The Lord’s Footsteps

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Short Summary
The discourse explores the spiritual journey and teachings of Jesus, emphasizing key events such as his 40-day fast, temptations, healing miracles, calming the storm, and acts of forgiveness. It highlights how Jesus’ path was both literal and spiritual, inviting believers to reflect on their own faith, the importance of steadfastness, compassion, and forgiveness, and the challenge of truly following his example amid life’s material and spiritual struggles. Ultimately, it calls for deeper spiritual growth and adherence to Jesus’ footprints in everyday life.

Long Summary
Detailed Summary of the Discourse “Lord’s Footsteps”

Introduction: The Challenge of Communication and Sharing God’s Message
– Today, sharing information widely is easy (texts, emails, ads, websites, YouTube).
– Historically, methods differed: Brother Russell used printed materials (Watchtower, brochures, lectures).
– In Jesus’ time (2000 years ago Israel), information was passed orally—no print technology.
– Teaching occurred mainly in synagogues, temples, schools, and by traveling teachers outside official institutions.
– Disciples often traveled with teachers, learning both teaching and lifestyle.
– Jewish tradition valued oral teaching; Moses received both Written and Oral Torah on Mount Sinai.
– The Oral Torah was passed by word of mouth and only written down after 70 AD as the Mishnah and Gemara, together the Talmud.
– Jesus’ teaching style included “Haggadah”—storytelling with moral lessons.
– Jesus described Himself as “the Way” (John 14:6): “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
– Early followers called themselves “followers of the Way.”

The Disciples’ Understanding of Jesus’ Way
– Jesus told disciples, “You know the way to where I am going” (John 14:4).
– Thomas responded, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?” (John 14:5).
– Though physically following Jesus, the disciples did not yet grasp the spiritual path.
– Many Christians today similarly follow outward behaviors but may lack deeper spiritual growth.
– The talk focuses on key events in Jesus’ life that shaped His spiritual journey and serve as “footprints” for us.

The 40-Day Fast and Temptation in the Wilderness (Luke 4:1-3; Matthew 4:1-11)
– Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, was led into the wilderness for 40 days fasting and testing.
– The fast prepared Him spiritually for His mission—time for old life to fade and new life to begin.
– Though the exact experiences during the fast are unknown, it likely involved prayer and meditation.
– After fasting, Satan tempted Jesus three times:
1. Turn stones into bread to satisfy hunger.
– Jesus replied, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).
2. Throw Himself from the temple pinnacle to test God’s protection.
– Jesus answered, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test” (Matthew 4:7).
3. Worship Satan in exchange for all kingdoms of the world.
– Jesus said, “Worship the Lord your God and serve him only” (Matthew 4:10).
– Jesus’ firm refusal and use of Scripture highlight the importance of biblical knowledge and unwavering faith.
– After the temptations, angels ministered to Him (Matthew 4:11), signifying divine approval and care.
– Lesson for believers: spiritual growth requires intentional time and may require material sacrifice; be alert to spiritual lukewarmness.

Healing the Leper (Matthew 8:1-3)
– A leper approached Jesus, asking to be made clean; Jesus touched and healed him.
– Touching a leper was socially shocking and forbidden, illustrating Jesus’ acceptance of outcasts.
– Symbolically, leprosy represents sin; Jesus’ healing signifies spiritual cleansing and restoration.
– This challenges believers to examine who they consider “untouchable” due to prejudice (skin color, culture, doctrine).
– Apostle Paul’s counsel: “Do not be bound together with unbelievers… come out from their midst and be separate… and do not touch what is unclean” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17).
– Distinction is drawn between avoiding evil influence and unjust prejudice.

Calming the Storm (Matthew 8:23-27)
– Jesus and disciples were in a boat when a storm threatened to sink them.
– Jesus was asleep; disciples woke Him, fearing for their lives.
– Jesus rebuked them: “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?”
– He calmed the storm, amazing the disciples.
– Possible lesson: trust in Jesus’ presence over one’s own efforts—even amid crises.
– Reflects on spiritual storms threatening faith; encourages grounding in prayer and God’s word to overcome fear and avoid reliance on human solutions contrary to God’s will.

