What Did He Write in the Sand?

John 8: 6-7 is another biblical verse that people can't resist picking at in a desperate attempt to put themselves in Jesus' shoes. Interpret the heck out of everything, preferably in a way that somehow supports the message you want to get across, seems to be the mantra of both armchair and professional theologians.

It is really too bad that so many people want to mystify and otherwise render foggy and hidden the very things Jesus wanted 'shouted from the rooftops' (Matthew 10:27). I also don't think it is any co-incidence that the problem solving technique we all know as "Occam's razor" was, in fact, the brain-child of William of Ockham, a Franciscan friar/theologian. Ockham probably applied Jesus' teachings to all of life's questions and conundrums, and realized that the simplest answer was usually the right one.

So let's apply Occam's razor to the passage below:

They were using this question as a trap,in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her."
John 8:6-7 (NIV)

One by one, as He wrote, the accusers walked away, until not one was left. What do you think Jesus wrote?

Probably a list of their own sins. As each man recognized his own sins being enumerated in the sand, one after the other, they slunk off in shame.

So, why make something so simple into something complex?

There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.
Luke 12:2 (NIV)

Image: Pixabay