A favorite opportunity for preacher speculation is the time Jesus wrote on the ground: An angry mob brings him a woman caught in adultery, wanting to stone her, because the Moses says so. They ask Jesus for his opinion because they want to catch him in a religious dispute.
Instead of engaging directly Jesus writes something on the ground, says “Let any of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at here,” and then writes on the ground again. To which the mob’s response is to walk away one at a time.
So what did Jesus actually write on the ground? The names of each person in the mob? Their individual sins? Jeremiah 17:13, followed by their names and sins? The word “forgiven”? Each guy’s honey-do list? (“You boys have a lot more productive things you could be doing right now!”)
I suppose that’s a good question. And I for one enjoy all the imaginative theories. But here’s my question: Why didn’t John tell us what Jesus wrote? Of all the details that his Gospel includes, why did he make the conscious decision to leave that out? To that question, I think John’s response is obvious:
“Nunya. Nunya business.”
Which is maybe the point of the whole situation.
