a mission. Sent from the Father. People were and are targets of redemptive love. Not in some vague universal sense but in the sense of personal confrontation. And conviction of sin. And didactic conversation. And if possible, conversion. Note the dynamic of mission. Pointers to Christ – going forth with a saving message of which he was the fulfillment in this passage. There are seven imperfect tense verbs in just eight verses, which is a high frequency. I want to give you a literal digest, a literal translation digest of the rapid and suggestive movement that’s in the narrative. And I’m going to use was or were with an “ing” verb to denote the Greek imperfect. 1) all the people were coming, 2) he was teaching them, 3) the scribes and Pharisees were speaking, testing him, 4) he was writing as they spoke, 5) they were continuing to question him. 6) he was once more writing, 7) they were departing, one by one. Christ was a man on the move. He was at the temple for a reason. He was prepared for the disruption his opponents created. He responded with poise, even brilliance. They intended to run him off that day. He turned the tables, forcing their retreat instead. And the woman they had collared hears words of pardon and loving guidance to mend her ways. This big picture of Christ on the hunt for the lost gives a framework for observing three aspects of how Christ reckons with us. 1) Christ is keen to teach us. Teaching was why he was in the temple for this incident to happen in the first place. Teaching is probably what had gotten him into trouble with those sent to test him that day. You see? In John’s gospel Jesus makes a lot of Moses. He tells Nicodemus as Moses lifted up the servant in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. He tells the same Jewish authorities who confront him in the temple, “For if you believe Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me.” And right before our incident Moses comes up again in John 7:23, “If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man’s whole body well?” Good teachers provoke thought to stimulate a reflection and discussion down the line. It’s not the scribes and the Pharisees in John 8:3 who trap Jesus. It is Jesus who has enraged them with the claim to trump Moses who sets them up. Their response was, “Hmm, he likes to play the Moses card. Okay, Jesus. Now, in the law Moses commanded us stone such women. So, what do you say?” Unknowingly, they have fallen into his trap. As they slink away, they may not like or accept the lesson that Jesus taught them. But undeniably he makes his point. Their ham-fisted misuse of Moses points all the more to Christ’s wiser application of Torah teaching. Know that the lesson learned by the scribes and Pharisees is at the same time a lesson for the people he was teaching and any additional onlookers. Jesus understood the Jewish people of that era to be divided, divergent, like scattered sheep. What would the Good Shepherd do to move the masses back toward the unity of God’s covenant people. Recall Mark 6:34, “When he went ashore he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.” Christ views people as potential disciples. Learners in the making. Do people want to take up that call? Did they want to reckon with Christ’s saving challenge to them to live as learners? Or would they rather just cop a blessing and leave the heavy lifting of kingdom work to others. Christ’s call to us is to live as learners before him and then for him. How privileged to inhabit a divinity school setting where that priority is recognized and pursued. A second aspect of Christ’s outreach is this: Christ is keen to engage us. Jesus took a risk when he taught in the temple. A verse from Luke describes the risk. Luke 19:47. “And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principle men of the people were seeking to destroy him.” But the risk was worth it to our Lord, because his teaching was not merely informational. He meant it to connect, to be transformational. For that reason he came to earth. He taught in public and in private. He tarried long and often in prayer. He hiked the countryside for years without a home to call his own. He handpicked disciples and personally trained them. He exposed himself to abuse and arrest in the temple. He would eventually lay down his life. Also as to share life and his message with others. This was a high level of personal engagement. The gospels present Jesus as critiquing the religious leaders because they did not engage the people. They issued directives from above, probably even higher than this pulpit is. But they gave no help to fulfill their directives. Matthew 23:1, “Then Jesus said to the crowds and to the disciples, the scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you. But not the works they do, for they preach but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.” A few verses later Jesus turns from talking about these leaders to appealing to them. Verse 13, “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves, nor allow those who would enter to go in.” They are brusque and exclusionary. What a contrast with Jesus welcoming, interactive, didactic, prayerful, and personal invitation into and modeling of eternal life in God’s Kingdom. In our text we see Jesus engaging daily in the temple. It was the most public venue with the most exposure to the widest range of people. He addressed the masses and all comers. He was not a public figure who would turn and flee when somebody came with hard questions. He engaged the people. He engaged the scribes