INTRODUCTION
I imagine we really like this story of the woman caught in adultery. We especially like the fact that Jesus didn’t condemn the woman – even though the religious experts said that she should be stoned.
But as we reflect on the story, we find that it gives us some quite uncomfortable questions.
Let’s imagine how Jesus might respond to a situation like this if he was alive today.
Islamic law, like Old Testament law, calls for adulterers to be put to death. This isn’t in the Qur’an; it’s part of later writings called hadith.
Let’s suppose that in Nigeria or the UAE, for example, a woman is sentenced to death for adultery. There were such cases in those countries in 2000 and 2002, so it isn’t impossible.
Some Islamic scholars come to Jesus and say, ‘Teacher, hadith says that the punishment for this woman should be death by stoning. What do you say?’ Let’s imagine that Jesus says, ‘That law was appropriate 1000 years ago. But we now live in a different time. That law isn’t appropriate now.’
But the next day, a group of Pharisees and scribes time-travel to the 21st century. They find Jesus and ask a similar question. This is what they say:
‘Teacher, the Old Testament law says that the punishment for the woman should be death. You said that the Old Testament law stands. You said that ‘until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished’ [Matthew 5:18]. The law about adultery comes in Deuteronomy [Deuteronomy 22:22-24]. We know you respect Deuteronomy. When Satan tempted you in the wilderness, you followed God’s commands in Deuteronomy. God commanded ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test’ [Deuteronomy 6:16]. You followed that. God commanded ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve’ [Deuteronomy 6:13]. You followed that. You followed THOSE commands in Deuteronomy. So doesn’t that mean the commands in Deuteronomy still apply? Doesn’t THIS command about adultery still apply? What do you say?’
If Jesus was faced by those time-travelling Pharisees and scribes today, what would he say? I would really like to know! Actually, I would have a further question. If THIS command doesn’t apply now, how do we know if ANY of the Old Testament commands still apply?
So, although this story is really encouraging, it also brings up a very difficult question! I’m not sure that I can answer that question to your complete satisfaction. I’ll give it a go. But even if I can’t answer it, there’s still a lot we can learn.
I’m going to look at the three main actors in the story and see what we can learn from each. There are the Pharisees and scribes. There’s the woman who had committed adultery. And there’s Jesus.
THE PHARISEES AND SCRIBES
In Britain, no one will charge you with adultery. But in a number of US states, there are laws which make adultery a felony. No one has been charged under these laws for 50 or 60 years but they’re still technically in force. In a number of Islamic countries, adultery is also a crime. In Israel in Jesus’ time, adultery was against the law – that is, against the law God had given. If it was against the law then presumably if a person was aware of it, they should do something. So there was nothing wrong with the Pharisees and scribes taking SOME action.
But the way they went about it was definitely wrong. We can see the key issue in verse 6. The Pharisees and scribes present Jesus with the problem. Then John comments: ‘THIS THEY SAID TO TEST HIM, THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE SOME CHARGE TO BRING AGAINST HIM.’
The Pharisees and scribes’ question was not in the least innocent. They weren’t interested in applying the law correctly in the case of this woman. What they wanted was to find a basis to accuse Jesus. And here’s the really important result of that. BECAUSE THEY HAD A HIDDEN AGENDA, THEY WERE NOT QUALIFIED TO BE JUDGES FOR THE WOMAN.
After the Pharisees and scribes ask Jesus about the woman, Jesus doesn’t reply. He writes something on the ground. Then, one by one the Pharisees and scribes slipped away. Perhaps Jesus wrote something that made them realise that if they persisted in seeking the death penalty for the woman, they would bring judgement on themselves. Their motives in bringing the woman to Jesus were certainly not pure. And their lives were very possibly not so pure either. The law didn’t just call for adulteresses to be put to death. It included adulterers too. So, sensibly, they withdrew.
If that hadn’t been the case, could they have judged the woman? I think they could have. Christians sometimes think that they should not judge in any circumstances. That is completely wrong. We only have to go back to the previous chapter in John to see this. Jesus tells some Jews in the temple, ‘Do not judge by appearances, BUT JUDGE WITH RIGHT JUDGEMENT’ [John 7:24]. You SHOULD judge, in other words. Just do it right!
Paul has a lot to say about judging, especially in 1 Corinthians. He tells the Corinthians that they SHOULD judge people in the church – and get rid of wicked people.
As far as possible, we should avoid judging. Not judging is much safer than judging! Jesus said, ‘Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned’ [Luke 6:37]. He also said, ‘For with the judgement you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you’ [Matthew 7:2]. That’s scary!
But although judging is risky and scary, we as a society need to provide justice. We shouldn’t shy away from playing our part in providing justice. On one occasion Jesus criticised the Pharisees. They had done well in some areas. ‘BUT’, Jesus said, ‘you have neglected the more important matters of the law – JUSTICE, MERCY and FAITHFULNESS’ [Matthew 23:23].
Take a moment to absorb this. We may think that the law is only about justice. But Jesus said that ‘…the more important matters of the law are justice, mercy and faithfulness.’ The law isn’t only about justice. There’s a place for mercy too. Perhaps there’s sometimes a tension, but as we follow God’s law, we need to think about justice AND mercy. The Pharisees and scribes who brought the woman to Jesus were strong on justice. They weren’t so strong on mercy.
