8-12-14 A Matter of Timing

“Did you hear on the news about the weirdo that hung a hangman’s noose from an overpass?”

“No, what happened?”

“The noose caught on a trucker’s exhaust pipe and yanked the guy’s arm off. And believe it or not, the trucker was arrested.” And then he waited until someone asked:

“What? What was he charged with?”

“Why, armed robbery, of course.”

“Argh, you got me!”

Comics tell you that you can tell a joke, but if the timing is off the joke falls flat. He has to set up for the punchline, but if he tells it too soon, you don’t have time to think about it. If it’s too late, it loses its punch. Timing is very important.

The Pharisees approached Jesus with a woman they caught committing adultery in an effort to trip Jesus up.  They had probably set her up, too.  Jesus didn’t bite.  He hunkered down and began writing in the sand as if he had never heard them. They kept insisting an answer. Finally He said, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” Then He returned to writing in the sand. Eventually, they all left.

It’s not what He wrote, but that He set them up for the “punchline.”  He gave them time to get frustrated with Him, hit them with the “punchline” and returned to doodling in the sand to let them think about it. No one was without sin, so none dared say anything. He beat them at their own game.  He set them up for the “punchline” to have the greatest effect.

Jesus knows how to set me up for His conviction to have the greatest effect. I either have to ask for His forgiveness or walk off.  If I ask for forgiveness our relationship is restored.  If I walk off, my heart will harden a bit and like the Pharisees, try to rid Jesus from my life. I will not want to be around Jesus, but He will confront me again one day.

“And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.” John 8:9.

© copyright Kevin T Boekhoff

No comments: