The Woman Caught in Adultery

John 7.53-8.11 | Ps Fletcher Heyward | 9.11.2025

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Transcript

So today we'll be looking at John 7.53 to 8.11. I know that's 2 chapters, but it's just the very last verse of John chapter 7. So 7.53 to 8.11. 

Then they all went home, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn, he appeared again in the temple courts where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group, and said to Jesus. Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say? 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. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let any one of you who is without sin be the 1st to throw a stone at her." Again, he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones 1st, until only Jesus was left with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" "No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared, "Go now and leave your life of sin."

We're in the middle of a short sermon series at the moment on gospel, what is the gospel? What are the basics? And this passage fits in really well with that today, because it is in itself a little mini gospel, a microcosm of what the good news of Jesus is all about. You ever watch a movie or read a book where there's just one little scene that defines an entire character. You could look at any part of that movie or read any part of that book. If you reference this scene, you know exactly who that person is and what they're about. I'm a big Lord of the Rings fan. And I think about the fellowship of the ring, the 1st film, where they're about to be attacked, the fellowship is about to split up, and Frodo offers the ring to Aragon, because Frodo feels too weak to be able to do this by himself. And, you know, Aragon is this amazing, capable, you know, future king. And Aragon steps forward, and it looks like he's about to take the ring, but he closes Frodo's hands over, and tells him to go and complete the quest, and he turns around to face a horde of orcs that are about to kill them and fends them off seemingly by himself. We know from that moment, Aragon is a person who is noble, who will protect the little one and who won't give in to temptation. So microcosm of his character throughout that whole movie. We get that a little bit, what this good news of Jesus is, we get that in this passage. And for me, reading this passage this week. There are 3 questions that come to mind as I look through it. Who are we? Who is God? And when we find the answer to those questions, what is our response to that?

But before we get into the passage, it's worth addressing the place of this story in scripture. Because as you read this in your Bibles, you might have this passage in italics, or you might have brackets before this, that says that originally this passage in earliest manuscripts either wasn't in the earliest manuscripts, or it was in a different place in John, or it was even in the book of Luke instead of John. So what are we to do with this? Does that mean that this was a story that was invented later and then put into the scriptures? Should it be in Luke instead of John? Some people says it makes more sense in Luke or in these other passages in John. Looking at the passages just before it. It was the Feast of Tabernacles, where Jesus had been having dialogues, teaching crowds, and having these back and forth with the Pharisees, and then in the passage today, We see that again. So I don't think it doesn't fit here. From what I've read, Christian scholars are in agreement that this story is canonical. It's a part of scripture. And these stories were passed on orally, a strong oral tradition before they were written down. It even says in the very last verse of John, uh 21, 25. If everything Jesus did was written down. I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. Look, as we come to this story today, we can see that it is Jesus through and through. We can have confidence that it is true, that it is good for our instruction, and that wherever it has ended up landing in our scriptures, that God has willed it to be there and we can learn from it.

So to the passage. Well, as I said, this story takes place towards the end of the feast of tabernacles where he was teaching in the temple, teaching the crowds and in the last chapter, he's already had a couple of run-ins with the Pharisees. And he's been talking about how he's sent by the Father, that he has authority that comes directly from God the Father to teach and to heal, and about forgiving sins, and there are already rumours among the crowds that because of this, the Pharisees are plotting to kill Jesus. And then on the flip side, there are those who say, well, the fact that he's so radical and the Pharisees haven't yet seized him is an endorsement that this Jesus figure is the Messiah. So we should all follow him. There are temple guards on duty, where Jesus is teaching, and they go back and report to the chief priests that they just couldn't bring themselves to arrest him because of the way he spoke with authority. So the Pharisees come to him again on this day as they do a few times throughout scripture, and they try to set a trap for him. And this was quite a sophisticated trap. Because Jesus has both been affirming the law of Moses, while also radically, and in the eyes of the Pharisees, blasphemously, he's been very merciful and compassionate at the same time. So they bring before him this woman, caught in adultery, and ask if they should stone her, because that's what the law commands. And so should Jesus be characteristically merciful and refuse? Well, then he's in contempt of the law of Moses. And so the Pharisees would have grounds to label him a heretic. He'd be unlawful and he can be dismissed and even punished accordingly. But if he agrees that she should be stoned, well, this whole crowd that has been following him, all these followers that he have, especially the poor and marginalised, well, they probably wouldn't want to follow him anymore because he's turning away from this path of mercy and compassion that he's laid out. But even more than that, if he was to commander Stoning, he'd be in contempt of the Roman law. During Jesus trial in John 1831, the Jewish leaders take Jesus to Pilate to be put on trial and executed because they don't have the right to do so, it says that in that verse. Now, when the Romans would go around and they would conquer people, they would allow them to continue practising their own religions, but they would take the role of the state law. So the groups didn't have the authority to execute. So now Jesus is stuck in this situation where he's either violating Jewish law, or he's violating the Roman law, and either way he can land in a lot of trouble. And all of this, of course, is we haven't even spoken about the woman herself. paraded around as nothing but a wicked object lesson, shamed in front of the crowd, and not even addressed as this scene plays out.

Now, the mosaic law does indeed command the stoning of a woman caught in adultery. But it commands the same of the man she was caught with as well. Leviticus 2010. It says that you stone both of them. Where is he in this picture? As much as the law had a strict policy for the consequence of sin like this, it also had a strict law on the nature of these accusations. In Deuteronomy 176, it says, one eyewitness is not enough to convict someone to put them to death. You have to have 2 people who are eyewitnesses to the event. So, 2 people have presumably caught this woman in the act of adultery, but not the man, how does that work? Is he a part of the crowd of accusers? Did he simply get away? Did these two people see her, but not him? It seems unlikely. We don't know where he is. But again, this reveals to us that the Pharisees are less interested in upholding the law here than trying to trap and accuse and quash Jesus and his movement. Deuteronomy 176 says you need 2 witnesses, the very next verse says, the hands of those witnesses must be the 1st in putting those people to death. So if you are going to make such a big accusation with such a serious consequence, then you need to be ready to bear the weight of responsibility that comes with it. In the Old Testament, we see over and over again through these laws that God calls on his people to be holy and pure, and to root out all unrighteousness, and that's the reason that he passes down these laws so that his community can be pure. And in some instances, like with this law, he hands over his own authority over life and death to his people, but says, if you want to take the place of God, you need to really understand what it means to accuse and to carry out this sentence. And so the Pharisees, here in the midst of trying to protect what is really important to them, the laws through which they find God, and through which they can be holy, they've twisted it, to trap Jesus, to shame this woman, and with seemingly no regard for whether or not in that process, she ends up dying.

So what does Jesus do? He bends down and he writes something in the dirt. Uh, There are a number of theories as to exactly what he writes in the dirt, good ones too, ones that make a lot of sense to me, but I don't think we can be sure if any of them. But we know that he stops, and he takes time to write on the ground, or they continue to fire questions at him about this. He says, "let any of you who is without this without sin be the 1st to throw a stone at her." And he bends back down and keeps writing. Where are the 2 supposed witnesses to this adultery? Where are they to come forth? Where are those holy and righteous Pharisees without sin who can come and take the place of God, choosing to take life? Jesus doesn't say don't stone her, he says if there really is a case to be made using the law, then those subject to it and those bearing the weight of its responsibility. Step forward. Now, as disingenuous as this trap was, the Pharisees really did love the law and believed that God worked through it and was revealed through it. And while we now today have the benefit of hindsight, knowing that the law would be fulfilled in Jesus, I look at this moment and I look at the Pharisees having a real moment of realisation that we tried to take the place of God without his proper authority. We twisted the law here. And so these questions, who are we and who is God? Jesus is looking at them going, who are you, that you think you can take his place, that you can twist his law for your own benefit. And it lands for the Pharisees. One by one, starting with the oldest, read wisest, they turn away, shastised, and hopefully contemplative about what has just transpired here. But to be honest with you, as clever and exciting as all that is, once again, Jesus faced with 2 impossible choices, find the transcendent 3rd option, that's not the story here. The story is the woman.

But she's not out of trouble yet. Alex preached a couple of weeks ago to start this series on the gospel, and he started with the fall in Genesis, Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit, deceived by the serpent. And the more I read of scripture, the more it occurs to me that everything we do, that in everything we do, there are really only 2 options, and it comes back to that story in Genesis, and those questions, who are we? Who is God and what is our response? We have 2 options, the tree of life, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And throughout scripture, this is explored as wisdom and foolishness, light and darkness, righteous and wicked, life and death. Do we choose to trust that God is God to submit to him, to freely eat from the tree of life and all the rest of the garden, or do we allow ourselves to be deceived, to try and take the place of God and eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Like the Pharisees, do we try to take the place of God? to make decisions that are beyond our authority. The woman is not out of trouble yet. Those who would take the place if God are gone, only she and Jesus remain, but she has sinned. Even if the Pharisees misuse the law to bring her to this place, the story reveals. She has sinned, and the only one who remains, is the one that does have authority to condemn her. And now she, like Adam and Eve, confronted in the garden with their nakedness and their shame, she stands ashamed, proverbially naked, and alone before Jesus. But he waits until all are gone. This is very pastoral, addressing her directly now and her only. This isn't a show for the crowd. This is just for her. "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" "No one, sir." "Then neither do I condemn you. Go now, and leave your life of sin." That is the gospel of Christ. That the only one who really has the authority to condemn us would choose not to, that we may be free.