and the Pharisees. And even after his quick victory in their confrontation, Christ kept his eye on the prize of redemption of the person at the bottom of the social status heap in this narrative. The hapless woman. Trapped in a double standard scheme - for where was the equally guilty man? A pawn in the hands of cynical opponents of the savior who their pride and status will not permit them to acknowledge. Please do not forget Christ’s will to engage you in your own seminary existence. It’s inevitable that the work load and life pressures make God seem distant at times. This is one reason familiarity with the gospels is so important. Hebrews says we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. But before he passed through the heavens he walked this earth. We need to know the gospel story. We need to savor and draw from every detail. He clung to the Father in the face of challenge and adversity. Hebrews also says he learned obedience through the things he suffered on his way to the cross. “Tell me the story of Jesus,” goes the old hymn, “write on my heart every word.” What was his secret? How did he remain faithful? Part of it was he lived engaged with God the Father. And I believe human engagement with his disciples and Lazarus and Mary and Martha and others was part of it, too. Consider his outreach to you, his pursuit of you, his support for you, his interest in you, his plans for you, his sacrifice for your sins and defeat of death on your behalf. His intercession at God’s right hand at this moment for your sake. Our sense of his upholding wavers. He seems near, but then distant, depending on the day or hour. But as Acts reminds us, he was actually not far from each one of us. He is engaged, bank on it, and engage him. Three, a final way Christ reckons with us is twofold. He defuses and he redirects us. We are bundles of passions and drives and intentions and convictions. So were the scribes and Pharisees in this passage. They asked Jesus for his opinion on the sinful woman, we learn in verse six, to test him that they might have some charge to bring against him. They came to Jesus hoping to set off an explosion. Their question was defused and his answer would detonate in his face by incriminating him. If he said, “Stone her,” that was against Roman law. If he said, “Let her go,” that would go against Moses. Jesus defuses them. He snuffs out the fuse they lit by turning their question back on them. They went from the hunters to the hunted. But this was not Jesus being clever or canny so much as it was Jesus showing evangelistic mercy. They knew his gospel call. They knew his claim to be the entry point to God’s at-hand kingdom. They opposed it, they opposed him, and that’s why they were there. Jesus’ response was a move that redirected them. At the very least it sent them packing as Jesus outflanked them. But more importantly this was their chance to reconsider and maybe repent and follow Jesus. As many Pharisees eventually did. Christ defused and redirected the scribes and Pharisees and he did likewise to the woman. She, too, like them and like us was a bundle of passions and drives and intentions and convictions. But how rapidly things had transitioned from a moment of stolen passion to the glare of public exposure? When she appears in this narrative, I can imagine she was wishing that she had never been born. Have you ever been there? I have. It’s a dominant memory of much of my childhood. Others long to self annihilate for other reasons. Multiple US military veterans commit suicide every day. And so do others. But Christ’s heart went out to her in this indescribable abyss of despair and embarrassment. He was no stranger to the deepest human humiliation, having withstood the devil’s fiercest assaults in his temptation. This is where we read the words that describe a moment for which I trust this woman is praising God in heaven today. Verse 10, “Jesus stood up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’” She might have been shocked to hear her own voice ringing in the temple. [foreign language 00:31:51] “No one, Lord.” He had defused their attack and now he would dial down her bundle of feelings which must have been a mixture of shame and fear, humiliation and anxiety, sorrow and guilt. She realized suddenly that all her past, the totality of her complex present, and the direction of her future came down to this very public moment before the crowd Jesus was teaching, yet immensely private exchange between her in her turmoil and the next words Jesus standing before would say. He redirected her first with an offer of pardon. “Neither do I condemn you.” And then with a mandate. “Go and from now on sin no more.” I trust this was a moment of repentance and a new life for her. Based on Jesus’ words a few verses later. John 8:36, “So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Jesus reckons with scholars who come at him to challenge him. And with all who sin against God in other ways. Somewhere in there we find ourselves or rather God finds us. Let us all heed the risen Christ as he teaches, engages, defuses, and redirects us. Jesus, the undefeated champion of our souls. Amen. >>Kristen Padilla: You’ve been listening to the Beeson podcast. Our theme music is written and performed by Advent Birmingham of the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, Alabama. Our engineer is Rob Willis. Our announcer is Mike Pasquarello. Our co-hosts are Doug Sweeney and, myself, Kristen Padilla. Please subscribe to the Beeson podcast at www.BeesonDivinity.com/podcast or on iTunes.