Knowing The Word: The Woman Caught in Adultery, John 8:1-11

Several points are necessary to understand this passage. At the time of Jesus, Jewish law was trumped by Roman law. Under Roman rule Jews could not independently invoke the death penalty. (That is why Pilate had to order Jesus’ crucifixion.) The scribes and Pharisees are carefully laying a trap for Jesus. The law teaches that adultery in this case of the woman requires the death penalty by stoning. By advocating stoning, Jesus would bring down the wrath of the Roman authorities. To step back from the death penalty would show Jesus unfaithful to the law. The trap is quite clever.

Adultery is specifically included in The Ten Commandments and is a capital offense. It is the breaching of a covenant relationship between husband and wife. Women caught in adultery were stoned to death on the porch of their father’s house while men were buried up to their knees in dung and strangled with a strip of cloth until they suffocated and fell over into the dung. (See Deuteronomy 22:22-28 and Leviticus 20:10-16 for further details.) Why does Jesus seem to violate the Old Testament law? Ironically, the scribes and Pharisees gave this woman the greatest gift. They exposed her sin and brought her to Jesus! By the way, this case should have been taken to the Sanhedrin, not Jesus.

I once asked my son, “Since Jesus was tasked by the Father to fulfill the law, and the penalty in the law for adultery was the death penalty, then why did he not have the woman stoned to death?” His perceptive answer was “Because he died in her place on the cross for her sin. He took the penalty for her.” This fact should cause all of us to take pause and consider what Jesus does. He takes the penalty for us. He dies in our place. Knowing what Jesus has done for us as Christians, why do such an alarming number of Christians continue to commit adultery?

The Greek term for adultery here implies she was a married woman, and, according to Deuteronomy 22:22, the death penalty is appropriate. Faced with this intentional trap set for him set by the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus bending down to write on the ground with his finger is a curious response. This is the only instance in the gospels of Jesus writing something. We cannot help but be reminded that God wrote the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone with his finger. What Jesus wrote is unclear but his response to these men is not: “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” The witness and accuser of this crime is supposed to be the one who throws the first stone. He, in this case since only one woman is present in this misogynistic affair, is required to have neither connived in any way in this sin nor intentionally held back in preventing it. Since this person is not identified and the male participant is conspicuously absent, it is most likely that this group helped frame the woman to test Jesus, meaning they were guilty of sin as well. It could be some reference to their sin that Jesus wrote on the ground. We simply do not know.

Slowly the men depart in response to Jesus’ permission to stone her, beginning with the older men, who have lived long enough to know they are sinners indeed, unlike some younger men still caught in the illusion of their own self-righteousness. The only one remaining is the only man who has never sinned, and he says to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” Jesus calls her to a new obedience, and she walks away a forgiven woman known and saved by her Creator.

This story is a snapshot of the gospel. It is brilliant in its composition, intrigue, and depth of meaning. How do you see God working in your life the same way? How do you see yourself walking away free after being told to go and sin no more? How do you apply it to yourself? I don’t know about you, but this is the God-man I want judging me on the great day of judgment at the end of time.

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving-kindness; in your great compassion blot out my offenses. Wash me through and through from my wickedness, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions only too well, and my sin is ever before me. Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal One, have mercy upon me, a sinner. Enlighten my heart that I may remember and confess my sins and receive your absolution and unfailing mercy in and through the cross of Jesus Christ.