Sat Inspiration

Morning Inspiration with Pastor Merritt

A mother had been working with her young son trying to teach him to tell time by using a non-digital clock. For several days she kept talking to him about the “small hand” and the “big hand.” One day she heard him walk into the kitchen where there was a clock on the wall with the big hand and the little hand. She called from the other room, “Cameron, what is the little hand on?” He yelled back, “A chocolate-chip cookie!”


There is a legal term known as “Inflagrante Delicto.” Literally in Latin it means, “in blazing offense.” It is a term that indicates a criminal has been caught in the very act of committing an offense. The common way of putting it is “caught in the act.”

Sometimes we will say that a person was “caught red-handed.” If you ever wondered where that term came from, in ancient times it referred to a murderer that was caught with his hands still red from the victim’s blood.
If you have any conscience at all, any character at all when you are caught red-handed with no escape and no excuse it will leave you broken.

Today, we are going to read a story about a woman who was not just broken, but she was ashamed and afraid. She was ashamed, because she had been caught in the very act of having sexual relations with a man who was not her husband. She was afraid of what was probably going to happen to her, because she had been caught.

The passage we are going to study is interesting for more than one reason. Perhaps in your Bible you will see brackets around this passage of scripture with a footnote stating this story is not found in some of the oldest available manuscripts of the New Testament. Though that is true, without going into great detail there are reasons why many conservative, biblical scholars believe that this story does belong in the Bible, because not only does it have strong manuscript support, but the story rings true to what we know about Jesus and it really fits the context of what comes before it and what comes after it.

Now, let’s read the story.

“But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?’ This they said to test him,that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, ‘Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.’ And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.’” (John 8:1-11)

Now there is a reason why every one of us should be really interested in this story, because we are all in it. If you are a very religious person you are in the story. If you are an extremely non-religious person you are in the story. If you are a conservative and you believe that sin should be dealt with in a tough way there is something for you to learn. If you are a liberal, and you think that sin should be dealt with in a tolerant way there is something for you to learn.

If you have ever blown it, you have ever failed, taken the wrong road, made the wrong choice and got caught in the act of doing it this is what you are going to learn in this tremendous story. Key take away: Jesus takes brokenness and turns it into blessing. There is a saying that is so true about life, which is, “Some days you are the statue and some days you are the pigeon.” Whether you have been caught in the act or you have caught someone in the act I want you to listen to what we need to do when we are dealing with broken people whether it is someone else’s brokenness or our own.