Forgiveness of Sins and Healing the Paralytic (Matthew 9:2-7)
– Friends brought a paralyzed man to Jesus.
– Jesus said, “Your sins are forgiven”—which offended scribes as blasphemy since only God can forgive sins.
– To prove His divine authority, Jesus healed the man physically.
– Despite the miracle, religious leaders accused Him of using Satan’s power.
– Demonstrates Jesus’ unique authority and the tension with religious authorities.

The Woman Caught in Adultery (John 8:2-11)
– Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery to trap Jesus.
– According to Mosaic Law (Leviticus 20:10), the penalty was stoning.
– Jesus responded, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone,” causing accusers to leave.
– Jesus told the woman, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”
– Jesus’ response emphasized mercy and forgiveness, not ignoring sin but offering a path to repentance.
– Highlights the challenge of forgiveness: humans often struggle to forgive others fully, though Jesus calls for mercy.
– Reflects Jesus’ role as savior who suffers injustice so sinners escape condemnation.

Conclusion: Following the Lord’s Footsteps
– The speaker admits frequent failure to fully follow Jesus’ example.
– Encourages listeners to increasingly recognize and follow Jesus’ spiritual path.
– The discussed events provide valuable “footprints” for spiritual growth and discipleship.
– Final thanks to the audience for their attention.

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Key Bible Verses Cited in the Discourse:

– John 14:6 — “Jesus answered him, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
– John 14:4-5 — “And you know the way to where I am going,” … “Lord, we don’t know where you are going.”
– Luke 4:1-3 — Jesus’ 40-day fasting and temptation.
– Matthew 4:2-11 — Detailed account of the temptations in the wilderness.
– 2 Corinthians 6:14-17 — On separation from unbelievers and unclean things.
– Matthew 8:1-3 — Jesus heals the leper.
– Matthew 8:23-27 — Jesus calms the storm.
– Matthew 9:2-7 — Jesus forgives and heals the paralytic.
– John 8:2-11 — Jesus and the woman caught in adultery.
– Leviticus 20:10 — Law requiring stoning for adultery (referenced).

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Summary Keywords:
Lord’s Footsteps, Jesus’ spiritual journey, oral teaching, Haggadah, 40-day fast, temptation, Scripture, faith, healing the leper, forgiveness, sin, calming the storm, disciples’ faith, mercy, judgment, discipleship, spiritual growth, biblical authority, overcoming temptation, prejudice, separation, trust in God, mercy and repentance.

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This summary captures the discourse’s themes, scriptural references, and lessons from key events in Jesus’ life to inspire personal spiritual growth and faithful living.

Transcript

My talk title is Lord’s Footsteps. One of the blessings of our time is how easy it is to share information. It is a bit different when we want to reach just one person. In this case, we will probably send a text message, email, or make a phone call. But if someone or organization want to share something with a large number of people, they will most likely use some kind of advertising.

And that’s how the blessing of our communication turns into a curse. Being constantly bombarded by ads we usually don’t want. When Brother Russell wanted to share his understanding of God’s plan with as many people as possible, he mostly used printed materials. Newsletters, articles, brochures, books, the Watchtower magazine. He also gave public lectures.

Today, of course, we use different tools. Printed materials are being replaced by websites and public lectures are mostly replaced by YouTube. But what was it like 2000 years ago in Israel? What kind of tools would someone use if they wanted to share their understanding of God’s will? Or in the case of prophets, God’s revelation.

Back then, everything had to be passed on by word of mouth. Of course there were synagogues and temple where priests and scribes taught the people. There were also schools where teachers passed down their theological knowledge and life wisdom to their students, and then there were teachers who taught on their own outside of the official religious institutions. Those were traveling teachers who shared what they believed with people they met, sometimes in one on one conversations, sometimes by speaking to crowds.

