Give Them the Finger

In a moment of shame and public humiliation, Jesus stoops down into the dust and uses His holy hands to write something about a woman caught in adultery in front of her accusers. We aren’t told what He wrote in the sand, but certainly, it had to be words or images that brought clarity to the woman and the judgmental audience waiting to shame her. His finger surely wrote or drew something merciful. Something life-giving to the one who wanted life. His finger made the judgmental stand back. It brought mercy into a menacing moment. I’m always struck by these moments with Jesus as He seems unpredictable in how He will show mercy. Sometimes He simply verbalizes His grace with a call to repentance, while at other times an action follows. Here, God’s son, uses His soon-to-be crucified hands, as a conduit of grace to an outcast.

At other times, God used His finger to write the needed truth to Old Testament hearers in the wilderness, or a pagan King of a land called Babylon. One moment was found in Exodus with the writing of the 10 commandments on stone tablets. The other was found in Daniel in the palace ballroom where a message of justice was written on a wall to King Belshazzar. All these moments, full of mercy, truth, and justice, are part of God’s character. Those covenantal rules written on stone are truth and grace. He knew what His people needed. It was in His mercy that He set them apart and asked them to be different than the surrounding nations. Years later, on this pagan palace wall, the writing of His finger was a wake-up call reminder to what had already been spoken, The Most High is the Highest.

His character seems to be revealed to each of these people depending on the hearer’s heart. The adulterous woman was already aware of her need and was seeking connection, although in the wrong place. The Israelites, reeling from their slave mindset, needed to know what their new master wanted from them. They needed new boundaries for what being in a covenant relationship looked like. King Belshazzar of Babylon was hard-hearted, prideful, and blatantly disregarded God’s sovereignty. His heart wasn’t humble nor in a covenant with the Lord. His heart belonged to himself, his kingdom, and his power.

It’s important for me to remember that the same God who gave Belshazzar the finger of justice is the same God who bent down into the dust and brought mercy to an adulterous woman. The same God who wrote His covenantal expectations for His people is the same God who allowed His own hands and fingers to be nailed to the cross on my behalf ushering in a new covenant for all.

He is both truth and grace. He is both just and forgiving. Through these same fingers, all the events of my life are filtered by this involved, loving God who has promised to never leave me or allow me to undo what He has done and completed. On His hands contain the scars of my salvation.