The Adulterous Woman
John 8:2-11
2 Early in the
morning He came again into the temple, and all the people were coming to Him;
and He sat down and began to teach them.
3 The scribes and the
Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center
of the court,
So we have a big crowd of people, and Jesus is in the midst of teaching them a lesson. All of a sudden the scribes and Pharisees come in.
4 they said to Him,
"Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act.
5 "Now in the
Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You
say?"
I have one question about this passage. WHERE IS THE MAN? How could they catch the woman in adultery, and not catch the man? This woman may have been set up by them, because they are only using her to trap Jesus.
Look what the Mosaic Law actually says:
Deuteronomy 22:22
22 "If a man is found lying with a married woman, then both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman; thus you shall purge the evil from Israel.
Notice this Mosaic Law does NOT apply to us today! It was given by God through Moses to govern
the nation of
All they wanted to do was distract Jesus from what He was doing – teaching!
6 They were saying
this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus
stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground.
What a great response. He ignores them, recognizing their arrogance and motivation, and simply separates Himself from them, by changing His posture. Jesus would not compromise with evil; neither condemning her sin nor condoning their arrogant judging!
7 But
when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them,
"He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at
her."
I’m not normally one for memorizing verses, but this is one we might all need to memorize! I won’t be picking up any rocks!
8 Again He stooped
down and wrote on the ground.
There’s a lot of speculation about what Jesus was writing. The Bible offers us no clues, but maybe he was writing all the sins that the accusers were guilty of!
9 When they heard it,
they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left
alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court. (At least
they recognized their guilt)
10 Straightening up,
Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?"
11 She said, "No
one, Lord." And Jesus said, "I do not condemn you, either. Go. From
now on sin no more."
She calls Him Lord – so we know she is a believer. (1 Corinthians 12:3)
Notice, Jesus’ job was not to condemn her for her sins,
but to PAY FOR THEM!
Jesus makes an issue out of grace, the scribes and Pharisees made an issue out of sin. He wanted her to change her mind about the sin; they wanted her to PAY for them.
This is one of the key areas that we have be careful
about. You cannot be occupied with the
sins of other people, and at the same time advance in your own spiritual
life. When you see too much of other
people’s sins, you have a tendency to become blind to your own.
When you get in a situation where there are accusations
(whether true or false) flying around, you might just want to separate
yourself; knowing that we are not worthy to pick up a stone.
Be very careful that you don’t let sins of other people distract you from advancing in your own spiritual life. You’ve (and I’ve) got enough to worry about with ourselves! We have to quit judging others, and live our own lives as unto the Lord.