When God Says It Is Done

When God says it is done, it is done.  Finished.  It seems like that day is coming, the end is near, control broken, release is near.  The day of mopping up, binding the wounds, stretching out the withered hands, straightening the bent backs, the silence replacing the roar of the evil one.  We see the dawn beginning.

It can not come soon enough.

Those who condemned the woman condemned her alone.  Men, religious men, condemned her in order to serve their own purposes and their own twisted plans.  They did not condemn her because they were worried about righteousness - where was the man she was "caught in the act" with?  They condemned her because it served their purposes to condemn her and they considered her worthless.  Life has not changed much.  Men are still willing to destroy the life of another if it serves their purpose.

Yet Jesus did not answer these men.  He was silent in the face of their selfish, evil accusations.  Silence.  This was never about her, but about the evilness of men who wanted power and prestige, and those very things were being threatened.  Finally, when He spoke, it was just one simple sentence.

When He spoke again, it was only when He was alone with her.  When His silence had silenced the accusers and they stood alone.  "Where are those who accuse you? Does no one accuse you?"  She must have looked around, and the silence brought peace.  "No one."  They were gone.  And Jesus is simple with her.  "Neither do I.  Go and sin no more."  Nothing more was needed.

Men have circled me for years now, condemning.  For a different reason, to be sure, but the crowd and the accusations hurled were just as fierce.  And God has been silent.  I wanted Him to be as loud as the accusers, to yell back at them.  But He remained silent.

That was incredibly hard for me.

But He remained.  He stayed.  And when they all drifted away, He remained with me.  I wonder if the woman crouched screaming in the dust, frantically trying to cover herself up a little, ever heard the words Jesus spoke.  The words that caused her accusers to melt away slowly in shame.  I wonder if she heard anything until the silence won out that day and she tentatively looked up to see her Savior quietly drawing in the dust.

I do not know what God said, but I know He has said it is done, and when God says it is done, it is done.