A Real Miracle

I have almost stopped believing in miracles. Just this week I heard a news story on the radio about a scientist who is suggesting that perhaps Jesus did walk on water—and he can scientifically offer an explanation. I stopped caring about science proving or disproving ‘miracles’ a long time ago, probably because I had a hard time seeing the relevance of miracles in my personal life.

I have been accepting the use of the word miracle to describe things like the birth of a baby or a beautiful sunset. While they don’t exactly wow me like the childhood stories of miracle like the parting of the red sea or turning water into wine (obviously I am not a mom!) they are certainly beautiful and important moments in life, events that make us pause and take a breath, remembering again the sacredness and the fleetingness of life. But it occurred to me this week that perhaps I have been overlooking a pretty big miracle in the New Testament.

I was a full-time employee of the local church for 12 years, serving as both a youth minister and a children’s minister. I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly in the local church, and unfortunately I have seen a lot more of the bad and the ugly. The cynic in me believes that church brings out the worst in people, and even on a good day I still mostly believe that. That’s what make the story of the woman caught in adultery that much more amazing…

As the story goes, a group of men—religious men—brought to Jesus a woman who had been accused of committing adultery, an offence punishable by death. Some believe that they were trying to trap him; I think perhaps they were just trying to get him to pick a side. In any case, Jesus basically said, “Sure, go ahead and stone her—just make sure that whoever throws the first stone is the guy without sin.” And here’s the miraculous part: For the first time before or since, every one of those religious people dropped their stones. If you have spent much time in a church, you know what I’m talking about. Some people on a good day will drop their stone, but most days you can find someone slinging a rock around the church. Most people have been hit by a flying stone or two. But on that day, something about that situation made each man drop his stone.

I wouldn’t diminish the fact that it was a woman that Jesus was saving that day, either. Funny that despite Jesus’ treatment of women, the church has continued to deny women an equal place. And if the writer of that gospel hadn’t inserted his own textual comment—“Go and sin no more”—imagine what a different place our churches might be. Of course, I could be wrong on this, and I will probably be branded a heretic, but I’ve seen the maxim “Hate the sin, love the sinner” fail too many times to believe that God actually believes it.

You know what else? I bet none of those guys even recognized it was a miracle.