Monday in the Fifth Week of Lent, March 22, 2021

John 8:1-11

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area, and all the people started coming to him, and he sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle. They said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” They said this to test him, so that they could have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger. But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he bent down and wrote on the ground. And in response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders. So he was left alone with the woman before him. Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She replied, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.” 

We see the cynical coldness of these scribes and Pharisees in using this woman in this way.  She meant nothing to them and they had no thought for her.  They intended to use her as a thing, as bait to trap the Lord Jesus.  The fact that they brought her before him instead of simply posing the question to him, as they had posed so many other challenges to him indicates their awareness of his mercy, and of his willingness to diverge, as they thought, from a strict understanding of the Mosaic Law.  

The Lord does not dispute the woman’s guilt and he does not act as her defender.  Rather, he sees how for these Pharisees the Law is nothing more than a noose with which they hope to choke him.  They bring him the woman and the question not out of zeal for the Law or justice but simply to find reason to denounce him in front of a crowd.  It is this that he addresses when he says, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”  His writing with his finger and seeming lack of interest in the case make clear his awareness of their bad faith.  Seeing this, and also feeling exposed by the Lord’s injunction for the one without sin to cast the first stone at her leave them powerless, and they leave, one by one.  Interestingly, the oldest leave first.

“So he was left alone with the woman before him.”  One day, it will be our turn to face the Lord, when, at the time of our death we appear before him naked,  our sins in plain view.  Shall we stand in silence and in fear, as this woman?  She did not leave, although nothing prevented her departing.  Perhaps this was because now she had nowhere to go.  All she had left to her was her life, not even a shred of clothing.  But there was also unfinished business between her and the Lord and she must have sensed it.  The Lord let her stand in silence as though giving her a chance to speak.  Then he did, when she did not: “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”  She does not know the answer to the first question but she can answer the second, her apprehension keeping her answer brief: “No one, sir.”  She says no more.  She offers no thanks, asks the Lord no questions, does not beg for help, and makes no excuses.  The Lord seems to wait for more from her.  When she makes no motion to speak further, he says to her, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”  We note that he does not forgive her — for she has not asked for forgiveness — but he releases her and advises her not to sin again.  But if she is to continue living, she must humbly ask for forgiveness from her husband or her family, and they must offer it to her, or she will have to make her living with the harlots outside the city.  The idea of asking if she could follow her Savior does not seem to have occurred to her.