-1 UP-

One of the greatest things about growing up in the time-frame I did had to be the incarnation of the NES. That's right, the Nintendo Entertainment System. Sometimes I really miss it. I own a PS2, (which I never play anymore), and now a Nintendo Wii currently but sometimes nostalgia gets the better of me and I just want to pop in a game cartridge and play Contra, or Metroid, or the classic; Super Mario Brothers. My favorite part of playing games like these is getting to that certain point when the game gives of a specific chime and the phrase "1 UP" appears somewhere on the screen. My brother and I called this, "getting a free man."

 

The free man was such a stress reliever. Especially if you were down to your last "life." The free man was like having permission to fail without fear of having the dreaded "GAME OVER" screen pop up. It was another chance to do better next time.

 

I think Jesus is a huge fan of the free man too. I imagine him smiling every time someone collects 100 coins in Super Mario Brothers. Because Jesus is all about giving us another chance. Jesus is all about giving us another opportunity to do better next time.

 

In the 8th chapter of John's Gospel, we're told about an incident when a bunch of angry religious people bring a women to Jesus. Apparently this woman was caught in the very act of cheating on her husband. This was a major "no-no" to the first century Jewish culture and the punishment called for was death by stoning. Not a pleasant way to die. Because Jesus is a Rabbi, they ask him what he thinks about all this and he responds with his well know answer, "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." You got to love that response! Everyone eventually leaves except Jesus and the woman and Jesus tells her that she hasn't been condemned and that she should go back to living, but living a different way. Jesus gives her a free man.

 

What strikes me most about this story though is that John writes two separate times that Jesus bent down and "wrote on the ground." For centuries scholars and theologians have speculated on what Jesus was writing. Some say he was writing the 10 Commandments, others theorize that he was writing the names and sins of the people in the crowd. There are all kinds of opinions but when all is said and done they are little more than a shot in the dark. John never tells us what Jesus was writing. Why not? Probably because it wasn't important to know WHAT Jesus was writing on the ground, it was only important to know THAT Jesus was writing on the ground.

 

John is a Jewish writer and he often employees a Jewish literary tradition known as "the principle of first mention." Essentially, the principle of first mention tells us that when we come across a significant word, phrase or general concept in this writing, to look and see where that significant word, phrase or concept is found in the Jewish Bible, (Old Testament). John does this all over his gospel record. If you want an example, find the first place John mentions "love" and then the first place the Old Testament mentions "love." It's pretty cool, especially if you are a Jew in the First Century. So what is the significance in this story? Well, the only other time we see God writing on the ground is back in Genesis... when he is creating mankind.

 

John is telling us that Jesus is doing something new here. He's creating a new humanity out of the old one he created thousands of years earlier. The new life he breathes into us is his phrase, "Nor do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin." (John 8:11) Jesus is granting us a free man. This is what Paul was talking about when he wrote to the Corinthians, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (2nd Corinthians 5:17) If we are in Christ we are not condemned, we were redrawn on the ground and given a new breath of life. We have a free man! We have an opportunity to try again and do better this time. Because Jesus, "bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger." (John 8:6) What are you going to do with your free man?