Jesus had been to the Mt. of Olives for some time to rest and pray. The crowds must have been large and exhausting, partly because of their expectation for healings and maybe food.
It was early in the morning when Jesus arrived at the temple. The people gathered around Him, anxious to hear what He had to say. Jesus sat down among them and began to teach them.
The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman to Him whom they accused of adultery. They claimed to have caught her in the very act. They provided Jesus with a review of the law of Moses saying that she should be stoned. These rulers were tempting Jesus. If He said to stone her, He would be going against all He had taught. If He agreed, they would condemn Him for judging her.
Jesus did what no one expected. He said nothing. He bent down and wrote something in dirt. They continued asking Him what they should do with her. His response to them was a simple statement. “He that is without sin among you, let him cast a stone at her” (John 8:7). He then stooped down again and continued to write on the ground. The rulers had a guilty conscience because they had sins of their own, and they began to leave, starting with the older men.
This story is interesting to me because it shows Jesus’ compassion for the sinful and because He was able to dismiss a crowd of accusers without incident.
As was always true of the rulers, their aim was not to adhere to the law but to accuse, judge, and convict without a true understanding of the outcome of any situation. God’s aim is and has always been to convert the unbeliever or to restore the erring.
There are obvious problems with the accusation. Leviticus 20:10 says, “If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death.” Deuteronomy 22:22 gives other examples of punishment for such circumstances. These involve virgins and rape, but this was probably the law to which they were referring. You will notice that both the man and the woman were to be put to death. The scribes and Pharisees evidently did not bring the man, and his punishment would have been the same.
The purpose of their challenge to Jesus was not really about an adulterous woman but about tricking Jesus into saying or doing something so they could accuse Him. There was no consideration given to the woman and the embarrassment this caused her. Imagine her feelings as she was probably physically forced into the temple, where she stood as the accusation was given to the group assembled supposedly for worship and/or teaching.
When given a choice, “whomever has no sin, throw the first stone”, the rulers quickly left the temple. There is a saying, “The conscience makes cowards of us all”. These men had to recall their own sins, and they were aware they did not fit the parameters assigned by Jesus. Could it be that what Jesus wrote on the ground was some of their sins?
Lest we think Jesus let the adulterous woman get away with this sin, look at verse 11. Jesus told her, “go and sin no more”. We hear no more about the woman. We do not know if she continued in her adulterous life or took Jesus’ instructions to stop sinning. Could she have been one of those 3,000 on Pentecost? It is certainly possible.
We can learn some valuable lessons from this story. First, Jesus had compassion on a sinner. When we meet someone who has committed a sin, do we see them as a soul, needing teaching and guidance? Second, He gave the accusers time to think about their sin and come to a knowledge of the truth. Do we teach and then provide time for the sinner to study through what they have done and give time for them to change? Third, though Jesus knew the hearts of the adulterous woman and her accusers, He showed those present that everyone sins. Do we look at our sins as we deal with sinners?
One has to wonder, not only if the adulterous woman changed, but if there were any among the rulers who repented.
Sandra Oliver