What are You Going to Do with that Rock in Your Hand?
What are You Going to Do with that Rock in Your Hand? by Rev. L. John Gable
February 27, 2022
What are you going to do with that rock you’ve got in your hand? That is the question you’ve likely been asking yourself ever since you walked in to this service, and it is most certainly the question Jesus is asking in our Gospel lesson.
We know this story well. A woman has been caught in a compromising position and the religious leaders have dragged her before Jesus to ask His opinion as to what they should do with her, and of course this kind of commotion always attracts a crowd. It is curious, isn’t it, that in this story there is no mention of the man she was with, her partner in crime, and it is still uncertain as to who exactly is being put on trial here, the woman or Jesus? John says it is Jesus, the woman just happens to be caught in the middle of it, but by the end of the story we come to see that it is the accusers who stand accused.
The question they ask is, “What should we do with her?” and Jesus, as He is oft to do, turns the question back on them, by in effect asking, “What are you going to do with that rock you’ve got in your hand?” That was His question to them then and it seems to be His question to us, still today, in any number of circumstances. Perhaps there is a certain someone who comes to mind who has hurt you in some very particular way or offended you and your sensibilities; or perhaps it is a group of people, some known to you and others not, who hold a position, live a lifestyle, practice a behavior that you find to be offensive; or perhaps it is a more general feeling of disappointment or frustration or anger at the way you see things going in the world that makes you want to lash out and you feel justified in doing so. Whoever or whatever the circumstance may be for you, the question is appropriately asked, “What are you going to do with that rock you’ve got in your hand?”
It appears to me there are three options, and each is viable, each has its effect and it consequences, and quite curiously, each has a Biblical reference point.
The first option is to “throw it”. Those in that gathered crowd could throw their rocks at this woman who clearly, at least from their vantage point, was in the wrong. And many today have chosen to do just that, either physically or figuratively. While the relative few have become violent in their response, too many in our society have chosen to become divisive, mean-spirited and vindictive, and regrettably too many in the Church have chosen to follow suit. An angry retort, a vindictive post, a slander or a slur can be as hurtful as a rock.
That option to “throw your rock” is open to us today, and perhaps to our surprise it has pretty sound Biblical merit to it. In the Old Testament it is called the Lex Talionis, or “the Law of Retaliation”. We commonly refer to it as being the law of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” While that seems rather inhumane and barbaric to us in reality it was a radical move toward justice in the Old Testament. Into a culture where one person’s offense could lead to unbridled retribution by another, that is, “your injury to my eye justifies my destroying your entire village”, suddenly the guidance of “an eye for an eye” sounds pretty humane. It is “fair to fair and same to same”. You’ve hurt me, so I’ll hurt you back in equal measure, not more, not less. It’s the law of retribution and retaliation, tit for tat.
That all sounds pretty fair until we consider Mahatma Ghandi’s insight on this teaching. “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth eventually leaves everyone blind and toothless.” So perhaps we’d do well to look for another option.
You could decide instead to save your rock until later. Don’t throw it now, just stick it in your pocket and save it until another time, a better time, a more opportune time. Given that there are a lot of rocks being thrown around these days in a variety of different mediums perhaps you might decide to save your rock until a time when you think it will count for more and have a greater impact.
Many choose this second option when there is an offense taken. Rather than addressing it, expressing the hurt or harm, clearing the air and seeking a restored relationship with the offender or that one with whom we disagree, too often we choose instead to stuff our rock in our pocket. The problem with that is two-fold: either at some point our pocket-full of hurt or anger or resentment becomes so full that it weighs us down in unhealthy and harmful ways, or when the hurt finally comes out it brings with it the boatload of other hurts we’ve held on to and hidden away, perhaps for a very long time. Our response given is no longer in right measure to the offense taken.
How could that strategy have any Biblical reference? Remember when the paradise in the Garden was broken by the introduction of sin and disobedience? The Lord asks, “Who did this?”, and the man points to the woman and the woman points to the serpent, and the serpent doesn’t have a leg to stand on.
It’s called the “blame” game and it has been played, effectively and quite destructively, ever since. It is our refusal to own up to our own actions, to our own complicity, to our own sinfulness or disobedience in a situation. “Don’t look at me. I’m the innocent one here, the victim. This mess is his fault, her fault, their fault, not mine.”
Now admittedly, you have the option of putting your rock in your pocket, of saving it until another time, but I fear in some very deep way that doing so only keeps the wound of hurt open and festering, perhaps for a very long time.
So, let me offer a third option as to what you can do with that rock in your hand – you can lay it down, just lay it down.
That was surely Jacob’s question as he started back home and knew that he would have to face his brother Esau once again. Recall the last time they were together, Jacob was running as fast as he could for the wilderness having just stolen his brother’s birthright and blessing, with Esau chasing after him yelling, “Jacob, I’ll kill you.” Esau knew all about being hurt and cheated and betrayed by his own brother, and Jacob knew that he was the one who had done the hurting. So in our lesson they come to their time of reckoning, their first time of meeting since that terrible betrayal. Surely sheer terror struck Jacob’s heart when he heard that Esau was coming out against him with 400 soldiers, but as they neared one another rather than rushing to kill him, Esau ran with open arms, hugged his brother and welcomed him home. Friends, what we see here is a gracious act of forgiveness, an act of reconciliation rather than retaliation.
