Waking Up in the Wrong Tent
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jeremy_1_08-28-2025_133324: [00:00:00] Welcome to another episode of Rebuilding Faith.
These are 10 minute Bible messages for people with questions and doubts today. I wanted to begin by asking you to imagine Jesus's childhood. It was a rather unique experience for him. His mom got pregnant from a dad that nobody could see. And the dad who did raise him was not his biological father.
What would it have been like for Jesus to grow up in this environment? What kind of things would have been said about his mom? What kind of jokes would've been made about his dad? What rumors would have been said about Jesus as a kid, and how would all of these experiences have shaped how he grew up and who he grew up to be?
Now keep that in mind as we look at our story. Today. We're gonna be in John chapter eight, [00:01:00] beginning in verse one. Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning, he was back again at the temple. A crowd soon gathered and he sat down and he taught them. And as he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery.
They put her in front of the crowd teacher. They said to Jesus, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say? This is absolutely a trap, and they are using this woman as the bait to set the trap against Jesus. Now, if you've been with me the last few weeks, we know that this story comes after John seven, which is all about the Feast of Tabernacles, which was an eight day religious festival.
All about [00:02:00] water, essentially is a bunch of people going religious camping. With a lot of wine involved in this celebration, and I want you to think about what happens when people party together for eight days and live close to one another in tents. Well, sometimes people wake up in the wrong tent. And that's what happened here.
And yet suspiciously, only one member of the wrong tent has come forward, uh, or been brought forward rather. And the other person, the man is nowhere to be found. Verse six, they were trying to trap Jesus into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger.
They kept demanding an answer, so we stood up again and he said, alright, but let the one who has never sinned throw the [00:03:00] first stone, and when then he stooped down again and rode in the dust. When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman.
Then Jesus stood up again and he said to the woman, where are your accusers? Didn't even one of them condemn you? No, Lord, she said, and Jesus said, neither do I go and sin no more. It would be an understatement to say that this is the worst disappointment in her life. This is the worst day of her life. Not only is her reputation ruined, but she likely thinks that she's about to meet her end, that death is coming for her, and then Jesus does something absolutely bizarre, and her worst day turns into one of the most significant [00:04:00] moments of her life.
Now, let me ask you this question. Is it possible that the story of this woman hit close to home for Jesus? Is it possible that he knew her disappointment all too well, that he had heard them say things about her, that he remembers hearing about his own mother when he was growing up, that maybe he thought about his dad, Joseph?
And now where this woman had no one. Joseph stood by his mom that maybe he thought of all of this. When Jesus is deciding to meet this woman in the midst of her disappointment, see the gospel is always good news at its core. Now there's a question everybody asks whenever we get to this story. What was Jesus writing?
In fact, this is the only time we see Jesus write anything down. And so [00:05:00] as you can imagine, that peaks people's curiosity. What on earth? Was Jesus writing, and we don't know the answer to that. There's all sorts of speculation and fan theories about it. I wanna give you what I suspect makes the most sense, and it comes from a passage in the Old Testament.
This is Jeremiah 17 verse three. I wanna read this and then show you the connections that this likely has to this story and why I think it might offer an ex explanation of what Jesus. Is doing. Jeremiah 17 three says this, oh Lord, the hope of Israel, all who turn away from you will be disgraced. They will be buried in the dust of the earth for they have abound in the Lord.
The fountain of living water. So in this verse in Jeremiah, we have a connection to both [00:06:00] dust and to water. So they've come off of this festival for eight days talking about water, and then Jesus draws something in the dust of the ground. I think Jesus is communicating that anyone who hasn't come to him to experience the living water that he offers will be buried in the dust.
More importantly, what Jesus is doing here is he is shifting the focus off of this woman and he is shifting it to these religious leaders. Now, instead of everyone looking at her, they're looking at them. To see what on earth are they gonna do in response to what Jesus is communicating. And like we saw last week with Nicodemus, I think this is Jesus speaking, truth to power.
This is Jesus putting himself at odds with those in power [00:07:00] all around himself. Now what happens when you stand up against the people in power, especially when those people have weapons in their hands? This is an early indicator that Jesus is on his way to being killed, that he is defying the powers that be, and ultimately these powers will end his life.
But Jesus wasn't killed for being a moral leader. He was killed because he refused to go along with systems that oppressed, vulnerable people. And the invitation today for you and I is to join him in that work. Even when it puts us at odds with the people in power. There are vulnerable people all around us.
The attention is on them. And this story reminds us that [00:08:00] those of us who live with the spirit of God who follow this rabbi named Jesus, we are the ones who can uniquely turn a situation to shift off of the vulnerable person. And instead, we can turn the attention to those with power. And this is the power of the gospel.
I'll see you next week on Rebuilding Faith.
