Religion: A Pastor Ponders

Killer Soaps

by Pastor William Jenkins

May 13, 2005

Remember the incident from John 8 where some self-righteous, ego-centric critics paraded an adulterous woman before Jesus? A more interesting story would be hard to find in the Gospels. The critics were looking for condemnation.

What Jesus did on this occasion is a lesson in humility as much as anything. He invited the sinless among the critics to be the chief stone-casters. Then he began to write in the dirt (what he wrote probably felt very much at home in the dirt).

One by one the critics dropped their stones and slipped away like scolded puppies. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law learned their lesson well; or had they?

I suspect the lesson was wasted on those who were not easily embarrassed.

It still is.

Unfortunately, there are people in the world who, if they had been there that day, would have had no better sense than to cast the first stone. They have no sense of shame for their own sins, they do not know when to be embarrassed, and they have forfeited any semblance of redeeming grace in their lives. These people are not friends of grace and have become the enemy of Christ; sadly, they don’t even know it.

There was a man whose children won 4 goldfish at a school carnival one Friday. On Saturday he went to buy an aquarium. Finding them too expensive for his budget, he settled for a discarded ten-gallon display tank, complete with gravel and filter, for a mere $5. Of course it was nasty and dirty, so he took it home and cleaned it up real good.

Those new fish looked great in their new home…at least for the first day. But by Sunday one had died. Too bad, but 3 remained. Monday morning revealed another casualty, and by Monday night a third goldfish had gone belly up. The father called on a member of his church who had a large aquarium in which fish did thrive. It didn’t take long for him to discover the problem: he had washed the tank out with soap, an absolute no-no. The man’s uninformed efforts had destroyed the very lives he was trying to protect.

Sometimes in our efforts to help clean up other people’s lives we unfortunately use “killer soaps” - condemnation, criticism, gossip, anger. We think we are doing the right thing , but our harsh, self-righteous treatment is more than our victims can bear.

On the day the wicked woman was cast at His feet, Jesus affirmed her worth by forgiving her and sending her on her way to sin no more. He cleaned her with “Living Soap and Water” Jesus does that for all sinners, even self-righteous, critical Pharisees.

We gather on Sunday mornings in our various places of worship to seek a more excellent way. Let us pray for one another to get rid of our “killer soaps” and have nothing to do with the Pharisees, except to drop our stones and acknowledge our own need for forgiveness.

League City United Methodist Church is located at 1411 Main Street (FM 518), one block east of Interstate 45. For information, call the church offices at 281-332-1557 or visit the website at

HYPERLINK - http://www.lcumc.org