Caught in the act (part 5 CONCLUSION)- HOW YESHUA APPROACHES JEWS and NON- JEWS

Bible Texts (New Testament with keywords Concordance-CLNT: Text: John 5:5-14; John 8:9-11; John 4: 16-26

 

John 5:5-14

5 Now a certain man was there having been in his infirmity thirty-eight years.
6 Jesus, perceiving this one lying down, and knowing that he has already spent much time, is saying to him, "Do you want to become sound?"
7 The infirm man answered Him, "Lord, I have no man that, whenever the water may be disturbed, should be casting me into the pool. Now in the time in which I am coming another is descending before me."
8 Jesus is saying to him, "Rouse and pick up your pallet and walk!"
9 And immediately the man became sound, and he was roused and picks up his pallet and walked. Now it was a sabbath on that day.
10 The Jews, then, said to him who has been cured, "It is a sabbath, and it is not allowed you to pick up your pallet!"
11 Yet he answered them, "He Who makes me sound, that One said to me, 'Pick up your pallet and walk.'"
12 They ask him then, "Who is the man who said to you, 'Pick up your pallet and walk'?"
13 Now he who is healed had not perceived Who He is, for Jesus evades him, a throng being in the place.
14 After these things Jesus is finding him in the sanctuary, and said to him, "Lo! you have become sound. By no means longer be sinning, lest something worse may be coming to you."

John 8:9-11

9 Now those hearing it came out one by one, beginning with the elders, to the last. And Jesus was left alone, the woman also being in the midst.
10 Now, unbending, Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn you?"
11 Now she said, "No one, Lord!" Now Jesus said, "Neither am I condemning you. Go! From now on by no means any longer be sinning."]

 

John 4:16-26

16 Jesus is saying to her, "Go, summon your husband and come to this place."
17 The woman answered and said to Him, "No husband have I."
18 Jesus is saying to her, "Ideally said you that 'A husband I have not,' for five husbands have you had, and now he whom you have is not your husband. This you have declared truly."…

22 You are worshiping that of which you are not aware; we are worshiping that of which we are aware, for “salvation is of the Jews”.
23 But coming is the hour, and now is, when the true worshipers will be worshiping the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father also is seeking such to be worshiping Him.
25 The woman is saying to Him, "We are aware that Messiah is coming, Who is termed 'Christ,' Whenever He should be coming, He will be informing us of all things."
26 Jesus is saying to her, "I am He, Who am speaking to you."

 

Caught in the Act: Grace, Law, and the Way Yeshua Approached People

To wrap up this wonderful lesson, I want to draw your attention to three different scenarios in Scripture and, more importantly, to the different ways Yeshua addressed the people involved.

At first glance, these stories may appear unrelated. One man had been afflicted for thirty-eight years. One woman was caught in adultery and publicly exposed. Another woman—a Samaritan—was carrying the weight of a painful personal history.

But when you look more closely, something fascinating begins to emerge.

Yeshua did not approach everyone in exactly the same way.

Why?

That is the question I want us to wrestle with.

The Man Who Had Been Waiting for 38 Years

According to John 5:5-14, a man had been afflicted with an infirmity for thirty-eight years. He was lying near the pool, waiting for an opportunity to be healed.

Imagine that for a moment.

Thirty-eight years is not thirty-eight days.

It is not thirty-eight months.

It is thirty-eight years of living with the same condition, watching other people receive what he desperately needed, while he remained in the same place.

The man explained to Yeshua that whenever the opportunity came, he had no one to help him get into the water.

Think about how lonely that must have felt.

He was surrounded by people, yet apparently had nobody willing or able to help him.

Then Yeshua appeared.

What did Yeshua do?

He did not begin by interrogating the man about his past.

He did not ask, “What did you do to deserve this?”

He did not publicly shame him.

Instead, Yeshua asked him a remarkably simple question:

“Do you want to become well?”

What a question!

The man's response was not simply “Yes” or “No.” Instead, he began explaining why he had not yet been healed. He explained that he had nobody to put him into the pool.

However, Yeshua did not spend the next hour discussing the man's excuses.

He simply told him:

“Rise, take up your pallet and walk.”

Then, the man walked.

