Is Anyone Without Sin?

Is Anyone Without Sin?

(Based on John 8)

“Grandma! Grandma!” exclaimed the young girl as she swung open the old wooden door and ran toward her grandmother. The old woman sat in a rocking chair facing a window. Her back was slightly hunched over; evidence of her years. She was thin with light skin, dressed in light purple garments that seemed to lighten the darkness of her soft, brown eyes. Her smile could light up a room. “Well hello Ruthie! I’ve been waiting for you all afternoon!” she said in her sweet, gentle, voice. Ruthie’s smile broke into a wide grin as she pulled herself up onto her grandma’s lap and wrapped her arms around her neck. “I’m sorry grandma, but mama made me help her bake bread for supper tonight.” “Oh, did she?” her grandma asked. “Were you a good helper for your mother, Ruthie?” “I sure was!” Ruthie exclaimed with a luminous smile plastered on her face. “I bet you were!” her grandma replied as she settled Ruthie on her right leg. She placed her arms around the toddler’s tiny form and clasped her hands together, pulling her closer. Ruthie rested her head on her grandma’s chest. “Grandma?” asked Ruthie, fondling a piece of her grandma’s garment between her chubby fingers. “Yes sweetheart?” asked grandma. “Tell me the story about you and that man again. The man you said everyone called Jesus.” Her grandma laughed with a sparkle in her eye, “Yes, that one has always been your favorite, hasn’t it?” Ruthie brought her head up from her grandmother’s chest and looked into her eyes, “Oh yes, yes. He saved you from those mean people.” “Yes dear, he sure did!” Looking towards the roses on the windowsill she muttered in a low voice to herself, “Let’s see where I should begin...ah, yes”…

“I remember the aching pains in my arms as the ruthless men clutched each one, dragging me before everyone in the temple courts. I could feel the bruises forming as their grips seemed to tighten with every moment that passed by. I was so scared that my skin felt tingly!” Ruthie interjected, “Why were you in trouble?” Grandma continued, “Because I did a bad thing and didn’t listen to the rules that were set in place for people to live by.” “Oh.” Ruthie replied with a solemn look on her face. Grandma gently rubbed both of Ruthie’s arms, “I could feel my blood rushing through my veins; of course I had been crying very hard, so my face was all wet with tears. As they dragged me closer to the crowd, I didn’t look at anybody because I was very embarrassed and scared. Without raising my head, I remember hearing a man with a deep, loud voice say, вЂ?Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. Now, what do you say?’ At this point, I was trembling! вЂ?Stoning? I couldn’t bare such a death!’ I thought. вЂ?Oh, please God, I know I’m a wretched woman, but please save me!’ I slightly lifted my head and caught a glimpse of a man kneeling on the ground writing in the sand with his finger. All the people around him, I saw, were picking up jagged edged stones, while he just knelt there. He looked over at me, as if he had known I was glancing toward him, and he looked right into my eyes. I realized that this was the man whom everyone called Jesus. I remember how my insides jumped! I looked away quickly. I felt very ashamed and very lonely, and very sad. I couldn’t bear to have a holy man look upon me. Ruthie, I didn’t have one friend there. No body like me. Or so I thought. Suddenly, as I was entrenched in my own thoughts, blocking out the gossip among the crowd and the consistent nagging of the mean men, I heard the most stern but gentlest voice. Everyone seemed to stop what they were doing and listen when He replied, вЂ?If