She was just seconds away from being stoned to death, and everything hinged on His response to the question, “What do you say?”
That’s the suspense to one of my favorite stories in the Bible. In John 8, we read that Jesus was teaching in the temple when the scribes and Pharisees “brought a woman who had been caught in adultery.” (John 8:3) They said to Jesus, “Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. (John 8:5-6).
That potential charge, according to biblical scholars, was a catch-22 for Jesus. If He sides with Moses for the stoning, He will be accused before the Roman authorities because under Roman law, adultery was not punishable by death. But if Jesus decides against Moses and the punishment of stoning, He will be prosecuted before the Sanhedrin for opposing the law. It seemed He couldn’t win. The woman’s life was on the line.
This wasn’t the first time they had tried to entrap and discredit Jesus and his teachings with trick questions. In Matthew 22:17, He was asked, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” In Matthew 22:36, one of the Pharisees (who was an expert in the law) asked, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
In each attempt, Jesus outsmarts his enemies to the crowd’s amazement. This situation with the woman would be no different.
In John 8:7, Jesus stood up and responded to their question about the stoning, “Let him who is without sin among you, cast the first stone at her.”
It was brilliant. Jesus forced them to look in the mirror at their own sins, and their hypocrisy rendered them speechless. Can you imagine the look on their faces? Can you imagine the woman’s face as the men dropped their stones and went away, one by one, until she was alone with her Savior?
I love the rhetorical question that Jesus used to break the stunned silence.
“Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again.” (John 8:10-11)
That’s the moment when I could imagine a movie theatre crowd standing up and roaring with applause. This story is such a powerful reminder about hypocrisy, forgiveness, and most importantly, love.
When I think about our sermon series, What The World Needs Now, I can’t help but remember this awesome story. We can all remember a time when someone unfairly judged us, or accused us of wrongdoing without knowing the facts. And if we think about it, we can probably remember a time when we were guilty of judging others.
In 1 Corinthians 13:6, the Apostle Paul writes that love “…does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.” The world really needs that kind of love right now. What do you say?
– Ed Doney, Writer/Videographer
