This story begins as Jesus leaves the mount of Olives and walks to the temple as was his habit when he was in Jerusalem. As Jesus comes into the temple and sits down, the people see him and gather around and he begins teaching them. When all of a sudden they heard the noise of people shouting as they came into the temple, pulling this woman along with them. Who was she? The mob sees Jesus sitting there and they head towards him pulling her along. As soon as they are before Jesus they call him Master, as they try to conceal their evil plans with nice sounding words of respect. They explain to Jesus what the law of Moses says about adultery. They called him Master, as they tried to hide their treachery while saying to him, “What do you say should be done with her?”
By saying this they had laid the perfect trap to trip Jesus up, or so they thought. She was not the one they wanted to judge, it was Jesus and they wanted to discredit him and get him out of their lives. This was not a case for Jesus to decide, this was a matter for the Priest of the temple to rule over. They had used the Torah as bait,Leviticus 20:10.What does he do? Jesus acts like he does not hear them as he stoops down and starts to write in the sand. There has been much debate over what he wrote, most of it just useless words as we are not told just what he wrote.
This trap the leaders had set would catch Jesus without there being any way out of it. If Jesus did not agree with the law of Moses then they would accuse him of defying the Law and take him before the Sanhedrin, and if he did side with the law they would take him to the Roman authorities as defying Roman law by using the Jewish law to condemn someone to death. Talk about being between a rock and a hard place. Wow! Roman law did not allow the Jews or anyone else to use the death penalty, John18:31.
He really was in a difficult position. What could he do? What did he do? While they continued to assault him with their words, suddenly he stands back up, and says, “He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone”. This is not what they expected to hear. Jesus had just thrown the ball back into their court. Surprise and fear slowly crept over them all. Jesus did not say stone her as the one in charge, he simply turned their words back on them as they had quoted the scripture to him. They would be the ones guilty of breaking Roman law now. But it goes deeper than what I just wrote, for Jesus had said “Let him who is without sin among you” referring to the witness who had to cast the first stone.
There are two points about this statement I would like to put before you. The first is my opinion, If the person who was without sin threw the first stone they would be criticized and shamed by everyone who knew them. Sinless? Your friends and coworkers know you on a daily basis. Sinless, Really? The second reason is just as serious, according to the law of Moses if your testimony was false and resulted in the death of an innocent person then you would be guilty of murder and you would be the one who is then stoned to death. The result was that they were ashamed and slowly disappeared from the crowd, all their false righteousness was exposed and they knew it. The whole process was a sham to get Jesus trapped by the law and they got trapped instead.
Adultery was a common thing during these times, much like it is today in our own times. Men were hardly ever brought up on the charge of adultery, only the women, and most of the time it just resulted in a divorce because of Roman law.
After they all left it was just Jesus and this poor woman to face each other. Jesus was not an eyewitness to the sin, and since she did not confess it to him, he simply tells her that he does not condemn her either. He just admonishes her to leave her life of sin behind and sin no more. Why does Jesus tell her to go and sin no more? He knows that no one can do this while they live on this earth. I believe he told her to go home and do the things that brings God the glory, and not themselves.
We all make wrong decisions and Jesus is just as patient with us as he was with her. Only difference is we as Christians belong to God and our whole purpose is to live for Him every day. Do we blow it? Of course we do, but as I have said before…Admit it, Quit it, Forget it! Get back in the race and keep your focus on Jesus and what pleases him.
I hope you see the moral in this story. Do not be judgemental and self righteous when you see someone doing something you see as sin. This is just the reflection of what we are doing ourselves and not seeing it. Get back into the race and leave the sins of your brethren to God as He is more than capable of handling His children and their faults.
As I always say, remember you will make it, just don’t give up. See you next time.
In His Service as Kilted Priest
The Kilted Priest 