John 8:1-11 Upon the horns of a dilemma
Jesus is teaching in the temple and many are glad to hear him. In that time the teacher would be sitting and the listeners standing in a ring or horseshoe around him. The Pharisees burst into the ring with a woman who, they say, they caught in adultery. They insist that Jesus tell them what he thinks ought to be done.
The trap is laid. It’s not a subtle trap. They were past subtlety, they were openly trying to entrap Jesus. On the one hand Jesus could say she ought not be stoned. In this case they would say that he had broken the law of Moses because in Leviticus and Deuteronomy it clearly said that adulterers should be killed. On the other hand, if Jesus said that she should be stoned, they would accuse him of violating Exodus 23:2 which says, “You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice.” The argument would have been something like; since the man is not there, it is a perversion of justice to kill the woman but let the man go free.
Imagine setting a really clever trap only to watch as your prey ignores the bait. The Pharisees must have felt like that when Jesus does not answer them but just writes with his finger on the ground, ignoring them. They were not used to being ignored. I think Jesus was dealing with warring emotions. He was probably experiencing indignation, not for himself, but first for the besmirching of God’s name here in the temple and for the ill-treatment the woman was suffering. Additionally, I think that Jesus was embarrassed for the Pharisees and a little sad that this was the best they could do. So caught between vaporizing them and laughing in their faces and knowing that he had a mission to complete, Jesus takes a minute to collect himself. Possibly also, Jesus was giving them a minute to see if any of them would feel ashamed and leave before the humiliation he was about to dish out.
They loudly insist on Jesus answering them. Jesus stands up and says, If anyone here can throw a stone without that being a sin, go for it. And then he goes straight back to ignoring them. See, in Deut 17:6-7 it says, “Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses; he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness. The hands of the witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death.” That means that at least two of the Pharisees had to have witnessed the act of adultery. That would have put them in the house of a sinner, a big no-no. Going into that house would have made them unclean and being unclean they shouldn’t be in the temple at all. Also, bringing someone who is unclean into the temple is a no-no. They play pretty fast and loose with the rules when it suits them. They knew that anyone who threw the first stone would be breaking Exodus 23:2. Their trap had sprung back on them and one by one they had to retreat.
Once they were gone Jesus addresses the woman. “So, no stone throwing today?”
“No lord”
“Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”
Jesus knew everything about this woman and was and is her and everyone’s final judge. But on that day Jesus was there for restoring relationships not breaking them. Sin has been compared variously to debt or trespass but the result of it is always broken relationship. Broken between me and God, broken between me and others. It is separation that leaves a soul lost in the void. For without relationship upward and outward there is no orienting oneself in the cosmos. A religious person like a Pharisee might intone, “go and sin no more” but mean, “you are low and sinning only sinks you lower in my eyes.” I think Jesus said, “Go and sin no more.” with tears in his eyes, knowing that she had a rough time ahead of her and he wanted her to stay oriented upright, in a relationship with her God that no one could take away from her. Romans 8:38-39 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
brotherpayne 