Last Sunday I said this: Over the years of my life as a Christian, I have often thought it would be really cool to read Jesus’ journal, to get the skinny on His thoughts and feelings at the end of each day. Unfortunately, no such journal exists; at least, not to my knowledge. Why, I even searched through the “Lost Books of the New Testament” in search of it, but found no evidence. Rest assured, however, that this lack of evidence does not in any way diminish my curiosity.
I also announced that, over the next several weeks, I will be doing something a bit different with my Sunday messages, and I began with the story of Jesus, the Pharisee, and the harlot. As you remember (hopefully!), after giving details of the story, I offered my opinion of what Jesus might have written in His journal about that event.
As I said, most of the time, our modus operandi is to read the text, attempting to understand it (from our own theological perspectives) using commentaries written by scholars (from their own theological perspectives), or listening to teachers who teach out of their own theological perspective. Sadly, I have never even heard of anyone purposing to view a text from Jesus’ perspective, which is why I wish He had left a journal.
The following is a list of the stories I plan for us to examine:
November 4: “Jesus, the Pharisee, and the Harlot” (Luke 7:36-50). [DONE]
November 11: “A Lawyer Puts Jesus to the Test” (Luke 10:25-37).
November 18: “The Sisters: Mary & Martha” (Luke 10:38-42).
November 25: “Dividing the Family Inheritance” (Luke 12:13-34).
December 2: “Woman, You are Freed from Your Sickness” (Luke 13:10-17).
December 9: “Children Coming to Jesus” (Luke 18:9-17).
December 16: “Zaccheus in a Sycamore Tree” (Luke 19:1-10).
December 23: “The Feast of Unleavened Bread” (Luke 22:1-22).
December 30: “On the Road to Emmaus” (Luke 24:1-35)
Since my curiosity hasn’t been diminished,either, what do you think Jesus might have written in the sand? A list of sins the men might have committed?
Well, I certainly think that is a possibility; however, their self-righteousness would probably have rendered that list meaningless. As you know, I have pondered this question many times and in the final analysis, I can only imagine. I think He was writing to the woman, not the Pharisees, and notice that he wrote two times. This is my guess: the first time He wrote: “I love you!” The second time, He wrote: “Watch this!”
I think he wrote the names of women with whom each of the Pharisees had had a dalliance. As these names appeared the big-mouths disappeared. He then told the woman, “who accuses you now?”. Neither do I. Go and sin no more!