Being Reasonable

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"Be reasonable."

Most of us have heard that phrase more than a few times. "Reasonable" is, according to my dictionary: "sensible, rational, logical, fair, fair-minded, just, equitable; intelligent, wise, levelheaded, practical, realistic; sound, reasoned, well reasoned, valid, commonsensical; tenable, plausible, credible, believable."

Funny how hard it is to actually BE reasonable. We get something in our heads and it is impossible to pound it out no matter how foolish it might be.

Isaiah writes: "'Come now, let us reason together,' says the Lord. 'Though your sins be like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool.'" (1:18)

At the time the prophet was writing, Israel was in a sorry state spiritually. Though many view the God of the Old Testament as an angry, vengeful One, there are plenty of statements and actions that say something else. This is one. God tells His people to think, to be sensible, to be wise, to be realistic about their condition. Then He can forgive them—something He is ready and willing to do.

Jesus often had the same discussion with those who followed Him around the countryside. John 9 records an event that triggered a discussion about being reasonable between Jesus and his critics. The story is told of a woman who was brought to Jesus by the teachers of the law and the Pharisees. The woman had been caught in the act of adultery (hard to "catch" just one person being adulterous, but that discussion is for another time). It was a trap. They wanted him to make a judgement about her and instead, He made a judgement about them.

"If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her" (John 8:7). Even the most obtuse among them could not help but get the message.

When the men had left Jesus was alone with the woman. Why she stayed, and didn't run while she had the chance, may indicate that she sensed in this teacher something greater than His critics understood. She reasoned better than they.

"Jesus straightened up and asked her, 'Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?' 'No one, sir,' she said. 'Then neither do I condemn you,' Jesus declared."

The unspoken communication that happens in the story leads us to think that in the wordlessness of the conversation between her soul and His, confession and forgiveness took place. Sometimes words are not necessary and heart speaks to heart. But she needed to hear the actual words that set her free: "...neither do I condemn you." But that wasn't all.

Jesus then asked this women to do something that might have been difficult. We know nothing of her story. Was she a prostitute, or simply a woman who had been caught up in the throes of passion with someone who wasn't her husband, that extramarital affair? We don't know. Either way, to leave her livelihood or to break off an illicit relationship would not have been easy. But that was what Jesus asked of her.

"Go now and leave your life of sin" (8:11). There were other sins wrapped up in that package called the woman known as adulterous, but the biggie in human terms was what had brought her to this place and to this Person. She knew what Jesus was referring to.

For Jesus to have forgiven her without challenging her to change her lifestyle would have been dishonest of Him and destructive to her. Yes, sometimes the changing is difficult and often it takes time to break the old habits, to establish a new reality. But Jesus doesn't just provide fire insurance, He has come to give life insurance. "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10). And that means to change the destructive behaviour that leads to a life wasted and dishonours God.

We have no idea what happened to this woman. But intelligence and reasonableness demanded that she listen to the one Man who saw her, not as an object to be used and abused, but as a broken soul needing to be mended. The men who walked away lost out to the woman who stayed. They walked away still burdened by their sin. She walked away free,

Personally, I like to think that this woman's encounter with one Man who truly cared for her well-being, not only saved her life but changed it as well.