We live in a crazy world and in a world of extremes. On one hand we have that any behavior can go. There is a hardly a sin out there that people don’t believe God sanctions. “It is all just based on interpretation” or “it is all cultral” is the response.
On the other side there can be some who judge harshly. Or who are seen to be judged harshly. This is wrong also.
Although it is often interpreted that if you don’t stand up for sinful behavior, you are intolerant and a phobic of some kind.
Jesus did something special when it came to a dicey situation. He proved out the Scripture “I desire mercy and not sacrifice” without breaking the Law.
A woman was caught in the act of adultery. Not just on suspicion, but in the act. Where was the man? They gave him a pass. A “get out of being stoned” card for free.
They tried to trap Jesus by asking if she should be stoned. He said nothing. He just bent down and began to write in the dirt.
Mjuch speculation has been made about what he wrote. But it really doesn’t matter. Or we would know. The bigger issue was THAT he wrote.
When God gave the Ten Commandments, he wrote on the stone. When God wanted to confront King Belshazzar in the book of Daniel, God wrote on a wall. And when just like God, the Son of God, wrote in the dirt. It was a proclamation of His deity.
Finally Jesus got up and told them, “whoever is without sin cast the first stone.”
It is perhaps the most used Scripture in all the Bible. Taken out of context. But most used.
One by one, the men all went away. The older and then the younger. Soon there was no one left.
At this point Jesus could not stone her. It would be illegal. There had to be two to three witnesses by Law and they all had left. So Jesus wasn’t denying the Law. He fulfilled it by calling their actions into question.
And likely a few men knew just where this woman did her deeds. How else could they so conveniently have produced her right when they needed? Likely because they had spent time with her as well.
SO Jesus shows her great mercy. And love. This is where most people get stuck. And stop.
But what does Jesus do next?
He tells her to “go and sin no more.”
He acknowledges she was in sin. He calls sin for what it is. Then tells her to repent.
This is truth and love in action.
BOTH.
It’s showing mercy. AND saying to someone to go and sin no more.
We cannot be spiritually healthy if we have one extreme or the other.
John 8:1-11
1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
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.”