Yeshua later encountered him again and gave him another warning concerning sin.

Now we have to ask an uncomfortable question:

Was Yeshua being judgmental?

Why did Yeshua first demonstrate compassion and healing, but later tell the man to stop sinning?

To understand this, we have to consider the environment in which these people lived.

The Jews lived under the Mosaic Law. Their understanding of righteousness, obedience, consequences, and sin was deeply connected to that system. The consequences of wrongdoing were very real within their understanding of the Law.

Therefore, Yeshua's warning to this man should not simply be dismissed as condemnation. It can also be understood as a serious warning concerning the consequences associated with sin within the framework the man understood.

Yeshua knew how to speak to people where they were.

The Woman Caught in Adultery

Now move forward to John 8:9-11.

Here we meet another person whose sin had become public knowledge.

The woman was caught in adultery and brought before Yeshua by her accusers.

The atmosphere was completely different.

She was surrounded by people who wanted judgment.

They wanted stones.

They wanted Yeshua to make a public declaration.

Instead, Yeshua dismantled the entire accusation by confronting the consciences of her accusers.

Eventually, they all left.

Then Yeshua said to the woman:

“Neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more.”

Notice the balance.

Yeshua did not condemn her, but neither did He treat sin as irrelevant.

He extended mercy while also giving her a warning.

Why?

It was because she was living within a Jewish society governed by the Mosaic Law. Her accusers had already demonstrated what they were prepared to do. The consequences could have been devastating.

Yeshua's words therefore carried both mercy and caution.

But now something becomes very interesting.

Then There Was the Samaritan Woman

Turn to John 4:16-26.

This story feels different.

Yeshua went into Samaria, a region where there was significant hostility between Jews and Samaritans. He encountered a Samaritan woman at the well and began a conversation with her.

But look carefully at how He handled her.

He did not publicly condemn her.

He did not tell her, “Stop sinning.”

He did not begin by listing her failures.

Instead, Yeshua approached her at the point of her deepest need.

He asked her about her husband.

That question opened a door into an area of her life that was deeply personal.

Instead of crushing her with condemnation, Yeshua moved the conversation from shame to hope.

From physical water to living water.

From confusion to revelation.

From despondence to hope.

Eventually, He revealed to her that He was the Messiah.

Now pause here.

Have you ever wondered why Yeshua addressed these people differently?

Why did He warn the man?

Why did He tell the woman caught in adultery to sin no more?

But why does the conversation with the Samaritan woman appear to emphasize revelation, hope, worship, and living water without the same direct warning?

I believe this deserves serious thought.

“Salvation Is of the Jews”

John 4:22 contains a statement that can easily be misunderstood:

“Salvation is of the Jews.”

Does this mean salvation was exclusively for Jews?

No.

Rather, the statement points to the source and historical setting from which salvation came.

Yeshua was a Jew.

The Scriptures concerning the Messiah came through Israel.

The promises were connected to Israel.

The Messiah came through the Jewish people.

Therefore, salvation came from the Jews, but it was never ultimately intended to remain only among the Jews.

This distinction is important.

The Samaritan woman was not a Jew, yet Yeshua deliberately went to her.

Why?

Because the salvation coming through the Jews was eventually going to reach beyond the Jews.

And perhaps this helps us understand something else.

Law Can Become the Lens Through Which People See Everything

The Jewish religious environment was deeply connected to the Law of Moses.

That was not necessarily the problem.

The problem arose when the Law became the lens through which people measured everyone else while failing to recognize their own need for grace.

This is where the story becomes uncomfortably relatable.

Have you ever met someone who knows the Scriptures extremely well but has very little mercy?

Someone who can quote a verse to condemn another person but struggles to extend compassion?

Someone who is quick to identify another person's sin while forgetting that they, too, stand in need of God's mercy?

It is possible to be extremely religious and still fail to understand grace.

It is possible to know the words of Scripture while missing the heart of the One those Scriptures reveal.

This is why Yeshua's interactions are so challenging.

He did not merely address people's behavior.

He addressed people according to where they were.

The First Can Become the Last

Yeshua said in Matthew 19:30:

“The last shall be first, and the first last.”

That statement should make us stop and think.