They might have had students who traveled with them, often picking up other jobs wherever they stayed for a while to support themselves and help their teacher. These students didn’t just learn from the teacher’s public lessons. They could also watch how he lived day to day and see how his teaching was realized in real life. They could ask questions about things that were hard to understand.

It is worth noting that the people of Israel were especially prepared for oral teaching. According to Jewish tradition, when Moses was on Mount Zion, he received two Torahs, the written one and the oral one, which had explanations to the written Torah. The Oral Torah wasn’t allowed to be written down. It had to be passed from teacher to students by word of mouth. But after 70 AD, when Israel was under threat of the Romans, this oral teaching was finally written down.

That collection became known as the Mishnah. Later commentaries on the Mishnah were called Gemara. Mishnah and Gemara together make up the Talmud. The Mishnah and Gemara didn’t exist yet when our Lord walked the land of Israel as a traveling teacher. But there was a special style of Teaching called Haggadah.

It involved telling a story, real or made up, about everyday life, with a building moral or a lesson meant to stick in the listener’s mind and influence their actions. Our Lord once said about himself that he is the Way. This is recorded in John 14:6. Jesus answered him, I am the Way, the Truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

After Jesus died, his followers, before they were called Christians, refer to themselves as followers of the Way. As Jesus traveled through Israel, he was surrounded by his disciples, the twelve he chose, and probably some others who joined them. They literally follow in their master’s footsteps. So we might think that they were the most faithful followers of the Way. But were they really?

During his last evening with the disciples, Jesus said, John 14:4, and you know the way to where I am going. He was saying that what was about to happen, his death the next day, was just a continuation of the journey he’d been on for the past few years. The disciples should have known this because they had been following him all that time. But Thomas responded for all of them gathered there in John 14:5. Lord, we don’t know where you are going.

How can we know the way?

Jesus had been walking real physical roads in Israel, but at the same time he was on spiritual journey, doing his Father’s will, dedicating himself for others. That path eventually led him to the cross. The disciples followed him on the physical road, but they weren’t yet on the same spiritual path. That’s why Thomas said, we don’t know the way, which really means we don’t know your spiritual way.

We couldn’t find ourselves. We could find ourselves in similar, somewhat similar situation. We learned the Christian way in our families and at our meetings. We know how we supposed to behave, how to speak, how to treat others both inside and outside. Ecclesiastically, that’s the path we walk on every day.

But we should also be on spiritual journey, and it is the experiences from that spiritual path that should guide us in our everyday lives. Sometimes, though, we get so caught up in our material concerns that we stop moving spiritually. We keep walking the path of habit and unity upbringing, but not of deeper spiritual growth. In that way, we are a bit like disciples.

We follow Jesus along the literal road, but not spiritual one. The title of this talk doesn’t include the word following, because today I want to focus on few events from Lord’s life that shaped his spiritual journey or pointed toward it, even though his disciples at that time weren’t yet able to follow it, and Even today after 2000 years of Christianity, we don’t always manage to follow him either. Still, these are footprints worth looking at because maybe we can apply them even in small way to our own lives. I would like to begin with the 40 day fast of our Lord which is recorded in three Gospels.

We find it in Luke 4, verses 1 to 3. Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for 40 days, being tempted by the devil, and he ate nothing during those days and when they had ended he became hungry. It was the Holy Spirit who led Jesus into the wilderness. Why?

That isn’t entirely clear. Luke and the other Gospel writers suggest this supposed to be a 40 day period of testing. Let’s also read from Matthew for one. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. However, the following verses in both gospels suggest that the actual temptation didn’t began until after the 40 days when Jesus was extremely hungry after the fast.

If that’s the case, what was the point of 40 day fast? Of course, anything we say about it is speculative. We only have this one verse repeated in three gospels. But we can reflect on what might have been going on in our Lord’s life during that time.

The Gospels tell us that Jesus suddenly appeared where John the Baptist is baptizing people and he asked to be baptized. But where was he before this? What was his life like and what prompted him to make this decision? This is just a suggestion, but it is likely that until that point Jesus was simply part of the Israelite community, supporting himself and probably his mother, possibly alongside his brothers and sisters. By this time Mary was likely a widow and would have depend on her family.

