September 19, 2024

John 8.10, 11 (NIV)

Jesus . . . asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Jesus doesn’t say, “Go, it isn’t sin anymore”; he says, “Go, and sin no more.”*

A woman, supposedly caught in the act of adultery, was dragged out before Jesus and the crowd so that the Pharisees could trick Jesus. The Law of Moses, they said, commands us to stone such women. Now, they wanted to know, what did Jesus have to say about it? If he said, “Go ahead and stone her,” they could accuse him of usurping authority. If he stood up for her, it would appear that he was denying the authority of the Law. The Pharisees failed to realize that they were dealing with the world’s leading expert on the Law of Moses.

The Law of Moses clearly states that death is the penalty for adultery – for both the woman and the man, and it doesn’t specify the method of execution. I’m no lawyer but it seems to me that before a man or a woman could be convicted of adultery, there would have to be evidence in the form of the other party involved. So, where was their proof that this woman was guilty?

Jesus didn’t answer them right away; he bent down and started writing on the ground with his finger. We can only speculate about what he was writing – or drawing. I suspect he was just giving the tricksters time to think about how stupid they were. When that didn’t work, he suggested that anyone who was without sin should cast the first stone. It seems to me that they just fell into their own trap. Neither they nor Jesus was authorized by civil law to put anyone to death.

After her accusers had all slinked away in defeat, Jesus tells the woman to leave her life of sin. He did not placate her or downplay the seriousness of her offense. It was sin and she needed to stop. Jesus’ job was to call her to repentance, not to pass judgment in a legal sense. His forgiveness did not free her from the physical and legal consequences of her sinful lifestyle, only from the spiritual penalty.

Jesus views our sin the same way. And it is the same attitude we should display towards others. We must not condemn, but with “delicacy and dignity,”* offer the call to repentance, not condone or make excuses for sinful behavior. As someone has said, “We need to call sin, ‘sin.’ Not with vindictiveness, but with tears.”*

A winner rebukes and forgives; a loser is too timid to rebuke and too petty to forgive.*