It is early in the morning. The fresh smell of the morning is still hanging sweetly in the air. As custom, the Man made His way into the Courtyard of the temple and instantly drew a crowd. With a smile, He sat down and began to teach.
It is early in the morning. The fresh smell of the morning is still hanging sweetly in the air. As custom, the Man made His way into the Courtyard of the temple and instantly drew a crowd. With a smile, He sat down and began to teach. In the distance a man in fine clothing sees Him and motions to his compatriots. A large group of finely dressed men pompously proceeds across the Courtyard pushing and prodding a woman, her clothes and hair disheveled, tears running down her face and her heart filled with fear. She has heard of this Man and the claims He made. She is also acutely aware of her situation. The men pushed their way through the crowd and then circled the Teacher, throwing the woman into the middle. With wicked intent the leader spoke, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.” The malice drips from his lips as their well - laid plan is revealed. “In the Law, Moses says that she must be stoned. What do you think we should do?” In that day, no one could hand down a death penalty except for the Romans who governed their conquered states. To do so would violate the Roman law and place one in the position of traitor and instantly condemned to death, especially as a non - citizen. Conversely, to not hand down the death penalty in this case would violate Jewish law and place the person in a position of defiance against God.
There is some debate as to whether or not this passage actually belongs in the Canon of John. Scholars say that it is not in some of the manuscripts and in others. Regardless, there is a truth that is found here which does not contradict the truth of the Scripture. The religious leaders of the day - the scribes and Pharisees – caught a woman in adultery. In truth, the penalty for such action was stoning. One noteworthy fact – the provision in Leviticus 20:10 and Deuteronomy 22:22 called for the stoning of both the man and the woman. Glaringly, the man caught in adultery is missing. Many preachers and scholars conjecture that the woman was set up and that the man was one of the leaders. He may have been standing there! Here then is the situation – the woman is set in the middle of self - righteous religious leaders who intend to trap the Man they hate with every ounce of their being. The crowd that had been listening to Jesus teach are now waiting for a verdict. Some are hoping for a stoning. Others are begging for mercy in their hearts, and others do not care. Everyone is surprised by the Teachers response. Instead of speaking, He bends down and begins to write in the dirt. It is not said what He wrote, but the fact that the Greek uses the word “grapho” indicates that He wrote something specific as opposed to mere scribbling. The thought is that Jesus began to list the sins of the men standing before Him, secret sins that only the men knew. You can almost imagine that as He wrote down the specific sins He looked at each man to let him know that the Teacher knew his heart. They disregarded the writing for a moment and persisted in asking Him. This time Jesus stood and said, “Whoever is without sin, throw the first stone.” It is only after he bent down again and continued writing that the men started to leave. Perhaps it was at this point that the Son of God began to write the names next to the sins. The effects were astounding. Starting with the eldest, the men one - by - one began to slip away as the shame in their own heart could not be contained. When it was finished, Jesus stood alone with the woman (even the crowd seems to have dispersed at this time). Jesus stood up and faced the woman. “Where are the ones who accused you? Has no one condemned you?” Now catch this. The woman said, “No one, Lord.” Wow! This woman knew she had been caught. She was terrified, but listen to those words of belief – “No one, Lord.” When the religious leaders addressed Jesus they called Him “Teacher.” When the condemned woman addressed Him she called Him “Lord.” When we are finally caught in our sins we truly recognize that we have no hope. There is only one that we can turn to – the Lord.
There are several lessons to learn from this passage. First, you cannot trap the Lord. So often we get wrapped up in our Pharisaical way of thinking. We think that we are better than everyone and beyond judgment. We are so quick to jump to conclusions and even quicker to pass judgment. The stones are in our hands, and we are ready to throw. We come to the Lord in our pious prayers and religiously plead with Him to give us wisdom, all the while already knowing what we will do. We only pray to God for the warm fuzzy to confirm the murderous intentions in our hearts. It would be interesting if we could place ourselves in the shoes of those men who stood in condemnation and then see the Lord Christ begin to write the secret sins of our hearts down in the dirt. Would you be convicted immediately or would you, like these men, persist in your plans?
Second, it is a lot more convenient to stand in judgment against someone else. When we run around looking at the sin in others, it saves us from having to look at the sin in our own heart. There is a time when we must stand in judgment against someone. But the prerequisite is that our own sin is cared for first. Matthew 7: 1 - 5 gives a clear warning about standing in judgment against someone else. More often than not we try to pick the speck out of our brother’s eye while there is a log sticking out of our own eye. The admonition in Matt. 7:5 is that you will be of more help to your brother when the log is out of your own eye. It is clear that these men had huge logs in their eyes, and it is clear that some of our religious leaders and many of us Christians today are operating with logs in our own eyes. It is time that we clean up our own lives before we attempt to help a brother or sister to clean up their lives.
Third, forgiveness is much better than condemnation. Jesus, as God, knew exactly what happened. Whether or not she had been set up by the religious leaders, she still had sinned. She did not know the intentions of the man with whom she had committed adultery. Still, she was not faultless. We have a tendency to feel sorry for her because she was used. The fact remains – she sinned. Here she stood before the God of the universe with her wounded heart bare before Him. She knew or felt that this Man was the only One who could respond to the statement, “The one who is without sin, throw the first stone.” Jesus alone could have rightly carried out the sentence of death. She probably stood trembling, afraid to move. She could have run away. No one was there to hold her there. Yet, she stood there watching and waiting. Her heart must have pounded as the Son of God straightened. You can almost hear the trembling in her voice and see the tears begin anew as she responded. “No one, Lord.” Some might say that she called Him “Lord” to appeal to His ego. Jesus knew the heart. He knew what she meant when she called Him “Lord.” It never will cease to amaze this author to see the power in Jesus’s words. “Neither do I condemn you,” He started. The only One who could have picked up a stone and killed her forgave her completely. Every time when Jesus forgave of sin, it was based on their belief in Him as God and Savior. This woman apparently believed the claims that she had heard. Perhaps it was at the moment when she came before Him as her accusers circled her that she realized who this Man was. Perhaps it was the way He acted that transformed her heart from that moment. Perhaps it was as she watched Him write the words in the dirt that she finally realized that this was the Lord God, the Messiah. Whenever that moment happened she responded. She called Him, Lord – not Teacher. She placed her trust in Him to save her from that awful moment when sin condemned with bloodthirsty intent. But God, who is rich in mercy and grace forgave her. He stood right there in front of her and completely forgave her. Perhaps God smiled as He spoke to her. In an instant He washed her heart clean, but He did not end there. He admonished her. “From this moment on, sin no more.” Does this mean that she would no longer sin for the rest of her life? No, but the possibility to live a sinless life had now been instilled in her. From that moment on she would strive to live a clean life. She had the Law and the Prophets. She may have remembered all the words that God had spoken when He was in the city the times before. She would probably be there every time He came to town.
So often we forget the necessity of our devotion to the One who saved us from certain spiritual death. The Bible does not tell us what happened to the woman, but imagine the response of one who has been delivered from certain death. It can be conjectured that she was devoted to Him from that day on. She may have gone out and told her husband and won his heart to the Master. The things that the forgiven heart can do are only limited by its response to the accusers. Some would have us wallow in our sins, so that they can appear superior to the sinner. The Accuser would have our sins ever present in our faces, so that we are rendered ineffective. Praise God for His great grace and rich mercy! Without them, the Accuser would win.
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) . . .” Ephesians 2:4-5, NASB.