We don’t know how Jesus knew it was time at age 30 to take a different path. Maybe he was already receiving revelations like prophets in the Old Testament. Or maybe it came through his understanding of Scriptures. Imagine that conversation within the family when Jesus told them he had to leave, that he could no longer work with them and sadly could no longer support his mother. Did they understand?

Did they support him? I guess that only his mother was on his side. The rest of the family probably didn’t understand and maybe have even opposed him. So this man who comes to John was a son, a brother, a craftsman, someone deeply rooted in his local community and probably coming from a home where tensions were high after his unexpected decision. We sometimes say out of sight, out of mind.

Our attention tends to focus on what’s right in front of us. When those things are no longer Present, we naturally shift our focus elsewhere. There is also a common assumption that it takes about three weeks to get used to something new.

If you have ever attended a week log convention, you likely felt this at first. Your mind is still at home. But after a few days, those everyday concerns fade into the background and spiritual experience become central. If you would stay for a whole month, your proteins would shift even more. I think our lord needed those 40 days for a spiritual transformation.

He was stepping out of his familiar life and preparing to become a teacher of a new path, a new way of faith and life. He needed time for the old life to fade and for the new one to fully take its place. How exactly did that transformation happen? We don’t know. Perhaps he spent long hours in prayers and meditations.

Maybe he brought scrolls of scripture with him. What we do know is that at the end of those 40 days, he was no longer the same man. He was ready for his mission.

Is it something we can learn? Is it something that we can learn from? Only in some ways. Most of us probably wouldn’t survive a 40 day fast in the desert, and it’s not really our tradition to take time off after baptism to focus solely on spiritual matters.

Though if someone can do that, it might be a good idea. But we can ask ourselves, are we willing to invest our time and attention when we realize our spiritual life isn’t growing the way it should? Often our consecration doesn’t radically change our day to day material life. We keep working, studying, staying in the same environment. Life is a constant balancing act between the spiritual and the material.

And when the material side starts demanding more of us, our spiritual side can easily lose importance. If that goes on for too long, we became lukewarm. Are we able to notice that and do something about it, even if it means material sacrifice? That’s one lesson we might draw from this story. It is one of the footprints Jesus left for us.

Not something we can copy exactly, but something we can learn from and apply to our own lives. Right after the 40 days of fasting, lightly filled with prayers and reflections, Satan begins his temptations. Matthew describes it like this in Matthew 4:2 to 4, and after he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he then became hungry, and the tempter came and said to him, if you are the Son of God, command that those stones become bread.

But he answered and said, it is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. The first temptation is a suggestion to use God’s power for personal Material needs. It seems logical, doesn’t it? After such a long fast, why not use divine power to sustain yourself? But there is more.

Here. That phrase, if you are the Son of God, it is supple challenge. It is like saying you think you are the Son of God. Are you sure? Shouldn’t you test that?

The second temptation starts the same way, but adds a twist.

Matthew 4, 5, 6 Then the devil took him into the holy city and had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, if you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you, and under your hands they will bear you up so that you will not strike your foot against the stone.

Here the devil is not just asking Jesus to prove his identity. He is suggesting that Jesus should force God’s hand, put himself in danger and demand divine proof of protection.

If God saves you, you will know you are truly Son of God. If not, well then the question is answered another way, very much to Satan’s satisfaction. Third temptation is recorded in Matthew 4, 8, 9. Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and he said to him, all these things I will give you if you fall down and worship me.

In this temptation, Satan doesn’t question whether Jesus is God’s son. Instead, he offers the shortcut. You are here to claim the world, but only after suffering and death. Why go through all that?

You can have it now, and you can do whatever you want with it if you just acknowledge my authority. Each time, Jesus responds with the it is written, men shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Verse 7 It is also written, do not put Lord your God to the test. Verse 10 Away from me, Satan, for it is written, worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Jesus probably didn’t expect miraculous intervention from his Father at that moment, but the Father chose to affirm his care anyway.

