HOW WOULD JESUS TALK TO A WOMAN

WHO HAS HAD AN ABORTION? “THEN NEITHER DO I CONDEMN YOU. GO NOW AND LEAVE

YOUR LIFE OF SIN.”

Dr. Ed Manring

Southern Gables Church

July 8, 2007

I am speaking this morning about a subject which is near to my heart—the anguish and pain that comes from women who have suffered from, participated in, and been pushed into decisions and actions that are basically life-destructive. Guilt like that from abortion is a terrible thing to live with.

I want you all to recognize that there is an implicit message in the very title of the summer sermon series. These sermons are about “How would Jesus talk to a ____________.” And the blank includes such things as addict, Muslim, religious person, homosexual, and a woman who has had an abortion—the subject we will address this morning. The implicit meaning in the titles of the sermons, of course, is that Jesus would have talked to all these different kinds of people. He was not silent; and we, as His followers, must not be silent, either. He said in Matthew 12:37,

“For by your words you will be acquitted and by your words you will be condemned.”

Now we know that our salvation does not depend upon our words—it depends upon our heart condition as the means of our salvation. And our heart condition must be one of faith, for salvation is by grace through faith. In this short passage, Jesus is not specifying a different means of salvation in addressing our words; but He is saying that our words are so inextricably bound to the condition of our hearts, that the faith of our hearts and the words of our mouths are nearly synonymous. Jesus talked to sinners, and so must we, if we are to be his disciples. It is not enough to be a closet Christian, as so many in society would have us to be. The wide spread belief that religion is such a personal thing that we must not burden others with it, is not the teaching of Christ. This belief that we must not tell others about the saving work of Christ on the cross is rooted in unbelief. If these “non-speaking Christians” of our society really believed the Christ they claim to believe in, they would not be non-speakers. True faith in Christ wants to tell the world about Him. And it is not enough just to live a “good Christian life;” one must use words! It is impossible to tell a good Muslim, Jew, or Hindu from a good Christian without words—the outward actions of all religions seem to resemble one another most of the time. Words are necessary in order for people to know the Christ that stands behind the good behavior.

This morning we are called to think of how Jesus would talk to a woman who has had an abortion. I would expect that very few of you would ever find yourself in an open conversation with a woman who has had an abortion concerning that abortion; the reason for this is that women who have had an abortion don’t usually like to talk to other people about it. But I am absolutely certain that the large majority of you have unknowingly talked to women after their abortion about other things. Abortion is very common in our society; even many Christian women have had an abortion.

In America, there are about 250 abortions for every 1000 live births every year.[1] That means that about one in every five pregnancies ends in abortion in America.

In the year 2000, 21 out of every 1,000 women of reproductive age had an abortion, and this statistic happens every year. We can conclude from that statistic, then, that at the end of five years, 10% of women in the reproductive age group, i.e., 15-45 years old, will have an abortion. Women who are aged 18-29, unmarried, black or Hispanic, or economically disadvantaged—including those on Medicaid—have the highest abortion rates (in other words, the poor). However, the overall abortion rate decreased by 11% between 1994 and 2000. But Americans still abort about 1.3 million babies every year. The decline in abortion rate was greatest for 15-17 year-olds, women in the highest income category, those with college degrees and (interestingly) those with no religious affiliation (which may mean that even non-religious women are getting the message that abortion is not a very good idea). In contrast, however, the abortion rate increased for women with incomes below 200% of the poverty level and for women with Medicaid coverage between 1994 and 2000 (again, we are talking about the poor).

WHO HAS ABORTIONS?

Protestant	43%
Catholic	27%
Another religion	8%
No religious affiliation	22%
Born again Christians	13%

The majority of women older than 17 who obtained an abortion reported a religious affiliation. The highest proportion (43%) identified themselves as Protestant. Twenty-seven percent of women having an abortion identified themselves as Catholic, and 8% as a member of another religion; 22% reported no religious affiliation. Thirteen percent identified themselves as "born-again" or evangelical, three-fourths of whom were Protestant. The rate of decline in abortion among black and Hispanic adolescents was lower than that among white adolescents, and the abortion rate among poor teenagers increased substantially.[2] In other words it is the more affluent women who are decreasing their number of abortions and poorer women who are increasing their rate of abortion.

Let’s look for a moment at the attitudes of Americans and especially of Evangelicals toward abortion: According to a Barna Research Group survey of the American people, and especially of the evangelical Christians in our society in 2001, interviewing 1003 persons on the telephone, the following findings were discovered:

ATTITUDE OF ALL AMERICANS, IN GENERAL

Abortion is morally acceptable.	36%
Abortion should be legal in all or almost all circumstances.	41%

ATTITUDE OF BORN-AGAIN EVANGELICALS

Abortion is morally acceptable.	19%
Abortion should be legal in all or almost all circumstances.	23%

1) Of all adults in America, 36% thought that abortion is morally acceptable, and 41% thought abortion should be legal in all or almost all circumstances.

2) Of born again evangelicals, 19% thought abortion is morally acceptable, and 23% thought abortion should be legal in all or almost all circumstances.

Since attitudes like these exist in our society, we should all develop within our thinking the proper attitude toward this subject. This is one reason I think the subject for this morning is appropriate. Before we can outline a practical approach to the woman who has had an abortion, we must first understand the psychology that a woman uses in her choice to have an abortion. I think that by understanding her and her feelings, we can also understand what it is that drives this forceful social movement. And forceful, it is; abortion has gone from an abhorrent and unthinkable thing in the minds of society in general, a position society held in consensus, if not in complete practice for thousands of years of human history to a position of normality and public acceptance since the Roe v. Wade and the Doe v. Bolton Supreme Court decisions of 1973. Since those decisions, abortion has been lawful and even socially acceptable right up to the day of birth all over the United States.

And socially acceptable though it is, abortion still causes a tug at the conscience of women entering abortion clinics. Abortion has also caused an absolute uproar in the Christian and pro-family community of North America because we Christians recognize the life-affirming qualities of our Bible and of our Christian teaching. “Thou shalt not kill,” and other related verses ring in our memory, telling us that there is something terribly wrong with this activity.

So, what is it that allows our people to embrace this practice of abortion and to live with it in such an apparent state of acceptance?

For 34 years, the Pro-Life movement has stood up to defend perhaps the most crucial principle of any civilized society, namely, the sanctity and value of every human life. And yet, even with our morally correct value system and all the energy we have expended on protecting human life, there still remain people who claim to believe in the true value of life and who, at the same time, act and vote to keep abortion legal and available. Why this contradiction in the public psyche and in the minds of many well-meaning people? Those of us who would work to preserve human life and teach people how to live righteously are puzzled at this bifurcation between moral belief and public policy that we see every day. Pro-Lifers find it morally obvious that one cannot with logical integrity simultaneously hold that “abortion is killing” and “abortion should be legal and I am going to have one done.” Pro-Lifers and others in the Pro-Life camp have assumed that if the humanity of the unborn is understood, the consequent moral imperative, “killing a baby is wrong,” will naturally follow, and women will choose life for their unborn children. This strategy has had abysmal results in changing the decisions of pro-choice women and their supporters. Emphasizing the death-dealing nature of abortion to their unborn babies has not affected the behavior of young women very much.

The morally correct Pro-Life message is not being received well by women facing the trauma of unplanned pregnancy; and they don’t respond to the principles we see as self-evident within our own moral framework. The question we must all ask is “Why?”

The answer lies in the fact that there are only three alternatives for a woman with an unplanned, embarrassing, and problematic pregnancy: keep the baby and parent it, make an adoption plan for the baby, and abortion. None of these options is good in the mind of the pregnant, unmarried, woman. All have pain attached. Interestingly, the least of these three evils seems to be abortion to most pro-choice women. And the worst of the three options is usually considered to be adoption. Let’s look at the reasons behind this kind of mindset.

When these women evaluate the abortion decision, they do not, as Pro-Lifer might, assume one of two options:

1) I must endure an embarrassing pregnancy or…

2) I must destroy the life of an innocent child.

Rather, these women perceive their two choices this way:

1) My life is over or…

2) The life of this new child is over.

These women look at their pregnancies as symbols of their own deaths! To them the pregnancy means the end of their hopes for an education, a career, a husband, a home, and whatever other hopes they have. In other words, they might as well be dead as to carry their pregnancy to the end and have the baby. Given this perspective, the choice of abortion becomes one of self-preservation, a much more defensible position, both for the woman and for the ones supporting her decision. Pro-choice women see this choice as between murder and suicide. Abortion even comes to seem like a noble decision.

Most of these pro-choice women see abortion as a way of erasing the pregnancy, altogether, i.e., a way to change and eliminate the situation once and for all. Therefore, they see abortion as the most favorable disposition of their problem.

There are those who make a decision to choose life for their baby rather than abortion. However, they do not do so because they have a better understanding of unborn baby development or a greater love for children, but because they have a broader and less fragile sense of self, and they can better incorporate motherhood into their self-identity. Many of these women choose to parent their child.

Adoption, unfortunately, is seen as the most “evil” of the three options, as it is perceived as a kind of double death. First, the death of self, as the woman would have to accept motherhood by carrying the baby to term. Further, not only would the woman be a mother, but also she would perceive herself as a bad mother, one who gave her own child away to strangers. The second death is the death of the child “through abandonment.” A woman worries about the chance of her child being abused. She is further haunted by the uncertainty of the child’s future, and about the possibility of the child returning to intrude on her own life many years later. Basically, a woman desperately wants a sense of resolution to her crisis, and in her mind adoption leaves the situation the most unresolved, with uncertainty and guilt as far as she can see for both herself and her child. As much as we might like to see the slogan “Adoption Not Abortion” embraced by women, pitting abortion against adoption, adoption will be the hands-down loser in the minds of most women in this distress.

Now we must try to see how Jesus would really talk to a woman who has had an abortion, and in order to do that, I would like to remind you of what God’s heart attitude toward sin is. That heart response to sin is well expressed in Ps 103:8-14:

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.

He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever;

He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Ps. 103:8-14

Thus, we can see from this passage that God really wants to forgive us of our sins. There can be no doubt about this point. He went to the trouble and the distress even to send His Son to us as an atoning sacrifice. GOD WANTS TO FORGIVE US!!

We have no direct reference in the Gospels of Jesus ever confronting the practice of abortion; but this story of the woman caught in the very act of adultery comes as near as we can come to seeing His direct response to something similar in the society of ancient Israel. In fact, adultery is often the precursor to abortion. This story is in the eighth chapter of the book of John: (Let’s all stand for this reading in honor of God’s word.)

John 8:2-11

At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

(At this point, I wish to break into the narrative to ask each of you to put yourselves into the shoes of this guilty, frightened, and despairing woman. Look into the sharp and piercing eyes of Jesus that saw directly into the heart of her sinful character. See there the all-knowing and yet understanding expression in His eyes. Observe the mercy and love there and at the same time the sorrow He felt as He observed all of her sin. Listen to His final words.)

“Then neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.”

In the story we have just read, we can see that Jesus recognized the sin in this woman. We can see that He also recognized the just requirements of the Law. We can see that he saw the sin in the characters of her accusers. We can see that He took cognizance of the tendency of the accusers to point the self-righteous finger of condemnation at her. We can see that He took into account the despair and the need for mercy in the heart of this woman. We can see that He took pity on her and felt sorrow at her obvious sin. In view of all that, we can see that our Lord chose to forgive this woman and admonish her to quit her life of infidelity and adulterous sin. THIS is an example of mercy, unbounded!

Now, having pointed out God’s overwhelming mercy in the face of obvious sin, I must point out that there is another side to the coin:

Most women accepting abortion will admit that abortion is killing, but they see God as ultimately a forgiving God who will accept them after the abortion. Some of them plan to repent of their decision and flee to God for forgiveness. But before a woman assumes “automatic” forgiveness on the part of God, she should certainly consider His attitude toward sin as documented in Numbers 15:30:

But anyone who sins defiantly, whether native-born or alien, blasphemes the Lord, and that person must be cut off from his people. Because he has despised the Lord’s word and broken his commands, that person must surely be cut off; his guilt remains on him. Numbers 15:30

This verse describes what happens to the person who shakes his fist in the face of God and says, “I know this thing that I am planning to do is against your will. I know that you don’t approve of it. I know that it is inherently bad. But I am going to do it, anyway. In this thing I am going to have my way. I am sovereign over my own personal behavior and what I am going to do is my very own business. In this thing, God, it is I who am going to be in charge!” Talking like that is what it means to sin defiantly. Presuming on God’s promised forgiveness by plotting to disobey His admonitions seems dangerous, to me. I think one should be very, very, careful when contemplating outright, arrogant, informed, premeditated sin. Our God is no fool; and His wrath is indeed real. There is a Judgment Day coming, and I, for one, would not like to stand there before the judgment throne of God with a sin like abortion on my record. We must remember that God will not be pushed around by willful sinners. This kind of sin is referred to in the margin of the King James Bible as “The sin of the high hand.” It is interesting that after this admonition in the Old Testament, there is no sacrifice specified for its atonement as there is for other sins listed in the same section. It seems like a variety of the “unforgivable sin” from the Old Testament. In view of just common sense in dealing with God, and in view of this passage in Numbers, if there is anyone here who is contemplating an abortion and planning to presume on God’s loving and forgiving nature—I would recommend against doing it. Even Jesus would not presume on God’s goodness and forgiveness when He was tempted in the wilderness. He said, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord, thy God.” Premeditated, informed, arrogant, “I’m-going-to-do-it-my-way-despite-whatever-God-thinks- about-it” attitude is simply inviting God’s wrath and disaster on one’s self.

And, yet, despite what the Bible says about defiant sin, this is exactly the kind of sin that is decided on by people who opt for abortion. But before we begin to point the accusing finger of guilt at a woman who has had an abortion, I would like to express my opinion that the guilt for this sad event should not be borne by the woman, alone. The guilt for abortion decisions belongs to the woman, herself, the man who facilitated the abortion for her or who even initiated the idea of having an abortion, the abortionist who did the abortion for the money involved, and for society, as a whole that condones abortions. The unfortunate woman involved should certainly not bear the guilt for this procedure, all alone. Now, having said that, I must tell you that the final arbiter in the abortion decision, however, is the woman, herself. In this society, a woman’s choice is so strongly advocated and even adjudicated, that there can be no other conclusion than that the woman, herself, must make the final decision. The decision is hers, and it is she who must live with the results of that decision. She is the captain of the ship; and the final responsibility for the abortion decision is hers, alone. This is particularly sad, because many women seeking an abortion are so young and inexperienced that they can hardly be considered able to make such a horrendous decision—some of them are hardly more than children, themselves.

I mentioned above that the first reason I think we are discussing an important question this morning is that the problem is so very common. However, there is a second reason why I think this subject is appropriate. I would like to present some thoughts on how Jesus responds to sins in general. We, as Christians, are called on to be like Jesus; so it is necessary for us to look at the ways in which He dealt with sinners so that we can deal with sinners in a Christ-like way. It seems that Jesus dealt with sinners in different ways depending on the character of their hearts. To the prideful, self-reliant, and arrogant, He sometimes responded with wrath. Remember how He talked to the Pharisees and Sadducees: In Matthew 23, He pronounced seven woes on the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees. He called them snakes, a brood of vipers, blind guides, full of dead men’s bones, and whitewashed tombs. He spared no harsh language on them. At another time, he overturned the tables in the temple where commerce was going on in the religious place of God. In dealing with sin, Jesus was neither compromising nor politically correct. He dealt with it in no uncertain terms. On the other hand, when the sinner was repentant, humble, and with a contrite heart, we see Jesus dealing with sin in kind but in no less certain terms. We may think of the woman at the well, Legion (the demon-possessed man among the tombs), or Zacchaeus up in the sycamore tree; but today we have the illustration of the woman caught in the act of adultery, and as I said, that case came the nearest to the situation which is the subject of today’s sermon. It is apparent that Jesus considered the heart of the sinner when He meted out His righteous reaction.

Oh, yes, adultery and like it abortion is wrong; it is a heinous sin. Somehow, it seems to be a greater sin than many others, and there is a hierarchy of sins. Jesus, Himself, pointed out that some sins are greater than others when He told Pilate that the sin of the Pharisees was greater than the sin of Pilate, himself. And we Christians have a tendency to place sexual sins at a higher level of significance than other sins—probably because these sins erode the very inner most parts of the character. They lead to other very serious sins, e.g., untrustworthiness, deceit, lying, cheating, divorce, child abuse and neglect, etc., etc. Sexual sins bring hell into the lives of many people.

I have said that Jesus had a good understanding of the just requirements of the law. When He interpreted the Law, He brought out the larger meaning of it and presented it in such a way that it touched the human heart and brought conviction of sin right into the very life of the true listener. Among other things, He brought a new revelation to His followers concerning the subject of adultery. He had said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” The charge of adultery was being brought against the woman in the story. But Jesus was pointing out in the story that the adultery being highlighted was not only in the behavior of this woman; it was residing in the hearts of her accusers. Jesus also had pointed out in His sermon on the Law that anyone who has been angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. I ask a rhetorical question: Is there any here who does not qualify as an adulterer or a murderer? So, now…fellow adulterers and murderers, let’s go on to the rest of this discourse.

I would expect that the large majority of the people in Southern Gables Church have never committed adultery in the way this woman did; but I am also very sure that every one of us has committed adultery in the sense that Jesus pointed out here. So…who is the more guilty party?

I know that probably there are, this morning, people in this congregation who have had an abortion. There are probably people here who have paid for an abortion. There are likely people here who have encouraged someone to have an abortion. And I am absolutely certain that there are those present today who have failed to speak out in objection to the sin of abortion that is pervading our whole society. Some of us are guilty of not doing anything about abortions when we knew full well that something should be said or done about this particular sin. Abortion is not just a sin of commission; it is sometimes a sin of omission. The guilt of abortion goes even further than the people involved. This is a sin of our society in general.

So…who is guilty here? The fact is that we are all guilty! (Just as Jesus said.) I don’t want anyone here to feel that I am aiming this sermon at her or him. We are here to learn how Jesus would approach each of us in our sin and guilt and how we can each approach in a constructive and Christ-like way the specific problems faced by post-abortive women. With a repentant sinner, we had best be like Jesus, full of mercy and forgiveness; but with unrepentant society, we need to be honest and frank about the punishment for abortion and murders of any other kind. Some suggestions of how you can address abortion and other sins of society, which fly in the face of Christian principles, are included in your bulletin this morning. Please read them at your leisure.

Our God is forgiving. Of course, He will accept people who sin and who return to Him with repentance and faith. And of course, abortion is not an unforgivable sin. God is love; and He really wants to forgive us for our transgressions. The kind of thinking that seems challenge the Lord was a thing that Jesus, Himself refused to do. We should not do it, either. But…we need to remember always that our God is forgiving and merciful.

Thanks are to God; there is some truth to what the pro-choice woman is thinking about God’s forgiveness. Our God is, indeed, the forgiving God who does forgive sins, even bad ones. We have a mighty assurance of God’s goodness in the future. He says in Hebrews 8:10-12,

“I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins NO MORE.”

Heb 8:10-12

I am hoping that this sermon will be useful to those who would talk to a woman who has had an abortion, someone who has paid for an abortion, one who has recommended abortion to a woman, or even to anyone who has done abortions. But as I suggested above, the subject here is much larger than just abortions. We must learn how Jesus would talk to a woman who has had an abortion; and we should learn something of the Christian response to sins, in general. This latter goal includes learning how to talk to someone else who has sinned. How should we talk to them? What would Jesus say? The art of handling the Scriptures in this matter is to know how to hate and condemn the sin, e.g., abortion, and at the same time how to be kind and helpful to the sinner, e.g., the woman who has opted to have this procedure done. Let’s always remember that how Jesus talked to sinners had a great deal to do with how their hearts were set even before He began to talk to them. To the arrogant, He talked harshly and with judgment in His voice. To the meek and humble, He talked with mercy, love, and forgiveness. I wonder…how are our hearts before Him, today?

What are we doing about that sin “out there?” But first…what are we doing about that sin “in here?” Remember, we must first take the plank out of our own eye; and then we can work on that speck in our neighbor’s eye. But let’s not get so introspective about the sin in our own life that we fail to act on the sin in the public’s life and even the sin in the life of our best friend. Sin must be dealt with; and this dealing with sin is our own responsibility. We are not here to ignore it; and we are not here to cover it up with platitudes. We must deal with sin in a real, practical, way. I encourage and challenge each of us to speak up about sin and to do it in a loving, but still realistic way. Someone with a repentant heart needs to be lead to repentance; but hard hearts like most of those in society in general need to know how wrong they are and need to be told firmly in some of the ways suggested in the bulletin. Let’s talk about sin the way Jesus would talk to a woman who has had an abortion.

I am hoping that we will all learn to live on a higher plane concerning this thing called “sin.” Let’s sing together a hymn that calls us to that higher plane.

Finish with song, Higher Ground.

[2] Guttmacher Institute. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health
Volume 34, Number 5, September/October 2002 Rachel K. Jones, Jacqueline E. Darroch and Stanley K. Henshaw