Wednesday, April 21, 2010

THE FIRST STONE

             A group of talented students presented skits to display how Biblical events would get modified if they happened today. One skit was about the pardoning of the sinful woman caught committing adultery and brought before Jesus {John 8: 1-11}.
             A violent crowd was shown to chase the woman. She fell at the feet of Jesus. The angry men shouted that as she was caught in the sinful act, the law demands that she should be stoned to death. The leaders sought the view of Jesus in the matter. 

             As depicted in the Gospel, Jesus calmly replied, “Whichever one of you has committed no sin may throw the first stone at her” {John 8: 7}.The Holy Bible depicts the withdrawal of all the accusers as they became aware of their own sins.
             But in the skit, on hearing the words of Jesus, the accusers shouted violently and threw stones at the woman. Some of the stones missed her and hit Jesus and wounded him. Then the curtain came down. It was a vivid depiction of a deadly defect of modern man who will never admit that he is a sinner.
             Mark Twain once remarked, “We are all like the moon. We all have a dark side we want no one else to see!”
Jesus advised, “Do not judge others, and God will not judge you; do not condemn others, and God will not condemn you; forgive others, and God will forgive you” {Luke 6: 37}. Jesus asked, “Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but pay no attention to the log in your own eye?” {Luke 6: 41}.
             Jesus rebuked the hypocrite teachers of the Law and the Pharisees, “You hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look fine on the outside but are full of bones and decaying corpses on the inside. In the same way, on the outside you appear good to everybody, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and sins” {Matthew 23: 27, 28}.


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© By Dr. Babu Philip, Professor, Cochin University of Science & Technology, Fine Arts Avenue, Kochi-682016, Kerala, India.
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