What are the lessons we can learn from the Pharisees and scribes?
Administering justice is a good and honourable thing to do. BUT … when we pass judgement, we need to be very careful indeed! Do we have a hidden agenda? If we do, then we won’t be impartial. Are we thinking about justice AND mercy? We need to.
Let’s move on to the next person in the story, the woman who had committed adultery.
THE WOMAN WHO HAD COMMITTED ADULTERY
Although the woman is at the centre of the story, she doesn’t have much of a role. She says just three words. She acknowledged that no one had remained to condemn her.
One thing we can say about the woman is that she didn’t deny what she had done. She didn’t try to justify herself or excuse herself. That’s a great place to be if we’re looking for mercy from God.
But there’s something else we can learn from the woman. OUR situation is very similar to the woman’s. Like the woman, WE should be condemned – but by God’s grace we are not. Paul wrote, ‘There is therefore now NO CONDEMNATION for those who are in Christ Jesus’ [Romans 8:1]. Praise God! Jesus told the woman, ‘Neither do I condemn you.’ But then he added, ‘Go, and from now on sin no more.’ Jesus did not condone the woman’s sin. He told her to address it.
The same applies to us. After Paul wrote, ‘There is therefore now no condemnation’ he went on to say that we must not continue to live according to the flesh. By the Spirit we need to put to death the deeds of the body.
What are the lessons we can learn from the woman?
Putting ourselves in the woman’s place, we can praise God that he doesn’t condemn us. But that does NOT mean we just go on as before. We need to deal with sin in our lives.
Let’s now go on to the third person in the story, Jesus.
JESUS
Jesus’ attitude towards the woman was very different to the Pharisees and scribes’ attitude. To them, she wasn’t important. They saw her situation as an opportunity to pull Jesus down. If she was shamed or even killed in the process it didn’t bother them. They didn’t value her or try to protect her. But to Jesus, she was definitely valuable and he acted to protect her.
Jesus didn’t say anything to the Pharisees and scribes who were accusing her. He wrote on the ground. Whatever he wrote, it was enough to persuade them to stop their accusations. They left. That helped the woman – and it also helped them. If they had judged in that situation they would have found themselves under the microscope before very long.
Jesus is a great example to us here. At the end of Proverbs there is some instruction that King Lemuel was given by his mother. She told him, ‘Open your mouth, judge righteously, DEFEND THE RIGHTS OF THE POOR AND NEEDY’ [Proverbs 31:9]. Jesus didn’t literally open his mouth but he certainly did defend the rights of the poor and needy woman. We need to do the same as we have opportunity.
We’ve already looked at what Jesus said to the woman. After her accusers had left, Jesus asked her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ Jesus then said, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.’
Jesus didn’t CONDEMN the woman. Then he told her, ‘Go, and from now on sin no more.’ He didn’t CONDONE what she had done. She needed to address the issue. She needed to make changes.
What are the lessons we can learn from Jesus?
We should follow Jesus’ example. We shouldn’t be in a hurry to condemn. There are lots of things which we do which are really ways of condemning. We blame. We say: ‘It was his fault.’ We point the finger. Maybe it really was his fault! The woman in our story really had messed up. But Jesus DIDN’T CONDEMN HER. He didn’t give her a hard time. Maybe a friend or someone at church made a mistake. Maybe it caused us some problems. But let’s remember Jesus, who was not in a hurry to condemn, who found a place for mercy. After not condemning, we can suggest the person does the thing differently in the future.
THE DIFFICULT QUESTION
We’ve looked at the Pharisees and scribes, at the woman and at Jesus. But I haven’t answered the difficult question. Does that Old Testament law stand? Should the adulterer be put to death?
Jesus doesn’t answer the question, certainly not in a black and white way. But there are other passages in the New Testament which make the situation a lot clearer. Those passages tell us that the sexually immoral will not have an inheritance in the kingdom of God. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 is an example. Paul writes:
‘Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers … (nor various other categories) … will inherit the kingdom of God.’
There are several other verses like that. [I’m thinking of Ephesians 5:5 and Revelation 21:8 and 22:15]. So the New Testament’s message is very similar to the Old Testament’s. Sexual immorality means no inheritance in the kingdom of God. It’s actually even more serious than physical death.
This may come as a big surprise to us. Western society today is absolutely casual about sex. Its attitude is poles apart from God’s attitude. The Christian must decide whose voice to listen to: God’s or society’s. Jesus did not condemn the woman who was sexual immoral. But he told her to leave her life of sin. We need to sit up and listen.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, thank you for this wonderful story.
Help us please to learn from the Pharisees, that we need to be VERY careful before we judge. Our motives need to be pure. And we need to keep justice AND mercy in view.
Help us please to learn from the woman and remember that we’re in very much the same situation as her. We thank and praise you that you don’t condemn us. We also remember that just as you called on her to sin no more, you call on us to do the same.
Help us please to learn to learn from your example. Help us to defend the rights of the poor and needy. Help us not to condemn. Help us to keep mercy in mind.
And help us, please, to remember that you, Lord, do not take sexual immorality lightly. Help us not to take on the views of society around us but remember your law.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
TALK GIVEN AT ROSEBERY PARK BAPTIST CHURCH, BOURNEMOUTH, UK, SUNDAY 26TH MARCH, 10.30 A.M. SERVICE.