We read in Matthew 4:11. Then the devil left him and angels came and attended him. The Father sent angels, maybe to provide food, maybe to answer lingering questions, but certainly to reassure Jesus of what he was and what his mission would be. It is easy to miss this moment with the angels, but I think it was very important in Jesus life. What can we learn from those temptations?

Probably Satan won’t tempt us to jump off a skyscraper just to test if we are God’s children. But we may hear a similar question in our hearts, especially when things go wrong. In life, when we know we’ve made mistake and think, is that how a child of God should act? Jesus answered every temptation with a quote from Scripture. Maybe that’s a hint for us that our best defense is knowing the Bible very well, not just being able to find a comforting verse when we need it, but having those words already in our hearts and minds.

And when the moment comes, we can also notice how firm Jesus responses are. He doesn’t even entertain the idea of compromise. He doesn’t think, maybe I could just turn a tiny stone into bread. He simply says no.

That’s something we struggle with. Life is full of compromises, and sometimes they are not. Imagine a marriage where only one partner believes to keep the relationship alive, you will need to compromise. The challenge is knowing when you cannot compromise, when you have to say no. Even if this is very difficult.

What we see here is Jesus was strict with himself, but not with others. Later on, he doesn’t expect his disciples to meet the same high standard he set for himself. That’s rare. Often people expect others to live up to their own strict rules. Can we do what Jesus did?

Hold ourselves to a higher standard than we ask of others?

Next event is described in Matthew, chapter 8, verses 1 to 3. When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him and a leper came to him and bowed down before him and said, lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, I am willing be cleansed, and immediately his leprosy was cleansed. A man afflicted with leprosy approaches the Lord.

We may assume he kept the proper distance and he asked to be healed. The Lord agrees, stretches out his hand, touches him, and the man is cleansed of his leprosy. To us who have known the Gospel for many years, this might not seem perpetual, particularly extraordinary. But let us imagine the reaction of the gathered crowd, especially if that was the first leper the Lord had ever healed. In Israel, lepers were required to stay in isolated places, and when approaching others, they had to cry out unclean so that no one would come near.

Can we imagine the horror of the disciples when the Lord reached an reached out and touched the leper? Perhaps they didn’t even have time to react because the man was immediately cleansed. But the gesture itself was likely a shock to everyone watching. Did the Lord need to touch the leper to heal him? Certainly not.

So why did he do it? I believe he knew exactly what kind of reaction it would cause, and he did it deliberately to provoke that very reaction. He wanted to show that he does not reject the one who, according to the law, was to be treated as rejected, unclean, and untouchable. He wanted to show that in a single moment he can change the status of someone forced to live outside of community into someone fully cleansed and legally accepted among the healthy. We can of course draw an analogy between leprosy and sin and see in this that through the merit of Lord everyone can be cleansed of sin.

But on more personal level, we might also think about a different lesson from this event. I don’t mean that we should go around touching people with leprosy or other contagious diseases. Such a touch would do little for the sick and might actually endanger us. But, thinking symbolically, we can observe that some perfectly healthy people may be in a sense untouchable to us for various reasons, some justifiably, others not. The Apostle Paul writes in 2nd Corinthians 6, verses 14 to 17 do not be bound together with unbelievers.

For what partnership hath righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with belial? Or what has a believer in common with unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols?

For we are the temple of living God, just as God said, I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord, and do not touch what is unclean, and I will welcome you. At that time one of the major problems in the early church was idolatry. New Christians have grown up in the worship of other gods and were not always fully willing to give up their old customs and habits. Paul advises them to separate completely from separate completely from the places and people that might draw them back into idolatry.

That is, that is the reason for separation from others. When the pressure from the group of people is so strong that it might lead us to act against God’s principle we should separate ourselves from that group. However, there are groups of people we might be biased against, not because of their bad behavior or negative influence, but simply because they are somehow different from us. It might be different skin color, language, or culture. For later Christians, it was believers from other Christians group, or even from the same group, but holding different doctrinal views.

