Caught in the Act
TRANSLATION
(53) Then everyone went home, (1) but Jesus left for the mount of Olives. (2) Early in the morning, he came again to the temple. All the people gathered around him, and he sat down and taught them. (3) The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees brought a woman taken in adultery and, placing her in front of everyone, (4) said to him, “Teacher, this woman was taken in the act of adultery. (5) In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. What do you say?” (6) This they said to test him so that they might have some basis for accusing him. Jesus then bent down and wrote on the ground with his finger.
(7) When they kept on questioning him, he stood up and said to them, “Let the one who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” (8) And once more he bent down and with his finger wrote on the ground. (9) When they heard this, they departed one by one, starting with the older ones, leaving Jesus alone with the woman before him. (10) Jesus, standing up, said to her, “Woman, where are they? Is there no one left to condemn you?” (11) She responded, “No one, Lord.” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.”
OBSERVATIONS
Most contemporary New Testament translations indicate in a marginal note that the earliest manuscripts of John’s Gospel do not include this segment. This leaves readers wondering whether we should include this portion in the canon of Scripture. For our purposes, we will assume that this story is part of the sacred text and is worthy of our study.
Several repetitions emphasize the thrust of this passage. “Woman” was used five times (vss. 3, 4, 5, 9, & 10). The phrases, “taken in (the act of) adultery” (vss. 3 & 4) and “bent down and wrote on the ground” (vss. 6 & 8) were both repeated. Finally, “condemned/condemn” was repeated (vss. 10 & 11). Most who read this passage immediately wonder what Jesus was writing and assume that there must have been some message contained in the letters or words that he traced out on the ground. Such speculation leads readers to miss the essential point of the passage.
The key to understanding this segment comes from taking note of the location where this encounter took place, in the temple in the outer court where women were allowed to enter but no further. The floor in this area was constructed of paving stones. The heavy traffic constantly passing through would not have allowed any grit or dust to accumulate. If this be so, it was not the content of what Jesus wrote but his very act of his writing with his finger on stone that was the point of the story. For the accusers of the woman who were well versed in the Old Testament, this gesture would have reminded them of two occasions recorded in the Old Testament when a finger traced a message on a hard surface. The first took place at the giving of the Law. Exodus 31:18 describes what happened: “And (Yahweh) gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.” The second occurred in Babylon at King Belshazzar’s feast. In Daniel 5 we read, “Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote” (Dan. 5:5). Daniel was then asked to interpret the three words that were etched into the wall. According to Daniel 5: 27 & 28, these were
MENE – “God has numbered your days.”
TEKEL – “You have been weighed in the balances and found wanting.”
PERES – “Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
By his action of bending over and tracing with his finger on the stone of the temple floor Jesus was, in essence, conveying the following message: “You are standing in the presence of your lawgiver and judge.” It is no wonder that when he said, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her,” all departed without saying another word.
OUTLINE
I. Jesus dealt with those who had brought an accusation against the woman. (1-9)
II. Jesus dealt with the woman against whom the accusation had been brought. (10 & 11)
IDEA STATEMENT
Instead of condemnation, Jesus as author of the Law and its arbiter offered compassion and forgiveness to the one who acknowledged her sin and sought his compassion.
APPLICATION
In this passage, we tend to focus on Jesus’ words that confounded the woman’s accusers. With one statement, Jesus utterly vanquished those who had sought to discredit his ministry: “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” We also tend to overlook the way that Jesus dealt with a sinner who had been “caught in the act of adultery.” He never excused her behavior nor blamed her accusers. Instead, he treated her with respect by asking her a simple question, and when she answered truthfully, he declared her forgiven by the brief statement, “Neither do I condemn you.” But he did not leave it there. With the gentle admonition, “leave your life of sin,” he challenged her to become the person God created her to be.
We should ask, “What would have been my response to Jesus’ words had I been in the woman’s place?” If we are honest with ourselves, we would see that every human being is in this very same position since Adam and Eve rebelled in the Garden of Eden. Like the woman, each of us is a guilty sinner caught in the very act. Others, including Satan, the accuser of the brethren, stand ready to condemn us and throw stones at us. Jesus alone offers us compassion and forgiveness not because he fails to hold us accountable for our sins but because he died to bear the penalty of our sins. His death on the cross provides a complete sacrifice of atonement sufficient to cover every sin we have ever committed. This is why he could say to the woman and to all who trust him, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”