The most powerful suggestion as to what and why Jesus was writing in the sand comes from William Barclay. He offers that ¡§Jesus was writing in the dust the sins of the very men who were accusing the woman.¡¨ To go on, ¡§Jesus was saying, ¡§Yes, you may stone her ¡V but only if you never wanted to do the same thing yourselves.¡¨ Jesus was not only confronting the woman with the wickedness of her adultery but he was exposing the hidden desires of the human heart to want to commit acts of sin.
Barclay suggests that Jesus was not taking the woman¡¦s sin lightly but he was deferring her sentence, as if to be saying to her, ¡§I am not going to pass a final judgment now; go and prove that you can do better¡KAt the end of the day we will see how you have lived.¡¨