John 8:3-11 (NIV)
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.”
1. Living in a world of contradictions: people are interesting. People are full of contradictions – and Christians are not immune. We’ve experienced pain, suffering, and prejudices. We are saved by God’s Grace, through faith in Jesus (Eph. 2:8-9). However, likened to a dance – we can move between the ‘old painful messages’ and Grace.
For example – In the encounter between Jesus, Martha and Mary at Bethany (Luke 10:38-41), we notice the tendency in Martha to shift into a stance of power when she seeks to co-opt Jesus’ power to influence her sister: ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’[1] But, rather than taking Mary’s side or colluding with Martha against Mary, Jesus creates a safe and spacious place where he can hold Mary’s contradictions with grace and mercy, while at the same time calling her towards deeper truth.
Biblical Truth – Jesus accepts our contradictions with grace and mercy, calling us toward deeper truth and relationship.
Yet the quest for truth can easily stretch away from grace and mercy, as we will now see as we examine the religious leaders’ treatment of the woman they claim to have caught in the act of adultery.
2. Jesus brings the focus onto himself: The crowd gathered around Jesus, their attention suddenly wrested from this compelling teacher, turns toward the exposed woman.
‘Ignoring the men’s question, Jesus bends down and doodles with his finger on the ground’.[2]
Both the crowd and the Temple Men heavy turn their eyes away from the woman and lean forward, intrigued by what he might be writing. Was it his verdict? The woman’s death warrant? With Jesus’ figure now the centre of attention, a small inner space has opened up within the crowd. Humble and non-confrontational, Jesus’ stance is below the men, perhaps on level with the woman, who might have collapsed or been thrown to the ground by her accusers. Sensing that she is no longer the focus of attention, the woman glances at the stooped figure of Jesus writing with his finger in the dirt, her heart pounding in terror as she wonders if he is writing her death warrant.
Jesus, the Scapegoat: John the Baptist declared, “here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’[3]
In the pause that Jesus creates by bringing the focus of attention onto himself, becoming the scapegoat, God’s Spirit invites these temple men to attend to their deep inner longing for intimacy with the One who created them as well as the Law. With their focus on external religious practices, these men–who are perhaps teetering on the precipice of their own sexual addictions–have become blind to their own sinfulness, inner contradictions and mixed motives. Their behaviour is addictive in nature, because they have become overly attached to the structure and form of their particular religious practice (legalism), its certitudes, rules and power to demand obedience.
Finally, Jesus straightens up and speaks: ‘Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’[4]
Jesus, operating out of a forgiving and life-giving love, again opens the space in which surrender is made possible by stooping back down and writing on the ground, giving the religious men the opportunity to change posture, maybe as a way of slightly destabilizing them, as they look at what he is writing. ‘Is he listing my sins?’ they might be musing. In this tense moment, Jesus places his own body between danger and opportunity, life and death. He does not push aside, nor dismiss, nor underplay the woman’s sinfulness, but takes the entire burden of it upon himself, into his own heart, his own body. As Jesus gives space for the truth of these men’s inner contradictions to squeeze through their highly guarded and protective self-righteous filters, he transforms a death-making place into a life-giving space.
By inviting these men, who are used to exercising power over others, into this reflective place, Jesus tenderly draws them to the dangerous brink of the breach between forgiving love and law-imposing power, where there is no neutral ground. Those who are trapped in the legalism of safe religion will either revamp their attack and react, by finding yet another scapegoat to distract themselves from their contradictions, addictions and bondage to the law, drawing an even tighter boundary around themselves.[5] Or they will respond, surrendering to Christ’s embodiment of forgiving love by moving towards relationships, love, grace and mercy.
3. Jesus brings NEW LIFE!
New life to the Temple Men… As the temple men turn inward and reckon with their “poverty of spirit”[6] before the One who holds truth, grace and mercy in perfect unity, the One who fulfills the law in his own person, first the older men begin to walk away; then the younger ones finally get it and follow.
New life to the once ashamed… The woman, transformed from an object into an onlooker, feels her senses slowly come to life as she watches the men’s feet shuffle away, stilling the ring of their accusations.
Standing up, Jesus invites the woman to look up from her position in the dirt and meet his gentle gaze. As the master companion, he is careful to focus her attention on what has unfolded before her: ‘Woman, where are they?’
Jesus then asks the woman to reflect further on their departure with the question: ‘Has no one condemned you?’
Desperate to be freed from the deathly trap in which she might yet be caught by this religious teacher, the woman replies, ‘No one, sir.’
And from within the One who embodies God’s forgiving and enduring love, the one who holds mercy, grace and truth in perfect unity, comes the remarkable response, ‘Neither do I condemn you.’[7]
In the absence of condemnation, and in the flow of forgiving love with the one who has come not to abolish the law but to fulfill it,[8] Jesus moves beyond a pardon and embrace of the woman before him by inviting her to turn around, a repentance that will free her to choose a way of deeper rest and more abundant life than she has ever known or imagined possible: Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.[9]
To be freed from her relationship addiction, she will need to move away from poor sexual attachments towards deeper intimacy with the One who created her. To cross the threshold of her narrow existence and see anew “into the life of things,” she will need to enter into obedient, listening communion with the One who loves her.
Looking ahead, we can anticipate the high price that Jesus will pay for the relational space that he opened to this woman in these volatile minutes–a space he also extended to those who were witnesses, including the religious leaders, perhaps a small handful of whom turned their hearts towards Christ’s forgiving love when they said “no” to the temptation of exercising power over another.
4. And how do the people of God respond?
For as we can learn from our Lord in this tense narrative from the gospel of John, we, too, can create a non-judgmental space, where pilgrims can share their stories without reservation or fear of rejection or condemnation. As companions, we then hold these burdens, contradictions and entanglements close to the gentle and humble heart of Jesus, where there is no shame or condemnation, but only life-giving and forgiving love–the same love that is embracing our own addictions, burdens and entrapments. And as we share in the flow of this flow of love, we journey alongside the pilgrim towards the figure of a stooped-down liberator writing on the ground, fearlessly proclaiming ‘the good news of the Kingdom of God.’[10]
Going further…
- What happens when we become overly attached to the structure and form of our particular religious practice, legalism, certitudes, rules and expert power?
- How does Jesus open up space not only for the accused woman but for the accusers as well?
- How might we follow his way?
