“Caught In The Act!”

Preached by Rev. Ed Brouwer at The Gathering Place, Osoyoos
Pulpit Series Volume 18, Issue 29, October 5, 2008

This is one of the most contested texts, one of the most beloved texts and one of the most misunderstood texts in the Bible. It is a contested text because it doesn’t show up in any of the earliest and best manuscripts. Look at your footnotes. On top of that, it’s language and style doesn’t fit the book of John. Fact is, you can skip this story, and jump from John 7:52 to John 8:12 with perfect coherence. Actually, it’s more like Luke’s style and one ancient Bible version has this story at Luke 21:38 (check it out and see how it works there).

Normally modern scholars would simply throw it out as an early church invention. But it’s not the sort of story the church would invent. So, most everyone agrees, whether it’s at the beginning of John 8, or in Luke, or in a footnote, this story belongs in the Bible.

In eleven compact verses, we have a story of unsurpassed drama, wisdom, grace, and beauty.

Jesus is teaching in the temple area. There’s suddenly a ruckus as a group of prominent men, scribes and Pharisees, drag in a woman and stand her before Jesus. Imagine her, tear-streaked face, eyes cast down, absolutely terrified. Pointing at her, the sneering men make their charge, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. What do you say?” Now this is an interesting for several reasons. First, being “caught in the act” was absolutely necessary. The law stated that in order to bring this charge there had to be at least two witnesses, which, when you think of it is hard to do without some kind of sting operation. There’s a smell of a set up. But even more interesting is the fact that only the woman gets convicted here. Leviticus 20 states: “If a man (note the emphasis) commits adultery with another man’s wife, both the man and the woman must be put to death.” So my question is “Where is the man?”

Now folks, I may not be the smartest guy on the block but far as I can tell, adultery is not something one does in splendid isolation.
Did he somehow manage to escape? Or was this another case of the double standard? In fact, then and now, women endure severe social consequences for their sexual sins, while men get away with a permissive wink; boys being boys and all of that crap.

Of course, if this was a sting, the Pharisees may have let the guy off with a handshake, thanking him for his assistance, the woman being no more than a pawn in their plan to get Jesus. Bottom line was, they wanted to get Jesus into a no-win situation. If Jesus let’s her off the hook, he’s soft on sin and adultery, playing fast and loose with the law of Moses. If Jesus condemns her, he risks offending the Roman authorities who have to give their own permission for any capital punishment, as the Sanhedrin had to do with Jesus. But as many others find out, when you set a trap for Jesus, you risk falling into it yourself. The crowd leaning in listens with great interest.

They glare at the woman apparently pulled straight from her bed. They watch for a reaction from Jesus. What Jesus does has been analyzed in depth. He writes with his finger on the ground. Believe it or not, someone actually figured out what He wrote.

One ingenious scholar has figured out how many Hebrew letters one could write within an average arm reach, and came up with 19 characters, which happens to fit exactly a relevant passage from Exodus 23:1 Do not help a wicked man by being a malicious witness. Isn’t it amazing what you can discover when you let someone loose with a text and a PhD? I also think that it is important, that He wrote with His finger. As you may remember the law was carved in stone with God’s very finger. Here is God incarnate, carving a new law into human history. Perhaps He was just doodling, buying time, cooling off what could well be described as a lynch mob.

You must admit it sure raises the tension level in the story. They all wait, the woman, the accusers, and the crowd standing by, while the question hangs heavy in the air, “Now, what do you say?”
Jesus looks up from his writing and speaks. He goes with the law. “Go ahead and stone her.” But he adds one conscience-shattering provision that turns everything upside down: “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” This is where the misunderstanding I mentioned in the beginning comes in. This saying of Jesus has been both well used and abused. Jesus is not saying that we sinners can’t form judgments about the actions of others. That would make the administration of human justice impossible, because not one of us is without sin. None of us can ever “throw the first stone” in judgment of someone else.

How can we, who have entertained lustful thoughts, judge the sin of adultery. How can we, who have hated others, judge the sin of murder? From the mouth of Jesus, it makes perfect sense, but when some corrupt politician or some caught-with-his-pants-down preacher comes up with this as a defense, it doesn’t ring true, does it. Sinners though we are, we sometimes have to make difficult judgments about our own and other people’s behavior. But Jesus wants to make sure we face our own soul in the process. When Jesus says, “Let anyone among you who is without sin throw the first stone,” he tilts us in the direction of mercy rather than prideful judgment. Suddenly we see the beam in our own eye. In making our judgments, we must do so mercifully, deeply mindful that our own sins stand under God’s judgment as well. The woman’s accusers resurface today… we want longer prison sentences for first offenders. We want ‘three strikes and you're out,’ a ‘throw-away-the-key’ approach to smalltime repeaters whose harm has been only to themselves. We want the rebels reduced to nothing. We want law and order.”Go ahead, there are lots of people out there, struggling trying hurting, failing. Feel free to hunt them down. Grind them under. Count them out. Throw them away. Go ahead. Throw the first stone. After his startling words, Jesus bent down for some more writing on the ground, while his words land like a pebble in a pond, sending a ripple of reality through the crowd. One by one they drop their rocks and go home; interestingly, from the oldest to the youngest.

I would hope that the older we get, the more we would sense our own need for mercy, because then we will be more likely to offer it to others. Finally, Jesus looks up, and they’re all gone. It’s just Jesus and the woman: the sinful woman and the sinless one, or as St. Augustine put it so wonderfully, misery and mercy. He straightened up. Where are your accusers?
They’re all gone, Lord. “Neither do I condemn you.”

Jesus, the only one in the whole world who, according to his own criterion, had the perfect moral standing to throw the first stone, refuses. While this is unbelievably good news for the woman, I wonder about her betrayed husband and family.

Adultery has incredible fallout. The anger and hurt. Worlds are totally upended, trust is devastated. How can Jesus forgive him or her so freely?” Because that’s what Jesus came to do. As it says earlier in John, “God sent his son into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”

Or as Paul puts it so wonderfully in Romans 8 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The only one who could be our perfect accuser has become our perfect savior, by taking the condemnation on his own soul. Notice something else here. She says nothing.
There’s no, “I’m sorry.” No, “I’ll never do it again.”
Not even, “I’ve made a mess of things.” Not a word of remorse. Which reminds us again; our repentance, isn’t the condition for forgiveness, it’s the consequence. It is all grace-- wonderful, free grace. But it is not cheap. It wasn’t cheap for Jesus to win, nor is it cheap for us to live. “Go and don’t sin any more.” Yeah, and that’s going to happen. No, we’ll be back again, standing in front of Jesus, condemned by self, or condemned by others. And again, he will say, neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.

Many of us struggle in one-way or another with the nagging voice of guilt. It’s as though a band of scribes and Pharisees lurk in the corners of our soul ready to remind us of those actions or thoughts for which we are ashamed.

But if you listen to the gentle voice of Jesus you will hear, “I do not condemn you.” This is the voice of God’s mercy in Jesus Christ.
If you listen to that voice coming from the center of your soul, and if you trust in it, you will find peace. And when the other voices fight for your attention again, as they will, just return to that gentle, powerful, voice from the center until the other voices stop, and the rocks drop.

Having faced the real misery of your sin, and its effects in your life and others, the next words will sound more and more like grace too, “Go and sin no more.”

Jesus will be right there with you by the power of his Spirit on that sometimes long and winding road to spiritual wholeness.