Verse of the Day for September 21

Earlier in the story Jesus had stooped down and written on the ground. Now Jesus had lifted up himself. He stands, and for the first time in the whole scene he and the woman are alone. The crowd that dragged her there has drifted away.

Her only words in the entire account are three. No man, Lord. That is all. No defence, no explanation. She simply reports what she sees: nobody is left to accuse her.

Then Jesus says the one thing no accuser could. Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more. The order matters. First, no condemnation. Then, go. The pardon is not a reward for future behaviour. It is the ground she will stand on as she walks away.

Go is an ordinary word. He sends her back into her life, into streets where people knew her story, into the same town. Grace did not lift her out of the world. It put her back in it, with both feet on the ground and a different future.

You may wish forgiveness came with a new city. Usually it does not. You go back to the same office, the same street, the same family table. His words go with you. You can walk on them.

The pardon comes first and the walk comes after.

Ordinary streets are where forgiven people practise sinning no more.