What Did You Write on the Ground, Jesus?--Dec. 30, 2016

Lord Jesus, when they wanted to throw stones,

you bent down and wrote on the ground.

We wonder what you wrote there.

Was it what you had seen, or what was,

or what was about to take place--

your taunting by your foes?

Or was it that we should wait for you,

should be glad and wait with joy,

rejoicing in your salvation?

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 93; 148; 89:1-18; 89:19-52

Isa. 25:1-9

Rev. 1:19-20

John 7:53-8:11

Selected Verses

Ps. 89:50-51

Remember, O Lord, how your servant is taunted;
          how I bear in my bosom the insults of the peoples,
with which your enemies taunt, O LORD,
          with which they taunted the footsteps of your anointed.

Isa. 25:9

It will be said on that day,
          Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.
          This is the LORD for whom we have waited;
          let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

Rev. 1:19

Now write what you have seen, what is, and what is to take place after this. 

John 8:7-8

When they kept on questioning him, [Jesus] straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”  And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground.