Two Baseballs (Part 2)

The closest player in this picture is Wily Mo Pena, the Red Sox player who threw the ball to my son after pre-game warmups. Wily Mo did something unique before the start of the game we attended. Just before the first pitch (while Curt Schilling was standing behind the mound saying his usual pre-game prayer), Wily Mo walked out to the warning track and wrote with his finger in the dirt. Since we were standing by the centerfield wall, I could see clearly that He wrote "Jesus". What a cool surprise!

Of course, it would be easy to write about how each of us needs to make our mark for Christ, but Wily's action makes me think of something else first. It makes me think of Jesus writing in the dirt in the story of the adulterous woman (John 7:53-8:11). We'll never know in this life what Jesus wrote in the dirt. What we do know is that after Jesus finished writing, all the religious leader dudes, who were sadly anxious to stone this woman, walked away one by one. My guess is Jesus wrote down specific examples of their sin with names attached and they wanted to leave before more of their dark secrets got out.

The most important part of the story is that Jesus did something we are not very good at doing. When we see sin in other people, we either condemn them for it or we ignore it in the name of acceptance. Jesus did the hard work of accepting the woman while still showing He did not approve of her sin. We know this because of Jesus' words, "Neither do I condemn you, go now and leave your life of sin." It's amazing to me that the "worst" of sinners (let's not get into a sin grading conversation here) felt comfortable around Jesus, but sinners feel awkward around most professing Christians. We need God's grace to live a life like Jesus that authentically welcomes people and encourages them to leave their sin to pursue righteous living in Christ. We can learn to do both with God's help. It's a satisfying way to live and love.