Meredith Flynn
I was around 12 years old the first time I got a glimpse of my own mortality. I had a migraine at school, realizing something was wrong when I could read only half of every question on the science test I was taking. Even after the vision disturbance and the terrible headache to follow had subsided, my pediatrician thought it best to check everything out. So that evening, my parents drove me to the hospital for a CAT scan, with totally normal results.
But for about three hours, I was aware something could be very wrong. And because I was 12 with a dramatic flair, I thought of the whole thing as a brush with death. Mostly, I remember the great relief I felt when the technician gave us the all-clear.
Since then, there have been a few other moments I felt rescued from physical danger. You’ve had them too. We walk away from car accidents, get encouraging test results, celebrate new life when babies are born safely. Sometimes, more often than not even, we’re delivered from our greatest fears.
The woman in John 8:2-11 is facing a terrible threat. She is moments away from certain death when Jesus steps in. The rocks may already be in the hands of her accusers. And she likely had enough context of the world and her place in it to know no one is going to save her.
But then, Jesus does. Saving her first from death, and then from something even worse. “Where are your accusers,” he asks. “Is anyone still here to condemn you?” He makes it clear he’s not there to do that either. There is no condemnation for her, so she can go and sin no more.
If I had been her, the physical rescue would have been the story I told. The immediate impact of moving from death to life would have been what I remembered first. But of course, Jesus saved her from something much worse.
The second part of the rescue is the better place to focus our hearts as we consider how he has saved all those who believe in him.
Jesus, thank you for your power to save. Remind us where we headed before you intervened. Let that part of the rescue be the story we share, and the reason for the hope we have.
Meredith Flynn is a wife, mother of two, and writer living in Springfield. She and her family are active members of Delta Church.