PUP ROGERS - Student Minister
What do you do when you stoop down?
When I think of what it means to stoop, it is to get on the level of someone smaller than me. It is to make sure they understand what is going on. Sometimes a stoop expresses anger or reprimand. Other times it is an expression of exhaustion or despair; when you receive terrible news that knocks your knees out from under you.
Jesus stooped a lot. I would like to think that He stooped low to welcome the little children into His embrace. I also believe that He stooped down to wash the disciples’ feet. Stooping is an act of servanthood. It is an act of respect to make yourself lower than the person that you are honoring.
This was not the first time that God stooped down. He had done it before, at the very creation of man He stooped down and formed man from the mud and gave His breath of life. Then again, to stoop down and take the form of a human.
But look at this time in John chapter 8 where we see a lady that was caught in adultery, a stone-able offence. She was ripped from the very act and put on display to see what Jesus would do. We would expect hate, anger, disowning; yet He stoops.
He kneeled down and began to write in the dirt. People for many ages have wondered what he wrote and we have no idea. He said “let him who is without sin cast the first stone.” We know that the people who accused this lady left one by one. Eventually Jesus addresses her saying “Woman, where are your accusers?” She looked up and realized they all left. She then says, “There is no one.” Jesus says to her, “neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”
This stoop could have gone many ways, yet the stoop that Jesus took was one of grace; grace for freedom not deserved and grace for peace of heart. Jesus offers us the same thing: a stoop of forgiveness and love. May we also treat others with the forgiveness and love that He so freely gave.