People Pt. 3: Caught In The Act
People were gathered all around Jesus at the temple, their ears inclined as this still not-quite-fitting-the-puzzle rabbi sat down and began to teach them. But then suddenly, an interruption. The scribes and the Pharisees pushing through the crowd to bring forth a woman, exposed and trying desperately to hide herself from onlooking eyes. Her shame placed on a pedestal for all to see, no room for invisibility here. “Jesus, Jesus! Look at this woman, she has been caught in the act of adultery! Surely if there is to be justice, she must be stoned? Isn’t that what the Law says? What say you Jesus?”.
The men who have brought her forward care little for justice, though they would hope to cover their selfish intentions with such a statement. In reality, these men are using this woman to try to trick Jesus so “that they might have some charge to bring against him” (John 8 vs 6). I can imagine this woman, fearful of what might happen to her, deeply ashamed, deeply embarrassed as she stood/sat/lay there, harshly exposed to scorn, judgement and disgust. I can imagine her awaiting Jesus’ response with bated breath; how was this man going to deal with her?
Then suddenly, the man bends down; is he reaching for a stone? Will this be the woman’s fate? But no. In an act that puzzles both the woman and all onlookers, the man starts writing in the ground. I can just imagine it: heads inclining all around to see what Jesus was busy writing, watching closely his hand and the script in the sand. We as readers of this story can only imagine what it was he wrote in the ground that day. But we can have no doubt that it was probably soaked in the same grace that Jesus shows the woman in the moments to come. The men continue to ask him their question, impatient for their answer, impatient to finally catch him out.
And then, Jesus stands up, ready to respond. “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her”. Silence. And he bends down to write on the ground once more. This was not the answer the scribes and Pharisees had expected, they were meant to be addressing someone else’s unrighteousness, not their own. They were supposed to be laying a charge against Jesus, but now they see they had laid a charge against themselves. Even in their self-righteousness, they could not claim perfection. And so, one by one, as each realises what has been said, they leave; none can cast the stone.
And eventually, after it seems that the story for a moment may have forgotten the exposed woman, Jesus is left alone with the woman before Him. Jesus, the one man who could cast the stone. The one man who was without sin and could have given this woman what her sin would’ve deserved. But he doesn’t cast a stone, not at all. This Saviour looks at her, engages and asks a question. “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” — I love this question. I love that what started out as a moment where she stood exposed, her sin in plain sight, people looking on her with scorn, has now become a moment where Jesus shows her that all have sinned and fallen short. He does not count her any more or less a sinner than the rest. And then, He continues with the words she had been waiting her whole life to hear, she just didn’t know it yet: “Neither do I condemn you, go, and from now on sin no more.”
She receives forgiveness, she is shown mercy and gifted grace. She walks away knowing that she has been given what she does not deserve, and Jesus’s words imply that that sort of gift changes us, it calls us to walk in a manner worthy of the gift — sin no more! There is a new way of life for this woman, one where she is fully seen and known (like the moment in the midst of the people), yet this time fully loved and gifted grace (like Jesus’s response to her sin).
Truthfully, we never hear about the woman’s response to Jesus’s actions that day, we don’t know if she did go and sin no more. But this story is a beautiful reminder for both the Pharisee and the adulterer in us. We have been the Pharisee, eager to cast judgement, to cast stones at people we thought didn’t quite meet the standard. But we quickly realise in the life of faith that we cannot cast stones, for we will be judged “in the same way [we] judge others” (Matt 7 vs 2). Who are we to parade people before Jesus and demand that he deal harshly with them, just because we think we know what He should do? We too have been the adulterer, ashamed and in need of an act of radical grace. Without Jesus’ kindness towards us we would have no hope for life in abundance! We are no longer called to live a life of self-condemnation, Jesus has set us free from that!
“The wonderful grace of Jesus
Deep as the rolling sea
It runs to the most forgotten
It runs through eternity
It says I’m a child of heaven
It says I’m forever free
The wonderful grace of Jesus
It always reaches me”
- Tasha Cobbs Leonard, Wonderful Grace