Those who considered themselves first because of their religious position could find themselves struggling to understand the very grace Yeshua came to reveal.

Meanwhile, someone considered an outsider—a Samaritan woman—could encounter Yeshua and become one of the people who heard His revelation directly.

What a reversal!

The person society might consider unworthy becomes the person Yeshua chooses to engage.

The people who believe they understand everything discover that they still have something to learn.

The people who think they are close may discover that they have missed the heart of the message.

The Olive Tree and the Bigger Picture

Paul develops another fascinating picture in Romans 11.

He uses the imagery of an olive tree to describe God's dealings with Israel and the nations. The natural branches and wild branches provide a powerful picture of inclusion, dependence, and God's continuing purpose.

Paul also makes it clear that God's dealings with Israel were not finished.

This is important.

The salvation that came through Judea did not mean that the Jews were abandoned.

Neither did salvation extending to the nations mean that the nations replaced Israel.

Rather, Paul presents a much larger picture of God's purpose.

There is a process.

There is a fullness.

There is a future realization.

Matthew 23:39 points toward a future recognition when Yeshua says:

“For I am saying to you: You may by no means be perceiving Me henceforth, till you should be saying, ‘Blessed is He Who is coming in the name of the Lord!’”

This should cause us to think deeply about the way God deals with people.

Perhaps the issue is not always that someone has rejected the truth forever.

Perhaps there are things people simply have not yet been given to understand.

That thought should make us slower to condemn.

What About Us?

Now let us bring this home.

This lesson is not merely about Jews.

It is not merely about Samaritans.

It is not merely about Pharisees.

It is about us.

There are Christians and religious people today who sincerely claim to believe in Yeshua while still approaching life primarily through law, judgment, performance, and condemnation.

They know the Scriptures.

They defend the Scriptures.

They can identify other people's mistakes.

But have they understood the grace revealed through Yeshua?

That is the challenging question.

It is easy to become the accuser.

It is easy to stand with the crowd holding stones.

It is easy to point out what another person has done wrong.

But what happens when Yeshua asks us to look at the condition of our own hearts?

The woman caught in adultery needed mercy.

The man who had been afflicted for thirty-eight years needed healing and instruction.

The Samaritan woman needed hope and revelation.

Perhaps, in different ways, we need all three.

We need mercy.

We need healing.

We need truth.

The Bigger Work of Salvation

John 19:30 records Yeshua's declaration:

“It is accomplished.”

The work was completed.

Paul also speaks about resurrection and God's unfolding purpose in 1 Corinthians 15:23.

And 1 Timothy 4:10 describes Yeshua as the Savior of all mankind, with a particular distinction concerning those who believe.

These passages point us toward something much bigger than our human ability to understand God's work.

Salvation is not a trophy for the people who think they performed well enough.

It is not something we should use to boast over another person.

And it certainly should not become a weapon with which we condemn people who have not yet understood what we claim to understand.

One Final Question

So, as we close this series, I want to leave you with a question:

What if the way Yeshua dealt with people is also teaching us how to deal with people?

The man received healing and a serious warning.

The woman caught in adultery received mercy and a warning.

The Samaritan woman received revelation, love, grace, and hope.

Different people.

Different circumstances.

Different approaches.

But the same Yeshua.

Perhaps the lesson is not simply that Yeshua knew how to confront sin.

Perhaps the deeper lesson is that Yeshua knew how to reach the person behind the sin.

That should challenge all of us.

Before we condemn someone, can we see their pain?

Before we judge someone's failure, can we remember our own need for mercy?

Before we assume someone has rejected truth forever, can we consider that their time of understanding may not yet have arrived?

The Samaritan woman came to the well carrying the weight of her past.

She left carrying hope.

That is what makes this story so powerful.

Yeshua did not merely meet people where their problems were.

He met them where they were and revealed where they could go.

And perhaps that is one of the greatest lessons from “Caught in the Act.”

May we learn to see people through the eyes of Yeshua—without compromising truth, but without withholding grace.

This concludes these wonderful lessons from Caught in the Act.

Be sure to return for a new edition next week, by the grace of Yahweh.

Grace and Peace.

Reference:

https://www.concordant.org/version/read-concordant-new-testament-online