THE TELLING DETAIL
It's the small things in life that can come back and bite you. So it is smarter to deal with them than it is to ignore them.
Let's back up a bit. Not so long ago, I was talking with a friend who happens to be not a Christian. She's a sweet person, but she didn't have much background in Christian-related things. I forget how we got into the conversation, but I was telling her about the incident where Jesus saves the woman who was about to be stoned. (John 8:3-11)
The woman in the story was "taken in the act" of adultery, and the punishment by Jewish law was stoning. On top of that, when the punishment for a breaking of the Jewish law was stoning, the first stone was to be thrown by someone who had witnessed the crime. So when Jesus is asked about it all sorts of things come into play. One big question, of course, is where is the man who was commiting this act with her? But what the accusers wanted was for Jesus to interfere -- because in Jewish law, anyone who interferes in a "just" punishment becomes subject to that punishment (that is, they wanted to stone Jesus).
Jesus' response was to say "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." By saying this he challenges them on the law. He's forcing the issue of who is the actual witness to the woman's transgression -- because, after all, she was taken in the act. Who saw this? Who knew? Either her partner in the adultery (in which case he was sinning too) or the witness was a voyeur hiding in the bedroom (surely equally sinful). But Jesus challenged them by saying that the primary witness needed to be "without sin." The accusers were not going to win this one.
It was a detail they had been overlooking, that requirement that the witness was to throw the first stone.
Details can be important. They should not be shirked. We never know when it might be the small detail that catches someone's attention.
Sometimes people say "God is in the details."
Do we believe that? Sometimes I wonder, given the way we dismiss the details when it's convenient to us.
How often do we dismiss something because it's "just a detail"? Quite often, I find. And it makes me shake my head. Do people not understand what can happen? I've seen this happen in discussions where a group of friends are giving notes to a writer in the group. Someone will mention something that bothered or tweaked them, and another (for whom that detail seemed unimportant) dismisses it, saying "That's just a detail." But how big does a crack have to be to trip someone up? Often as not, not a very big crack at all.
We should pay attention to details because they are tripping people up, or because they could be the clue to where and how to build the proper solid foundation for something. The details are important.
It's the small things in life that can come back and bite you. So it is smarter to deal with them than it is to ignore them.
Let's back up a bit. Not so long ago, I was talking with a friend who happens to be not a Christian. She's a sweet person, but she didn't have much background in Christian-related things. I forget how we got into the conversation, but I was telling her about the incident where Jesus saves the woman who was about to be stoned. (John 8:3-11)
The woman in the story was "taken in the act" of adultery, and the punishment by Jewish law was stoning. On top of that, when the punishment for a breaking of the Jewish law was stoning, the first stone was to be thrown by someone who had witnessed the crime. So when Jesus is asked about it all sorts of things come into play. One big question, of course, is where is the man who was commiting this act with her? But what the accusers wanted was for Jesus to interfere -- because in Jewish law, anyone who interferes in a "just" punishment becomes subject to that punishment (that is, they wanted to stone Jesus).
Jesus' response was to say "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." By saying this he challenges them on the law. He's forcing the issue of who is the actual witness to the woman's transgression -- because, after all, she was taken in the act. Who saw this? Who knew? Either her partner in the adultery (in which case he was sinning too) or the witness was a voyeur hiding in the bedroom (surely equally sinful). But Jesus challenged them by saying that the primary witness needed to be "without sin." The accusers were not going to win this one.
It was a detail they had been overlooking, that requirement that the witness was to throw the first stone.
Details can be important. They should not be shirked. We never know when it might be the small detail that catches someone's attention.
Sometimes people say "God is in the details."
Do we believe that? Sometimes I wonder, given the way we dismiss the details when it's convenient to us.
How often do we dismiss something because it's "just a detail"? Quite often, I find. And it makes me shake my head. Do people not understand what can happen? I've seen this happen in discussions where a group of friends are giving notes to a writer in the group. Someone will mention something that bothered or tweaked them, and another (for whom that detail seemed unimportant) dismisses it, saying "That's just a detail." But how big does a crack have to be to trip someone up? Often as not, not a very big crack at all.
We should pay attention to details because they are tripping people up, or because they could be the clue to where and how to build the proper solid foundation for something. The details are important.
posted by Sarah | 8:50 PM
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