God wrote in the Dust

John 8:2-8 (NLT) 
²  ... early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them.
³  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.
⁴  “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery.
⁵  The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”
⁶  They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger.
⁷  They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!”
⁸  Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. 

It was hard to think the woman caught in the act of adultery had much in her defense.  Guilty!  It's an easy one - she gets what she deserves!  The law says stone her, and so it shall be.
Why did they bring her to Jesus?  Obviously, they want him to agree, and lose his popularity with the common people, or side with their interpretation of the law.

But Jesus stoops....he bends over and writes with his finger in the dust.  What he writes we don't know.
What we do know is that he stoops and writes in the dust.

He leaned over and got lower than everyone else, except the woman, who now was bent low to the ground.
The accusers looked down at her....
and now they looked down at Jesus.

Jesus stooped to wash feet.
Jesus stooped to pick up a child.
Jesus stooped to pray in the garden.
Jesus stooped when the Romans whipped his body.

God stoops...and God stooped.

God stooped the first time to pick up a handful of dust and create Adam, the first man, and from the man, a rib to create Eve, the first woman, and then declared, "This is good".

What was Jesus doing?  Was he re-creating creation?  Reminding everyone that we are but dust?
What was he writing?  We don't know...but one time he caused the Psalmist to write this...

Psalm 103:8-14 (ESV)
⁸  The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
⁹  He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever.
¹⁰  He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
¹¹  For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
¹²  as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
¹³  As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.
¹⁴  For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.



He writes His Grace into the dust - into Us.

Peace