In all these cases, such reasons for treating others as untouchable would be invalid. A probing question we can ask ourselves here is this. If we find that in our life there are groups of People we tend to avoid. What is the reason? Is it something that truly threatens us and would be approved by Apostle Paul and our Lord?

Or is it a prejudice which they would rebuke us for? Which they would rebuke us?

The next event I’d like to speak about takes place under stormy water. Let us read it from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 8, verses from 23 to 27. When he got into the boat, his disciples followed him, and behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with waters. But Jesus himself was asleep, and they came to him and woke him, saying, save us, Lord, we are perishing.

He said to them, why are you afraid, you men of little faith? Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm. The men were amazed and said, what kind of man is this that even winds and the sea obey him?

The Lord, together with his disciples, is crossing the lake by boat. The Lord, weary after a full day of teaching and healing, falls asleep in the boat. After a while, violent storms arises with waves so high that they begin to flood the boat. The disciples realize that unless something changes quickly, they will all drown. So they wake the Lord.

It is surprising that he was still asleep in such conditions. But after being awakened, he calms the storm and reproves the disciples for two fear and lack of faith. One might say that the disciples actually did show some faith. After all, they believed the situation was hopeless, yet they still woke the Lord asking for help. They must have belief, at least to some extent, that he could do something, though they likely had no idea how.

Indeed, the Lord saves them all by calming the storm, but still criticizes them for fear and lack of faith. I think of three different things they might have done instead. First, they could have awakened the Lord at the very beginning of the story.

Second option, they could have not awakened him at all and continued trying to save the boat, even knowing they likely would not succeed, and third option, they could have done nothing. They could have simply sat still, waiting out the storm, trusting that the presence of the Lord in the boat would somehow protect them.

What was it that the Lord expected from them?

What would have earned them praise rather than rebuke? I’m not certain, but perhaps it was the third option.

This was still early in their mission, but they had already witnessed many of the Lord’s miracles. This violent storm on the lake might have been a special test for them. Did they trust enough in the power of their Master to act against their natural instincts? Their experience underwater and their instincts told them, you must save the boat because only a floating boat can save your life. But perhaps the purpose of this storm was to make them realize that the boat was not their salvation.

The presence of the Lord in the boat was their safety, regardless of the fury of the storm.

I’m not sure if any of us ever been in life threatening situation. When people are unprepared, they cannot control their fear or instincts which might drive them to irrational and even harmful actions. We could say that the body takes control over the mind on the only proper preparation and training can change that. In our case, we probably don’t need to fear literal threats to our lives or learn how to overcome fear of death. The dangerous storm in our lives are events that threaten our spiritual life, our new creature.

And in this case, only the presence of and closeness of the Lord in our lives can ensure our safety. We might ask ourselves, do we spend enough time in prayer, meditation and God’s work in our lives to be so grounded in faith that life’s difficult experiences won’t terrify us so that we don’t try human solutions that go against God’s will, when instead we should be acting according to spiritual principles.

The next story has to do with sin and forgiveness. It actually combines a few different events. One day, some friends brought a paralyzed man to Jesus, carrying him on a bed. We read in Matthew chapter nine, verses two to six, and they brought to him a paralytic lying on the bed.

Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, take courage, son, your sins are forgiven, and some of the scribes say to themselves, this fellow blasphemes, and Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, why are you thinking evil in your hearts? Which is easier to say your sins are forgiven, or to say, get up and walk. But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.

Then he said to paralytic, get up, pick up your bed and go home.

When Jesus saw the faith of the sick man and the ones who carried him, he said, take heart, son, your sins are forgiven. That statement shocked and offended the religious teachers. To them, claiming to forgive sins was something only God could do. So they saw it as blasphemy. Jesus didn’t stop to explain why he had the right to to forgive sins.

Instead, he healed the man, showing that the miracle itself was proof from God that he truly had that authority. After all, if Jesus had been lying, he would have been a sinner himself and God wouldn’t have given him the power to heal anyone. But Even with such clear evidence, the religious leaders still weren’t convinced.

