The scribes and Pharisees approach Jesus and presented Him with the dilemma of the adulterous woman. The woman is undoubtedly guilty of adultery, and according to the Law of Moses she should be punished by death. But this cannot be done, since the Roman overlords have stripped Jewish leaders of the power to execute a criminal. What is to be done?Jesus recognizes immediately that it is a set-up. He knows that if he pronounces the sentence of death on the woman, he is flouting Roman law. If he lets her off, he is flouting the Law of Moses. What is he to do?
Instead of answering, Jesus does something unexpected. He bends down and writes with his finger on the stone paving of the courtyard. What is he writing? Nobody knows. There have been many erudite theories on the subject, many clever suggestions, but no real answer.
But the questioners are not to be put off. They keep on demanding an answer, until Jesus straightens up and faces them. Then he says the direct, devastating words that have shaped so much of Christian thinking:
'Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone.'
Then he bends down again and resumes tracing with his finger on the ground.
The authority of his words and presence obviously affects them. They are silenced at last. One by one, beginning with the most respected man among them, they melt away into the gathering crowd. Eventually, Jesus is left alone with the woman still standing in front of him. He straightens up again, and speaks to her. 'Where are your accusers?' he asks. 'Has no-one seen fit to condemn you?' She simply answers 'No-one, sir.'
'Then I do not condemn you either' says Jesus. 'Go on your way, and do not sin anymore.'
Jesus does not condone what she had done, or dismiss her sin as unimportant, or understandable. He knows, and she does too, that what she has done is wrong. But he condemns the sin, not the sinner, and commands her not to sin again. The woman is called to change, but the message is aimed directly at each one of us.
The point of this story was not condemning the sinner, but calling the sinner to change, to be saved. Jesus wished each person there in the Temple courtyard that morning to see that they themselves were sinners, and that their chief responsibility was to mend their own ways.
Pointing the finger at others has always been a comfortable way of shifting the blame from ourselves. In recent years many Christians have taken to registering shock at social injustice in faraway places. They point to a tyrant in a foreign country or a rich man's greed and thank God they are not like that, ignoring tyranny in their own workplace or family, or their own runaway materialism. This story urges them to examine their own lives and ask how they themselves can be better people.
The message is aimed directly at each one of us.
John 8:3
Instead of answering, Jesus does something unexpected. He bends down and writes with his finger on the stone paving of the courtyard. What is he writing? Nobody knows. There have been many erudite theories on the subject, many clever suggestions, but no real answer.
But the questioners are not to be put off. They keep on demanding an answer, until Jesus straightens up and faces them. Then he says the direct, devastating words that have shaped so much of Christian thinking:
'Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone.'
Then he bends down again and resumes tracing with his finger on the ground.
The authority of his words and presence obviously affects them. They are silenced at last. One by one, beginning with the most respected man among them, they melt away into the gathering crowd. Eventually, Jesus is left alone with the woman still standing in front of him. He straightens up again, and speaks to her. 'Where are your accusers?' he asks. 'Has no-one seen fit to condemn you?' She simply answers 'No-one, sir.'
'Then I do not condemn you either' says Jesus. 'Go on your way, and do not sin anymore.'
Jesus does not condone what she had done, or dismiss her sin as unimportant, or understandable. He knows, and she does too, that what she has done is wrong. But he condemns the sin, not the sinner, and commands her not to sin again. The woman is called to change, but the message is aimed directly at each one of us.
The point of this story was not condemning the sinner, but calling the sinner to change, to be saved. Jesus wished each person there in the Temple courtyard that morning to see that they themselves were sinners, and that their chief responsibility was to mend their own ways.
Pointing the finger at others has always been a comfortable way of shifting the blame from ourselves. In recent years many Christians have taken to registering shock at social injustice in faraway places. They point to a tyrant in a foreign country or a rich man's greed and thank God they are not like that, ignoring tyranny in their own workplace or family, or their own runaway materialism. This story urges them to examine their own lives and ask how they themselves can be better people.
The message is aimed directly at each one of us.
John 8:3
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