Adultery

Jesus and His disciples must have slept outside on the Mount of Olives when they came to Jerusalem for feasts. Thousands of people poured into the city to attend the feasts. Crowds were everywhere.  

During the last Feast of Booths Jesus attended, John 8:1-2 tells us Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early the next morning He went again to the temple. This must have been the day after the Great Hosanna I wrote about last week.

When Jesus arrived at the temple that day, crowds of people came to Him. He sat down and began teaching them. The scribes, pharisees and priests were out to get Jesus. His enemies wanted Him gone. In an effort to catch Jesus doing or saying something they could use against Him; they hatched up a plan.  

As Jesus taught in the temple complex, a group of scribes and pharisees burst through the crowd. They were pulling along a woman. They pushed her into the middle of the group gathered around Jesus.

“Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. Now the law of Moses commanded us to stone such a woman; what then do you say?” announced the scribes and pharisees.

Scribes and pharisees knew the law of Moses. They studied the law and believed they kept the law. They would have known what the law said about adultery. In Leviticus 20:10 and Deuteronomy 22:22, the law said that BOTH the man and woman caught in adultery were to be put to death. The verse in Deuteronomy said “thus you shall purge the evil from Israel.” It is clear in the law of Moses that adultery was a sin and both parties were to pay the ultimate price for that sin. Even though the scribes and pharisees knew that, they only brought the woman to Jesus.

Imagine this scene as Jesus sat with a crowd of people around Him. Suddenly these men burst through the crowd with the woman. Jesus knew the hearts of each and every person there. He knew the sins of this woman who stood before Him. And Jesus knew the sins of the men who brought her there.

Without a word, Jesus stooped down. Using his finger, Jesus wrote something in the ground.

The scribes and pharisees waited. When Jesus didn’t say anything, they repeated their accusation over and over. As Jesus stayed silent, can you imagine the looks these men exchanged? Maybe they thought they had Jesus where they wanted him. Did they get more animated every time they said it, or more insistent, or more vicious?

Still Jesus was silent. When he was finished writing on the ground, He straightened up.

“He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her,” Jesus said.

Then Jesus stooped down again and wrote on the ground.

How I wish John had told us what Jesus wrote on the ground that day! There must be a connection between the accusation of this woman and what He wrote in the dirt. While none of us know what Jesus wrote there, we can wonder. Did Jesus write details in the dirt about how these men caught this woman in the act of adultery? Had they set up the whole thing? Or did he write the name of the adulterous man in the dirt? Or did He write the name of each scribe and pharisee there and list their sins? No one knows.

But what is certain is that when they saw what Jesus wrote and heard what He said--they left. The older men left first. One by one each younger man turned and walked away.

Stunned silence must have followed as the woman was left standing alone in the crowd with Jesus.

“Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” asked Jesus.

“No one, Lord,” she answered.

“Neither do I condemn you: go your way. From now on sin no more,” said Jesus.

Jesus does not tell the woman that what she had done was ok—adultery is a sin. He told her to sin no more. Don’t commit adultery.

I believe this event was more about the scribes and pharisees than about the woman. Their role was to teach people about God. Their sin was about trying to trap the Son of God into saying something they could use to arrest Him. They were actively working against God.

God knows our every sin and every motive of our hearts. If Jesus wrote a list of our sins in the dirt for all to see—we would walk away too.

Carla Killough McClafferty