We as Americans have become quite adept at casting the first stone and finding faults in others when at the same we ignore the faults in ourselves.  We have forgotten the words of Jesus, which state quite clearly that “he that is without fault let him cast the first stone”.     If someone makes a mistake we are quick to pounce like hungry lions on the prowl for a fresh kill.   Nowhere is this more evident then in Hollywood.  A visit to your local supermarket or newsstand will turn up numerous magazines that deal in the failures of the stars.

A divorce or separation in Hollywood is grounds for the lions and vultures of gossip magazines and TV shows to swarm in with cameras and opinions about why it didn’t last.  Let an actor or actress do something wrong and every supermarket tabloid blasts front-page headlines in 3-inch letters trumpeting the failure of the stars.   I can picture some of those headlines now “ Another Star Fails Again” or “I Knew They Would Never Last” “ “Goat gives birth to baby monkey” well maybe not that one, but you get the idea.   Why do we have such a fascination with failure in celebrities?

The answer might surprise you.   We love to find fault with celebrates because if those people we have put on a pedestal fail it gives us affirmation and a little bit of justification in our own lives.   We can look at them; cast a stone their way while we are saying shame on you for doing that, I am certainly glad I don’t do those things.  It gives us great pleasure to know that others are worse off than us.   It puffs us up.

The sad thing is that as Christians we are no better.  If a fellow brother or sister in Christ falls we pick up some stones and start to cast them their way all the time saying shame on you for doing that, I am certainly glad I don’t do those things.   Sound familiar?  If you In the Bible there is a story about how some men brought a prostitute to Jesus and asked Him what should be done with her? 

Now I don’t know about you but if I was that woman I would be pretty scared, because being caught in the act of adultery or prostitution meant that by law these men could cast stones, physical stones at me and I could be put to death for my crimes.  Though these men had other things in mind. They were not so much trying to put the woman to death as they were trying to cast stones of the verbal variety at Jesus in order to get Him to say something they could use against Him.  This way they could puff themselves up and find fault in Jesus and have some ammo

Jesus knew their hearts and turned the tables on them by uttering the words I started out with, “if any man in this group is without fault then let Him cast the first stone”.   The men stood there and examined their own hearts so all they could do was drop their stones, turn and walked away.    We need to do the same thing, before we start to cast stones at others we need to examine our own hearts and see if we are without fault.   If we are truthful with ourselves, then we will drop the stones we are ready to throw, as the men did and turn and walk away.

The moral of the story is that the next time you see someone make a mistake, be it a celebrity or fellow Christian, drop the stone you are ready to cast and pray for him or her.