They couldn’t deny what had happened. Everyone saw it. So the only explanation they were willing to accept was that Jesus performed the miracle with the power of Satan. Because if they admitted that the healing came from God, they would also have to admit that everything Jesus taught was true, including his claim to be able to forgive sins, and they already believed that God doesn’t listen to sinners.

So if Jesus was hurt by God, then he couldn’t be the sinner himself.

The second time Jesus forgave sins is recorded in Gospel of John, John 8. 2. 11. Early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people were coming to him, and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery.

And having set her in the center of the court, they said to him, teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery in the very act. Now, in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. What then do you say? They were saying this, testing him so that they might have ground for accusing him. But Jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground.

But when they persisted in asking him, he straightened up and said to them, he who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her. Again he stooped down and rode underground. When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and he. He was left alone.

And the woman, where she was in the center of the court, straightening up, Jesus said to her, woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you? She said, no one, Lord, and Jesus said, I do not condemn you either. Go.

From now on, sin no more. The religious leaders brought a woman caught in adultery, intending to stone her. But since Jesus was there too, they saw it as a good chance to try to trap him into saying something that they could accuse him for. It is not completely clear what they were hoping to charge him with. One idea is that if Jesus agreed with them and said she should be stoned, they could report him to the Roman authorities, since under Roman law, Jews were not allowed to carry out executions.

But if he refused to condemn her, they could accuse him of ignoring the law of Moses, which clearly commanded stone in such cases, see Leviticus 20:10. But the law actually said both the man and the woman should be stoned, and it also required at least two witnesses to throw the first stones. So if they really planned to follow the law, they weren’t doing it properly anyway. Or maybe they didn’t really intend to stone her at all. This small legal, inconstant problems might have been part of their trap for Jesus.

Jesus didn’t argue. He just said, let the one without sin throw the first stone. No one stepped forward. They all left, one by one. Then Jesus turned to the woman and said, has no one condemned you?

Then neither do I. Go and don’t sin anymore.

He didn’t say directly, I forgive all your sins, but the words neither do I condemn you suggest that it is what happened.

Of course, this is a simplified look at the problem of sin and forgiveness. We are not trying to speculate what would have happened if that woman would do the same thing again and the very situation would have been repeated, and we can only wonder what would have happened if Jesus had turned to Pharisees and said, I have the authority to forgive sins and I forgive her. So your accusations are no longer valid. It is possible that if he had said that, he might have been stoned right there then and there.

We know that through his death, Jesus made forgiveness valuable to anyone who asks and turns away from sin. We don’t have the authority to forgive sins of others. That’s something only God can do. But we can still try to put ourselves in Jesus place and ask how we would have responded to that woman. Would we agree with Pharisees thinking it was a just punishment?

Or would we have defended her even knowing that she was guilty? We face a similar challenge today when we meet people we know are living in sin. Are we ready to forgive? Some people really struggle with that. Sometimes you can even hear someone say, even if God forgives you, I never will.

In other words, they will never see that person are truly free from their sin.

We humans possess an innate sense of injustice. It manifests most strongly when we ourselves experience injustice from our human perspective. This is quite natural. Yet our Lord’s position was somewhat different. He was not merely one of the people who, in judging others injustice, would demand justice in return.

He came into the world as a savior, one who was to suffer injustice so that sinners and the unjust could escape the justice they deserve. That is condemnation.

We may take a moment to consider the coming kingdom and our future work with humanity.

Will we not desire that everyone who has even the smallest chance might attend perfection and eternal life? Of course we will. Today these very people are hostile toward us, unjust, and we could list many other accusations against them. It is not easy and we often fail to look upon such individuals from the perspective of the kingdom and to forgive them their sin, not before God, but internally, to say as our Lord did.

Neither do I condemn you.

Well, these are all the footsteps of our Lord that I have prepared for today. I can say for myself that I very often fail to follow them. I wish for all of us that we may increasingly recognize and follow in them more and more. Thank you for your attention.

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