Calm

I was reminded of a very important point of Spiritual knowledge last Sunday evening when the “fill-in” Preacher at the Church I attend spoke about Jesus facing the Scribes and Pharisees during the incident we call “The Woman Taken in Adultery.”

It is clear that the Scribes and Pharisees were anxious to trap Jesus and were rushing His decision. They kept pushing for an answer, growing more passionate and angry with each second delay. They had the rocks ready, and they were anxious to use them. There were confident that whatever He said would ensnare Him, and the quicker He spoke on the matter, the sooner their task would be accomplished.

The Preacher told us that Jesus stooped down and “began to write in the dirt.” He reminded us that it is only speculation as to what He was doing, but rather than trying to discover that, why not just recognize that the really important point is that in the midst of that passion and anger, Jesus was “cool, calm, collected.” He was waiting to “seize the moment,” and when the Scribes and Pharisees had demonstrated who they really were, and He had the attention of the people, He would proclaim that they were unworthy to be the woman’s judge.

He drew several conclusions from that, but I was reminded how sometimes I get angry, and passionate about some matter or the other, and I want to throw some rocks. Rather than do so however, how much better is it to be “cool, calm, collected” and allow the moments to pass while wisdom prevails.

The Preacher ended by saying we need to “put down our rocks.” He’s right, you know?  If you got ’em, put ’em down!