Jesus told the woman brought by the Pharisees to be tried for adultery, “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.” He told the woman about to be stoned that He would not judge her, would not denounce her; He wrote her forgiveness—his pure love for her—upon the ground so that all could see it. In a room of people ready to condemn the woman accused of adultery for her errors, the Son of God refused to condemn her and declared that He Himself would illuminate her path out of sinfulness.
The Psalms tell us to “Deal with thy servant according unto thy mercy,” but how do we deal with those who live their lives around us? Whom do we privately proclaim worthy of stoning and public condemnation? The person with differing political views? The woman who takes the only remaining seat on the bus? The man who does not listen to you with all the attention you believe you deserve? Do you privately condemn the person in line in front of you, taking too long to decide on his order? When people disrupt your life and force you to confront your own anger, how can you witness them as brothers and sisters under the love of God—not as worthy of condemnation, but rather as those for whom you should unceasingly pray that your. “head were waters, and [your] eyes a fountain of tears”?
Live as a Christian in the model of Christ, and for those on whom you initially cast judgments in the form of anger, frustration, and willful ignorance, instead illuminate their paths out of darkness with the light of your love.
— Natasha Mikles
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