John 8:2-11
2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Our passage today from John’s Gospel is a powerful one. Often, when the story of Jesus is relayed through film, they love to include this scene because it paints a vivid picture. There is action and a moment of real conflict and fear, a crowd calling for revenge and a vulnerable woman at the center. Into this scene steps Jesus with an important lesson to teach. It’s one we still need to learn in our times as well. There seems to be something within the human psyche that needs to judge others, to somehow see the fault in others and miss our own faults. Jesus provides a humbling reminder to those assembled and to us that we all have times when we fall short, that we all have had days when we have not listened to our better angels, and thus, if we may be so humbled, we may have sympathy for those who have sinned as well. “Judge not, lest ye be judged” (Matthew 7:1) Let us pray,
Isidor Isaac Rabi, a Nobel Prize winner in Physics, was once asked how he became a scientist. Rabi replied that every day after school his mother would talk to him about his school day. She wasn’t so much interested in what he had learned that day, but how he conducted himself in his studies. She always inquired, “Did you ask a good question today?” “Asking good questions,” Rabi said, “made me become a scientist.”
In order to ask a good question I think you need to have noble motives behind the question. You have to want to know the truth. The Pharisees, by contrast, already had the answers to their questions. They felt they already knew the truth. At the start of the passage, Jesus has returned at dawn to the Temple Court where he is teaching and the teachers of the law and the Pharisees bring in a woman caught in adultery. We hear that they make her stand before the group as they say to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”
I wonder how often we may have asked questions designed to somehow trap or embarrass another person? Perhaps we recall times in our own families or at school when we were asked a question that felt like a set up for failure or to publicly embarrass us. Middle School is a great time for that. In moments like this people are not trying to learn; they are trying to cause hurt. The Pharisees come to Jesus once again with a question designed to do damage to the reputation of Jesus. And once again Jesus proves he is equal to the task.
An interesting feature of this passage from chapter 8 in John is that it was not included in the early manuscripts that made their way into the New Testament. This story was missing. The story was part of the early oral tradition; however, it was missing from the early manuscripts. Scholars today imagine that those who were compiling what we call the Cannon or what was eventually to be included in the Holy Scripture may have thought that the story was just not believable, that it was too much for readers to accept…to expect people to be this forgiving, or to have God be this forgiving seemed unrealistic. Maybe that’s why they chose not to include it.
It wasn’t until the third century after the death of Jesus that people recognized that it was an old story that had not made the cut in earlier versions of the Holy Book. It was decided that it should be included in John’s Gospel, but many readers feel it has the voice of Luke in it; it sounds like the stories of Luke in some way and scholars have continued to study this and explore the history of this decision and how it all came to be.
The story itself is a wonderful story and you can see why it is often included in film. It is like a movie. We can see the angry crowd and Jesus stepping into the middle of this altercation and stooping down to write on the grownd. It’s quite dramatic. We wonder what he was writing as the tone of the crowd increases. And the woman is at the center of this mob, surrounded by a crowd eager to judge her. The crowd includes the religious authorities of that day, the Scribes and Pharisees, eager to judge and then all the people who gather along with them. I imagine it included mostly men. These religious leaders not only want to indict this woman, they are also trying to trip Jesus up or catch him doing something they would consider a violation of the law. This is a theme that runs through the Gospels where they often bring Jesus questions or situations to test him so they can figure out whether to bring him before the Temple authorities for having violated their laws of to the Romans so that they might get rid of this man who is causing so much disruption to the powers that be. They present this woman and the quote from Moses for him to consider.
So we wonder what Jesus is supposed to do in this situation. Is this the one trap that he is not going to be able to get out of. Is he going to get caught? Jesus doesn’t say a word. He observes silence on several occasions when he clearly believes that is his best response to those waiting to engrap him. He remains silent during the Passion at moments when he is asked questions, whether to taunt him or to offer him the chance to defend himself. And, in several instances during his Public Life, he chooses to remain silent instead of falling prey people baiting him. Sometimes no response can be the best response.
In this passage, he does something unique-he kneels down to write. We don’t know what he writes, is it words, is it an image of something, is he scribbling to gain time; it’s a mystery and the crowd is waiting anxiously for his response. Rev. Bill Kenneally offers this observation, “One thing we know from the story. If you’re with the crowd, you’re probably wrong. This happens in our own lifetime. When we’re with the crowd, something can take over and maybe we don’t follow our better angels; we get swept up. “ Too often a mob mentality encourages people to be part of something that they might not have the courage to do alone. It can be a terrible thing when people don’t listen to their own values and get swept away in judging or condemning another. We see it now online with people posting hateful comments or with the cancel culture where someone who has made a mistake literally gets cancelled out as no longer a decent human being, never mind if what they are accused of is even factual. People just get swept along and lose their capacity to think critically, to listen to their hearts and not want to be part of the hating and the hurtfulness. When I sometimes hear these comments, I say that we’re in the business of forgivenss. As Christians, it is a great thing that we believe in a God of mercy and forgiveness. Jesus always demonstrated that no one was outside the bounds of God’s mercy.
In this story with the woman, we see the level of care that Jesus has for this vulnerable woman. Jesus doesn’t view this episode as some kind of test case or an opportunity to judge her sinfulness; he sees her as an individual who has been brought low by shame, this woman caught in this terrible moment of being exposed. And I’ve always wondered, where was the man with whom she was supposedly caught? Where did he go? What was to become of him and why isn’t he defending her? We don’t know her back story; we don’t know her life. It’s likely she has made some terrible mistake but Jesus doesn’t get caught up in all of that; he stands with her and shows real compassion for her.
And, of course, it is a powerful story because we all must have moments in our own lives about which we may feel ashamed, moments when we made a grievous mistake and cannot imagine how much worse it might be if everyone found out about it. We have times of embarrassment or carelessness when we hurt someone we love and shame can be a terrible thing. People can carry shame throughout their lives and never feel that they can put it down.
After Jesus offers his challenge to the crowd, we hear that they begin to drift away, the older ones first, until only Jesus is left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightens up and then asked her a question, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
This important passage from John includes such an important message about God’s mercy, a lesson we seek to be reminded of throughout our lives. I doubt Jesus would have spoken so much about mercy and forgiveness if it were easy. I think we all know how hard it is to forgive someone who has really injured us, or to ask forgiveness of another whom we have wronged. Mercy may seem illogical; it doesn’t always make sense but mercy is what makes us God’s own. Mercy is a practice of hoping and knowing that there is more than the thing that hurts us-more than the thing that haunts us. For God, justice and mercy are incredible gifts that may bring healing to us and to our world. Our God is not simply a God of second chances but one of mercy without limit. And our task is to go and do the same…