Casting The First Stone

"Casting The First Stone" is a mini-story that is part of the EMPATH: The Luckiest Smurf story series.

The Story
Greedy called Empath into his kitchen to talk to him about something important. "I wouldn't smurf this up if it didn't concern your friend Tapper, but just this morning he had asked me if he could smurf up a basket of overripe tomatoes from the pantry," Greedy said. "I wasn't sure what he wanted with the tomatoes, but I just smurfed him what he wanted without asking a lot of questions."

"Hmmm, now that is a very strange request coming from Tapper," Empath said. "It doesn't seem like he would want them for making his drinks at the tavern for the other Smurfs to consume."

"I was smurfing the same thing myself, Empath," Greedy said. "Then I was wondering if Tapper was secretly mad at someone for smurfing him something terribly wrong, because it just doesn't seem like Tapper to behave like he would want to smurf revenge upon anyone."

"This smurf has known that Tapper wouldn't want to hurt anybody even if they pushed him to the limits of his patience, so this comes off as being a little too strange for him to end up doing with a bunch of tomatoes," Empath said. "In any case, this smurf will look into this matter and see what's going on with him."

"I only hope Tapper is all right, Empath," Greedy said. "I sure wouldn't want him to erupt with that fiery temper that the Ailill clan Smurfs are generally known for."

After Empath left the tavern, Sassette came running up to him. "Empath, come quick! I was smurfing Tapper out near the edge of the village smurfing tomatoes at a couple of scaresmurfs," she cried out.

"This smurf will accompany you, Sassette," Empath said, and so the both of them headed for the edge of the forest where they indeed saw Tapper playing target practice with the basket of tomatoes, throwing them at the Smurf dummies that were set up for him to throw at.

"What's wrong with Tapper, Empath?" Sassette asked as the both of them watched from a distance.

"This smurf senses that he is angry at something, but it's not any particular Smurf that he is angry at, Sassette," Empath said, speaking low so that Tapper wouldn't hear them.

"Is Tapper going to be all right, Empath?" Sassette asked, sounding concerned.

"This smurf thinks that we should leave him be as long as he is not harming anyone else, Sassette," Empath said. "This smurf will find out later what is making Tapper act out in such a manner that would require this type of action."

"Aw, poor Tapper," Sassette moaned as she and Empath both left the scene together. - Sometime later, Empath found Tapper whistling the Smurf song while he was sweeping around the outside of the tavern. "Greetings, my fellow Empath," he spoke as soon as he saw Empath. "What smurfs to be on your mind that you need to smurf to me about?"

"This smurf has spoken to both Greedy and Sassette about your use of overripe tomatoes to hurl at targets resembling Smurfs near the outskirts of the village today, Tapper," Empath said. "This smurf came by to ask what's going on with you that would require you to behave in such a manner."

"Oh, that," Tapper said with a heavy sigh. "Well, it shouldn't be a secret that sometimes I just burn in my spirit with such a righteous anger at how my fellow Smurfs are behaving that are contrary to the ways of the Almighty that I just need to smurf out my anger at something without hurting anybody else."

"This smurf can understand that you would need to vent out your feelings in a safe manner, Tapper," Empath said. "It's just that you seem too peaceful as a Smurf to even desire wanting to hurt your fellow Smurfs, even if they do act contrary to how your religion desires for all people to act."

"It's only fortunate that the Smurf way of living requires only smurfing tomatoes at others, and not rocks as the humans among the people of Israel would use to smurf at anybody who doesn't follow the commandments of the Almighty," Tapper said. "But nevertheless, the Almighty doesn't smurf kindly to anybody disobeying His commands, and in the Old Testament the punishment for smurfing against His commands was pretty severe, because the Almighty wanted His people Israel to be a holy people, separate from all the nations surrounding them."

"But why is it that you as a follower of the Almighty don't stone others when they do disobey the commands of the Almighty, even if they themselves are not followers of Him?" Empath asked.

"The command to stone those who would disobey is part of the Old Testament law which God had smurfed with His people Israel through the prophet Moses," Tapper said. "Jesus, who had come to fulfill every portion of that same law, had also come to smurf the New Testament in place, one where such severe punishment would be replaced with grace, love, and mercy. Those who claim to be His followers must now follow the commands that Jesus had smurfed unto them through the New Testament which He had smurfed into place with His own blood."

"But doesn't that seem like you're only picking and choosing which of the Almighty's commands to obey and which ones not to, Tapper?" Empath asked.

"Accusers of the Almighty's followers may claim that it's picking and choosing, but what Paul the apostle calls it is 'rightly dividing the Word of truth', Empath," Tapper said. "One must be a serious seeker of the Almighty to be able to discern which commands of the Almighty are for His followers through Jesus Christ and which ones are not. But if one has no interest in seeking after the Almighty, then the Words of the holy book mean absosmurfly nothing to him because his mind is already made up to believe that those same Words are just foolishness, and for those people they are headed on the path of destruction."

"So what about Jesus? Did He also fulfill the part of the law where those who disobey the commands of the Almighty must be stoned?" Empath asked.

"Jesus is the One who through the Almighty smurfed the same laws into place, and thus also has authority over them, just as He had authority over the Sabbath, Empath," Tapper said. "One time during His ministry, the chief priests had smurfed before Him a woman that they claimed was caught in adultery, and said that anyone who was caught in adultery by law must be smurfed to death. They were waiting for Him to say something so that they could accuse Him of being either against the Law or against His own teachings, but He merely said, 'If anyone of you is without sin, let him be the first to cast a stone at her.' And so, each of the priests smurfed away as they were smurfed by their own consciousness until only the woman was standing alone with Jesus. When He asked her, 'Where are your accusers? Has anyone condemned you?', she answered, 'No one, Lord', and He said, 'Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.'"

"So not even Jesus smurfed a stone at her, despite the fact that He alone in that situation is truly the only Person without any sin," Empath said, figuring it out for himself.

"This command wasn't just given to the high priests in that situation, Empath...it was given to all of us so that we may smurf for ourselves that we cannot act as judges of other people's sin if we also have sin inside of us," Tapper said. "And even though we may be new creations in Christ, that still doesn't excuse us from smurfing the words of Jesus to heart, because we continue to smurf through the world daily with the desires of the flesh still tempting us, even the desire to right the wrongs through the use of violence."

"You certainly have a challenging walk ahead of you when it comes to following what your religion tells you to do, Tapper...not just from the world, but also from interpreting the commands of the Almighty correctly," Empath said.

"Indeed it is very challenging, for the Lord said himself is narrow is the door and difficult is the road that smurfs to life, and there are few who will find it," Tapper said. "But if you truly desire to smurf after the Almighty, then He will help you to overcome whatever obstacles smurf in your way, both from without and from within."