Hope: the Story of an Addict

Another story of an addict

We know very little about her; she was a young woman, probably led a pretty normal life (by what’s considered normal today anyway), but she had an addiction.  The hurts and/or habits she struggled with led her into adultery and she was caught in the very act.  She was taken immediately by an hostile crowd through the streets of town and brought before Jesus.  Read John 8:1-9.

Here was the moment of truth; what would Jesus say to her?  What would we say to her: would we hurl insults and accusations at her, would we preach at her, would we say, “Hum, no big deal, everyone else does it”?  What would you say to this young woman as she stood before you, guilty, disgraced, and humiliated?

There is something I say around here all the time, “it makes no difference what I say, it only matters what God says.”  So, what did God say?  Well, He asked her a question: “Woman, where are those accusers of yours?  Has no one condemned you?”  All those who brought her to Jesus, to have her convicted…(actually they brought her to test Him, so they might find a reason to accuse Him of mishandling the situation somehow), were convicted by their own sin and walked away when Jesus said, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her.”  As they pointed out, the punishment for adultery according to Old Testament Law as stoning.  Those people didn’t care about that woman, the guy involved, or for the spouse who had been cheated on for that matter.  They didn’t care what happened to this young woman.  She was just a pawn in their scheme. 

Jesus asked her, “Where are those accusers of yours?  Has no one condemned you?”  We aren’t always so lucky are we…our accusers are all around, right?  There are plenty of people to point out our problems, who try to humiliate us, and bring us low.  She says, “No one, Lord.”  Jesus responds, “Neither do I condemn you…”  Now, neither the woman nor Jesus denied her guilt.  She was caught in the act; she was guilty.  Yet Jesus extended mercy to her. 

It’s not part of the Biblical record, but what do you suppose the offended spouse in this whole deal would have said about this (we don’t know if the young woman was married or if the guy was married, we just know it was adultery).  I would imagine that that spouse wouldn’t be to thrilled with Jesus’ offering of mercy.  We often hear people say when they are wronged, “I demand justice, I want restitution!”  A wise man once said, “You don’t want justice, you want mercy.”  That is true all the time, but we only think about mercy when we are the one that needs it, not when we are the ones offended or hurt.  The truth is, however, that mercy is what we all need.  Mercy is what this young woman needed, and Jesus gave her mercy.  Did she deserve it?  No.  Her hurts and habits led to addictions, evil compulsions, and dysfunctional behavior, which led to her being dragged off through the streets to judgment for her crimes. 

I want you to notice something, there is no record of her fighting and screaming; she didn’t try to defend herself and make a bunch of excuses.  Instead, she stood in silence as the accusations and evidence were laid out.  Apparently, she was ready to face the due justice.  Ever felt that way at a low point in your addiction, your hurt, when the burden of guilt was so heavy that you thought some kind of punishment might actually make you feel better?  I think that is where this woman was as she stood before Jesus expecting to be stoned to death.  But He gave mercy rather than justice.  In that moment she was given hope.

Can you imagine her face when He spoke those words to her?  Oh how I would have loved to have seen her reaction, although I would surely have left, being convicted of my own sin too!  Can you imagine the utter amazement and utter disbelief as she heard Jesus, the just Judge say, “Neither do I condemn you”.  Jesus gave her hope, because her sin was being forgiven by God Himself.  The guilt of her sin was removed.  But wait a minute, Jesus didn’t just give her a totally free pass either, did He?

The statement, “Neither do I condemn you” is only part of what Jesus said to her.  The whole things was, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”  Well, that’s the hard part isn’t it?  It’s easy to ask for and receive forgiveness, but the “sinning no more” part…  If she was able to stop sinning on her own she wouldn’t have been there in the first place, right?  If I was able to stop sinning on my own I would too, but I cannot stop on my own.  My guess is that you can’t either because the Bible says that outside of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit we are “slaves of sin” (Romans 6).  We cannot stop on our own; it’s not called an addiction for nothing! 

Like I said last week, we are in a spiritual war, not a physical one.  The real battle is not against our addiction.  The real battle is: are we going to hope in our own power or in God’s!  We cannot win or even fight this spiritual battle on our own.  So how could Jesus say to her, “go and sin no more?”  What chance did she have?  It was only possible if He was not only her Hope, but her Help.  Jesus explains that in His next statement, saying, “I am the light of the world.  He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”  Whoever “follows Me,” He said, “shall not walk in darkness”.  That is the whole thing right there.  We don’t know what this young woman did.  Did she walk away feeling relieved, try to deal with her addiction on her own and by the next week fall into sin again?  Or did she remain as a follower of Jesus and have her life changed, working through her addiction and finding victory?  We don’t know. 

What we do know is that the power to restore sanity to our lives and bring victory over addictive, compulsive and dysfunctional behavior is found in Jesus Christ.  Our hope and our help is in following Him.

This woman was brought Jesus, caught in her addictive, compulsive, dysfunctional behavior.  Jesus showed mercy and gave her hope by forgiving her.  He also told her to “go and sin no more.”  Step #1 of Celebrate Recovery says “I am powerless over my addictions and compulsive behaviors, my life has become unmanageable.”  There is no doubt she was there!  I’m sure if you’d of asked her as the mob dragged her through the streets, she would have confessed that her life had become unmanageable.  Step #2 says, “I came to believe that a power greater than myself could restore me to sanity.”  The young adulteress was given hope, real hope.  Her sin was forgiven by the righteous Judge, she was shown mercy by the one and only true Higher Power.

I don’t know what your addiction is.  We’ve all had something, some habit or hurt, something that has dragged us down into terrible decisions, mistakes, and misery.  So here we are, before the Lord who knows our every action, word, and thought!  You know what, He offers you mercy and hope as well…

Here is our H.o.p.e.

Jesus is the only true Higher Power.  Only in being  Open to Him (even if you are dragged in at first) and acknowledging that He is your only Hope do we find victory.  God alone, Father, Spirit, Jesus, has the Power to Change us.  In Him we can Expect Change; it won’t be easy, immediate, automatic, but God does want to free you from your addictions and hurts and lead you into living more like Christ.

Conclusion

True recovery is a process.  It is the process of learning to hope in God and let Him help you, trusting Him enough to do whatever He asks, trusting Him to be your source of strength, Truth, and understanding.  Forgiveness is just the beginning of hope, after that we must Turn to Him, our only source of help, which is step #3…

See you next week.