And so we too are confronted with the same questions, who are we? Who is God? What is our response? Well, who are we? Like Adam and Eve? Like the Pharisees, like the woman, we are human, fallen, sinful humans, presented with the same 2 options as there were in the very beginning. Do we trust that God wants what is best for us? Do we submit to him? We trust that he will look after us. Or will we seek our own security? Will we try and take the place of God in our own lives? Or let others dictate what should take the place of God in our lives? The point of the Adam and Eve story is not that they ruined it for the rest of us. The point is that we've all made that same choice. And who is God? Well, he's the same God yesterday. Today, and forever. He's the God that demands justice, but he is also the compassionate God that says, "then neither do I condemn you." We all stand face to face with Jesus, presented with this question, if we see ourselves in God for who we really are, then the crowds melt away. The ones who would seek to distract the ones with their own agendas, who purport to have authority, who would really only obscure who Jesus is. And we too are left sinners face to face with the creator of the universe who says to us, I do not condemn you.

So that 3rd question, what is our response? Well, Jesus, of course, leaves her and us with a command. "Go now and leave your life of sin." We don't hear about the woman again in scripture. When we read the gospels, we tend to assume that those who encounter Jesus come away transformed and they are saved unless it's explicitly written otherwise, which seems fair, but we don't know. I like to think that in response to coming to know who Jesus really is, in that moment, she did her best to leave the life of sin behind. I wonder if the man, her co-adulterer ever had his sins brought to light. If he ever really had the chance to confront his sin with Jesus with God, and to come away transformed, or if he continued to hide his sin and shame away. Of course, the manner in which this woman's sins were so publicly and shamefully put on display is horrific, but Jesus, in a way that only he can still finds a way to confront it gently, just between him and the woman. And he doesn't start with, we'll use sin again or no, then nor do I condemn you, he starts with, I alone have the power and authority to condemn you, and you have sinned, but that is not what I want for you. Therefore, in the light of my forgiveness. Go and lead a transformed life. There is nothing we can say, no promise we can make, and no amount of good deeds we can perform to make Jesus say, I don't condemn you. He offers it freely to us. This is the gospel. That Jesus has set us free and there's nothing we can do to earn it. There's also nothing we can do that is so bad to tear that forgiveness away from us. He starts with forgiveness, not do better.

Of course, for Jesus to start with forgiveness. That means there's something that needs to be forgiven. And it's easy to talk about sin as the general bad human thing that makes it hard for us to be good people or to read these stories and kind of dislocate it from ourselves, but we all, we all have stuff. And you know your stuff, and I know my stuff. Don't be the adulterous man in his story who hides away from his sin and misses the opportunity to come to Jesus face to face and experience real forgiveness. Again, I don't think the public shaming in the town screw is the right way to go about confronting it, though often it is most helpful to involve one or 2 trusted people, a pastor or a friend or a mentor when we do confront these things. But we do need to confront our sin. Confronting our sin is hard. And may seem harder still when the one we confess it to, is the creator of the universe himself with the power and authority to condemn. But Jesus starts with forgiveness. It's one of those things that seems like the hardest thing in the world to do until you do it. And we don't do it because shame helps us feel like we need to be better people. No, we do it because it sets us free. I can tell you that in the moments in my life when I've had to confront my own sin with God, my experience has not been one of spiralling shame, but of liberating love.

So who are we? Human, sinful, frail, inclined to put ourselves or other things in the place of God. And who is God? The creator. The only one with real power and authority. But also the one who would not condemn, but forgive and forgive again. And what is our response? Well, yes, to go and do our best to go and sin no more, but to do so in the light of the freedom that comes from forgiveness and forgiveness again and again. Ordinarily, I would pray to close the sermon, but I'm just gonna read this from Romans chapter 8, verses one and two. It says this. "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. Amen.