If we want to see the face of God, all it takes is to look closely at the story of the woman caught in adultery (John, Chapter 8). The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees brought the woman to Jesus, thinking they were clearly in the right to condemn her. Yet, He bent down and began writing on the ground with his finger. They kept on questioning (read "bugging") Him, ignoring whatever He was writing in the dust. He straightened up and replied, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."
In my imagination, I see Him gesturing to what He had written on the ground when He spoke. We have a clue as to what that might have been in the 17th chapter of Jeremiah:
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind...
O Lord, those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water....
Do not be a terror to me; you are my refuge in the day of disaster. Let my persecutors be put to shame, but keep me from shame; let them be terrified, but keep me from terror. Bring on them the day of disaster; destroy them with a double destruction.
If her accusers did look at what was written in the dust, they may have been terrified. In any case, one by one, they slinked away, leaving only Jesus with the woman. He was the only one present who was qualified by His own measure to cast the first stone. And yet, having turned away her accusers, He now says to her, "Then neither do I accuse you."
We can only imagine her relief and gratitude, especially if we call to mind what happens today in Islamic countries to those who break Sharia law: They are stoned, thrown from high buildings, publicly flogged, and tortured. Jesus rescued this woman from certain death: "Neither do I condemn you!"
No one has ever seen God, but God the only Son, who is at the Father's side, has made Him known (Jn. 1:18). Neither do I condemn you....go and sin no more!
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