Wanting To Be Wanted - Healing for the Places That Still Ache

“Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, ‘Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?’ ‘No, Lord,’ she said. And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I. Go and sin no more.’” (John 8:10-11, NLT)

“God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” (Ephesians 2:8-9, NLT)

“He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.” (Psalm 103:12, NLT)

Many of us have had life experiences that left us feeling rejected, abandoned, and unwanted. Those feelings led us to walk down roads trying to be chosen, loved, and wanted. And some of our choices on those roads found us feeling less loved and less wanted.

The woman in John 8 was there too. She was caught in adultery, dragged before Jesus by some judgy haters, and humiliated in front of everyone. Her desire to be wanted led her down a road that left her less wanted than ever before. With men holding up stones, ready to pummel her for her sin, demanding Jesus give them permission, this woman must have wondered if He would be like them.

Jesus didn’t respond like the stone-casters. He challenged them to throw a stone if they had never walked down a road they were ashamed of. Each one left, the older first. And we are not surprised because we all know we are capable of crafting our own stories of sin and shame.

They were left alone, just her and Jesus. He said, “Neither do I condemn you.” Her past, her sin, her mess didn’t disqualify her from His love. She was so loved, in fact, that He was willing to take on the punishment so she wouldn’t have to. In verse 59 we see that later, many tried to stone Jesus, and Jesus knew this would happen.

This is the crazy love of Jesus: He meets us in our least lovable, least chosen moments, even if it means He ends up carrying our pain. He collides with us in the places we feel the most broken and shows us that His love isn’t dependent on our track record. He loves us no matter what roads we have walked. And His love is so great that He also can’t bear to keep watching us walk down roads that continue to make us feel more unloved and more unworthy.

So He said to this woman, “Go, and sin no more” because He believed she had it in her to live differently. When we grasp we are already loved, chosen, worthy, and wanted, we can walk differently. We can stop trying to steal love from others, stop numbing the pain with things that cause more of it, stop going out in search of worth only to create way too many tales of unworthiness. Once we collide with Jesus and see that He wants more for our lives than His own, we see differently, feel differently, live differently.

Reflection:

• Where in your life do you feel unworthy or unwanted?
• What strikes you about Jesus’ response to the woman in John 8?
• If you began to truly believe Jesus wants you more than He wants His own life, what might that change for you?

Prayer:

Jesus, thank You for meeting me on this road and showing me with Your life and Your death that I am already loved, chosen, worthy, and wanted. Help me live out of this truth and extend the same love to others right where they are. Amen.