Our Biggest Fear As Christian Women

What is your biggest fear?

I’ve met and talked with many different women in life and as a coach. Over and over again, I’ve heard “I could never just be in silence with God. That would be too much.”

Too much. Overwhelming. Too vulnerable. 

How does the thought of being alone with God feel to you?

While studying the Word this week, I came to the story of the woman who was caught in adultery. (You can read it in John 7:58-8:11). This is a passage infamously missing in some early manuscripts. Though I’m not a theologian or Biblical scholar, there is one reason my sanctified imagination thinks this might be:

This was an EPIC event.

Jesus demonstrated His love in a way that I think it’s possible no one in the early church knew quite what to do with this event.

For time’s sake, I won’t go into the whole story, but I want you to see two important things in this passage. (Then, be sure to go and read it for yourself!)

A Little Background

As we read starting in John 7, we find that Jesus was in Jerusalem for the fall festival, the Feast of Booths. During this 7-day festival, everyone who is anyone is there. Suffice it to say that EVERYONE was there. At this point in Jesus’ ministry, the religious leaders were already seeking to kill Jesus but Jesus hadn’t yet been as bold as he became during this festival.

Jesus sends his disciples on to the festival and then sneaks into the city so he will be unnoticed (John 7:10). He hears people wondering about him saying things such as, “He’s a good man,” and disagreement, “No, he’s leading people astray.” Jesus decides this is a good time to begin teaching in the synagogue publicly. The synagogue was THE PLACE to be during this festival. At the beginning of chapter 7 we see him concerned with his timing on really declaring Who he is to the masses and by the end of chapter 7, he’s preaching in the center of it all! I have to wonder why the change of heart?

On the 7th evening, in the synagogue, Jesus stands and declares his deity saying, “If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, “‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” This doesn’t prick our ears in any irregular fashion, but to the religious leaders of that day, having memorized most likely all of the Old Testament, they knew exactly what Jesus was saying at this point;

Jesus was declaring Himself the Living Water; God in Person.

He is referencing back to Isaiah 55:1 in which God the Almighty declared that He offers living water to all who is thirsty. In using this same phrasing, Jesus was plainly saying to the Jewish people, “I am God.” His intention was to clearly make known to the religious people that yes, he was in fact, calling himself God; a sin in the day that deserved death.

It is into this tension in which the story of the woman caught in adultery takes place. I want you to notice two particular things about what happens next.

It’s about to get Epic…

Interesting point to consider #1: Jesus declares his Deity and then withdraws to his favorite “prayer room:” The mount of Olives.

The Bible says Jesus stayed there until he appeared in the synagogue the next morning. Why do you think Jesus withdrew at this point? Could it be that He needed to refill His strength and father it for the coming day(s)? Could it be that He longed for a place He felt “safe” and He knew He could experience safety and comfort with His Father?

I wonder, what do you do after an intense day? What do you do after a day that shifts your entire career? Where might I find you?

Before we look at the next interesting point, let me share what happens next in the sequence of events: Jesus goes BACK to the synagogue and decides to teach again! I have to wonder why He chooses to do this so openly knowing His enemies are really on to him at this point.

Part of me thinks maybe it’s simply to show this precious woman He’ll soon meet just how far, and deep, and long, and high is His love.

It is into this moment, that the Pharisees and Scribes decide to try to set Jesus up. They bring a woman caught in the act of adultery to him. As Old Testament, Jewish law would have it, it was the practice to stone to death BOTH the man and the woman found committing adultery. The religious leaders were setting up a trap for Jesus and this woman was just a pawn in their agenda. (Notice, if they were truly after righteousness and following the law, they would have also presented the man. But he is nowhere to be found.)

Interesting point to consider #2: After the Pharisees present this woman and twist Scripture to make it say what they want it to say, Jesus turns it back on them and THEY WALK AWAY IN SHAME.

There stands this woman alone. Alone with Jesus.

She knows sinned.

She knows the sin has been exposed.

She knows the law says she should be stoned to death for her actions. Her sinful offense is never in question.

AND – She knows Jesus is the only one honestly without sin; the only One truly capable of determining her fate at that very moment.

Do you think she was relieved when all the men left and she stood there alone with Jesus?!

Do you think she felt safe with this man, Jesus?!

What do you think was going through her mind at that point? Was she afraid of what He might do to her, too? In my humanity, I know I’d be more frightened after the men left. At least when they were present the focus had been on them and Jesus. Now there was just her! Think about it, what do you think it was like to stand before a perfect man, the biggest talk of the region, the man who had claimed to be God the day before…do you think she felt comfort at all?!

Well, let me as you: When you have committed sin and feel exposed about it, what do you do in your relationship with God? Do you run to Him?

I don’t think so. 

Now it’s epic:

John 8:9 says, “and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.

Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” 

Wait for it…Jesus’s response?…

Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

Shew!!!

Can you feel that relief?!

Can you feel the emotion that must have flooded over her?!

“Neither do I condemn you!”

Jesus doesn’t condemn us!

There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 5:8) because he has paid the price!

Isn’t that the good news?!

Isn’t that what we just celebrated on Easter!?!

We are free to stand before a holy God because Jesus took all our shame, all our guilt, all our sin on himself!

Hallelujah, what a Savior!

We can be confident to come before the Lord in silence because He does not hold our sins against us. 

In this place we can find rest because we can be vulnerable.

 What is rest, if not being fully present with yourself and God and knowing you are accepted?


What is rest, if not complete release of our attempts at controlling because we’ve always had to fix it ourselves?


What is rest, if not being known by the One Who put us together exactly as He willed for His purposes, and knowing we don’t have to cover our own shame?

“Jesus paid it all,

all to Him I owe.

Sin had left a crimson stain,

He washed it white as snow.”

Amen!