Caught!

John 8: 1 Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, ² but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. ³ As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. ⁴ “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵ The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?” ⁶ They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. ⁷ They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” ⁸ Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.

⁹ When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. ¹⁰ Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” ¹¹ “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

This woman caught in adultery was being condemned by the Pharisees, and they wanted to see if Jesus would go along with them and condemn her as well. Jesus is always very good at bringing all our human way of looking at sin back to point zero. At point zero, we see what Paul said in Romans 3:23 come even more to life in the above verses. Romans 3:23 All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Here is some of the points in the above scriptures. Condemned sinners (Pharisees, i.e., ie religious leaders) brought a woman caught in the act of sinning, and they wanted Jesus to go along with their condemnation. Not a good start if you want to try to disprove that Jesus was who He said He was. The Pharisees thought they might see Jesus react to this adulterous woman like they did, since they were "religious" leaders. Jesus did not reply and stooped down and wrote something in the dust with His finger. This was their chance to get Jesus trapped and discredited, and they wanted His reasoning for the woman's offense.

The next move Jesus made was something I had missed when reading this before. Jesus replied by saying, All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!”

Jesus then stoops and writes in the dust again, and when her accusers heard what Jesus said, scripture said they slipped away one by one. The slipped away in the following order: the oldest and on down until none were left but Jesus and the woman. Isn't this how judgmental people do? They like to throw judgment, but when their sin is brought before their eyes (and there are plenty of sin examples), their desire to accuse and judge pales in comparison to the grace of a loving Savior. Some theologians have tried to guess at what Jesus wrote in the dust according to the events taking place. I am more impressed that He stooped to write two times in the dust, giving importance to the act of stooping and writing.

Paul writes these words to the church in Rome in Romans 8:1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. ² And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. ³ The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. ⁴ He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.

To recap: we are all sinners, and there is no condemnation from God, so where does this condemnation come from per the above example of the woman caughtin adultery? The condemnation for her was being brought to light by other sinners, and that was supposed to cancel out the grace of God to prove a point? The closing part of this whole thing is brought to light when the woman realizes the forgiveness given by Jesus, and the fruit of that forgiveness is complete when Jesus says, "Go and sin no more." The temporary condemnation by the Pharisees would have hung that sin over that woman for the rest of her life, but Jesus forgiveness gave her true freedom, and she was made whole and clean.

We have a choice,

like the Pharisees had a choice, condemn or forgive. Jesus summarizes the whole point in Matthew 7: 1“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. ² For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. ³ “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own?⁴ How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? ⁵ Hypocrite! First, get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye. ⁶ “Don’t waste what is holy on people who are unholy. Don’t throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you.

The Pharisees thought they had caught a woman in sin, but Jesus showed them they were caught in their sin of judging, without hope for the one they caught, and in turn, no hope for them. They just slipped away because they were CAUGHT. In light of this truth, do you stay and change your attitude, or do you slip away when you catch someone in a sin and it shows your judgmental heart? If you have to slip away, even if you have been a believer for many years and should know better, then maybe what Jesus may write in the dust for you is "stop judging someone I have forgiven." Just sayin.

The Pilgrimage Continues,

David Warren