Caught Cheating and Almost Stoned

“He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."
(John 8:7)

I’ve always said that you could stop a lot of the violence over in the Middle East, if someone would just pick up all the rocks…you always see the news clips where some guys are snatching up rocks & giving them a whirl…those guys will sail a stone in a heartbeat.

In John 8, we are told of a group of scribes & Pharisees who dragged a young lady into the temple, claiming to have caught her in the act of adultery. They wanted to see if Jesus would condemn her or forgive her. They were more than shock at what he did do…instead of condemning her to death by stoning, as the Law commanded, Jesus turned the tables on the accusers…why?

Jesus knew that they were trying to trick Him, they were using the life of this woman to do it. They also were not honestly seeking justice, these men didn’t care anything about this broken women before them or the law…they just wanted a reason to discredit Jesus. See the “Law” that they were speaking of, Jesus knew very well, it was the Law of God given to Moses. But the actual Law reads a little different than these foolish men were quoting. They said, I quote, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women…” Now, the actual Law in Leviticus 20:10 reads, “If there is a man who commits adultery with another man's wife, one who commits adultery with his friend's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.” Let’s see…they only brought in the woman…Hmmm? These guys weren’t looking to uphold the perfect, pure law of God…& Jesus knew that. So He stooped down & started writing…what was he writing? No one truly knows, but Jeremiah 17:13 say something interesting, “O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake You will be put to shame those who turn away on earth will be written down...” I often wonder if Jesus may have written the name of a woman that the oldest Pharisee, (seeing how he left first) was having an affair with or maybe the number of the Commandment that the Pharisees were breaking like the number “9”.Who knows, but we do know without the a doubt the words that Jesus spoke to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her”. Maybe the oldest Pharisee caught a glimpse of what Jesus wrote in the dirt, heard His words, dropped the stone & went home, followed by the others.

The Pharisees…what a legalistic bunch, huh! How about you? I know there are times when I find myself as legalistic as theses guys…we all do at times as Christians. It usually comes when we are away from God & in sin. We feel better when we can bring someone else down, lower than we are. See, sin can steal our assurance, our “joy of His salvation” (Psalms 5:12). In other words, we fall into sin & we start feeling that we may not be saved & instead of coming to God in repentance, we try to fix it ourselves by making someone else look worse off than we are. Though this was not the true agenda of the Pharisees in this verse, we do tend to do this in our lives when we start casting stones.

We are not called by God to overlook wrong in the world, or stay silent about evil, we are called by God to deal in mercy, grace & love…the world needs to know the God of justice & grace…we need to live a life that leads others to that God.

You notice that Jesus didn’t condemn her, but He didn’t approve of what she did either. He called her actions, sin & told her not to live that way any longer. When we come to Christ, He tells us the same “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” When we come to Christ, He forgives our sins & no longer condemns us, we are free from the penalty & bondage of sin, & free to live…yep, you guessed it…free.


Vern