We see the very same played out in the Joseph story when he welcomes his brothers with open arms, the very brothers who had sold him into slavery in Egypt. He had every right to hang them up by their toes, but instead, he welcomed them to his home and said, “What you intended for evil, God intended for good.” Through eyes of faith he was able to see God’s hand at work, even through the terrible events he had had to endure.
The question these Biblical stories ask, and there are certainly many other stories we could point to, is “How will you respond to being hurt- with retaliation or reconciliation? With vengeance or forgiveness?” What are you going to do with that rock you’ve got in your hand? Esau, Joseph, the prophets who followed all chose the way of laying down their weapons and “beating their swords into plowshares.”
Jesus is advocating for this third option when He says, “Let anyone among you who is without sin throw the first stone.”
“Who among us is in a position to condemn”, writes the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans, “only Christ, and Christ died for us, Christ was raised for us, and even now Christ is seated at the right hand of God praying for us”. Only Jesus is in a position to condemn; only Jesus is in a position to cast the first stone against this woman or against any one of us; but He chooses not to; instead Scripture is plain to tell us that rather than coming to condemn the world, He came to save us by giving His own life as a payment for our brokenness and sin. He gave His life so that we might have new life, so that we might live a new life through Him, a life of forgiveness rather than revenge, a life of reconciliation rather than retaliation, a life of right relationships with God and neighbors rather than of brokenness and sin.
His life becomes the model for the community that lives under His Lordship. As His Church, we are the fellowship of faith who live life at the foot of the cross. In his book, The Church Under the Cross, J. B. Phillips writes, “All this the young Church knew, and their Gospel was a Gospel of reconciliation…The primary work had been done, the unique sacrifice had been made, by none other than the Son of God Himself…No one can bear what Christ bore, but all who follow in the Way of the Cross are born again to the cost and pain of reconciliation. The early Christians found and joyfully, even gratefully, accepted the fact that they were inextricably involved in the work of reconciliation…In a very real sense God used them to reconcile the world to Himself…but there will be no effectual work of reconciliation unless Christians are reconciled with one another.”
So, in effect what Jesus is saying to us is, “I’ve taken this one for you. If you’ve got to throw your stone at someone, throw it at Me, the sinless One. By My wounds you are healed. And since I’ve done this for you I want you to do the same for one another in My name.” We who have been forgiven are called to be forgivers. We who have been reconciled to God through the work of Christ are called to be reconcilers with others in the name of Christ. Jesus calls us to do this work of reconciliation by laying our rocks down at the foot of His cross, by:
Acknowledging our own sin;
Confessing our own brokenness;
Praying for our own healing;
Humbly asking for the grace to be able to extend to others the forgiveness Christ has given to us.
What are you going to do with that rock you’ve got in your hand? Jesus invites us to lay it down.
When Jesus presented that option to the crowd gathered around Him long ago, one by one, they dropped their stones and walked away, and Jesus was left standing alone with the woman. So He looked at her and said, “Where’d they all go? Has no one condemned you?” My guess is, with a mixture of humility and shame and gratitude, she answered, “No one, Sir.” So He said, “Neither do I.” Jesus here is doing exactly what He came to do. He came in to the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved, restored, healed, forgiven, reconciled, through Him.
Now His parting words were not the glib, easy, “It doesn’t really matter what you’ve done”, the “mid-west nice” kind of forgiveness that we have all grown accustomed to. There is no one who is more severe against sin than Jesus, and at the same time no one who is more merciful toward the sinner. He neither condones nor condemns her; He does not demonize, demean or denigrate her; instead He dignifies her and offers her the costly kind of forgiveness that says “I took this one for you. I’ve paid the penalty for your sin, now go and live your life in a new way. I’m giving you a chance to start over, so go and sin no more. Go and be changed forever by My forgiveness.”
Friends, Jesus offers the same to us today, but in order to receive it, we have to open our hands and open our hearts, by laying down our rocks, and not taking them up again, learning a new way of living and being, together, His way.
My guess is that woman never forgot what Jesus did for her that day, not after all that she had gone through, not after seeing all that He had gone through for her. He gave her a new lease on life, forgiven and free.
So what of us, what of you and me as we consider the ones we have hurt and offended, and the ones who have hurt and offended us? What are you going to do with that rock you’ve got in your hand? You’ve got three options.
You can throw it, and we know the cost and consequence of doing that;
You can save it for another time, and the painful burden that is;
Or you can follow in the way of our Master and lay it down at the foot of His cross.
This morning the chapel is open and the cross stands ready. I invite and encourage you, as you leave worship, to lay your rock at the foot of the cross and receive the gift of new life Jesus offers you through His love and forgiveness.
Lay it down. Be forgiven. Be a forgiver. Be changed by what He has done for you, then go and sin no more. Amen.
Rev. L. John Gable
Tabernacle Presbyterian Church
Indianapolis, IN