The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery to Jesus, in order to have a basis for accusing him. They asked him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?"
Why did they bring this to Jesus? It’s becuase it was a dilemma to deal with such women. One the one hand, the Law regulates to stone such women (Deut. 22:22-24; Lev. 20:10). One the other hand, however, the Roman law did not sanction any death penalty by the Jewish self-government. Israelites were deprived by the Roman rulers of the right to excute death penalty, according to Josephus, 40 years before the destruction of Jerusalem(70 A.D.). That means, that already in the year of 30 A.D. they were deprived of the right to execute death penalty. So it was a dilemma to deal with such women. Not to stone her will directly violate the law of Moses. But obeying the law of Moses will automatically violate the Roman laws. Obeying the law of Moses would make Jesus be subjected to the Roman law. Rejecting the stoning would make him be despised by the Israelites.
At this, Jesus did not answer anything. He just bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. I can not fully understand what this meant for the contemporaries. Maybe it was very strange to them, too. We know this because the teachers of the law and the Pharisees kept on questioning him, while he was writing something on the ground.
We can get a hint, however, from Roman court customs. At that time in the Roman court, it is said that the judges wrote the verdict before they sentenced it. If we read our story from the Roman background, Jesus’ writing on the ground might have meant that Jesus was writing a verdict on the ground on this case.
Some scholars conjecture, however, that Jesus’ writing is closely related to Jeremiah 17:23, where it says "O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water." Based upon the verse, some conjectures that Jesus was writing the names of accusers on the ground and by this performance Jesus meant a condemnation upon the accusers. It is a nice conjecture, but not sure.
Any way, the accusers kept on questioning Jesus. Then Jesus straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." According to the law of Moses, it is the witnesses who should throw a stone first(Deut. 13:9; 17:7). Jesus just modified a word and meant any one without sin.
Surprise! Those who were accusing the woman began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left. They came with the confidence that the woman should be stoned. They came with the thought that the woman was a sinner and they were righteous. When they caught the woman from the adulterous scene, they were furious at her. However, when the word of Jesus was once uttered, they could now see their true identity. The light of Jesus shined upon their hearts and they could see their inner being. They thought they were right. But they were not! They were sinners, too. So they began to go away one at a time. They thought they were OK. They thought it was the woman only who should be stoned! But the light of Jesus was given to them and they could see their inner being. When they see the true Jesus and the true their identities, they could not stand there any more.
Yes, dear brothers and sisters in Christ!
We ARE all sinners. When we hear about the criminals, like robbers, adulterous people, thieves, etc, we often think that we are OK and they are to be sentenced. No! It is not true. We are also sinners, too. We seem OK, because our standards are crooked. We often compare ourselves with others and think that we are generally OK. We are doing good things. We are not doing wrong things. Like the Pharisees, who compared himself a the tax-collector and concluded himself to be righteous, we are apt to think that we are OK.
However, what if we come before God? What if we stop comparing ourselves with others, but start to see ourselves according to the standards of the most holy God? Then Peter’s confession will be our only proper response. Then Isaiah’s confession will be our only inevitable outcome. "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man."(Luke 5:8) "Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty." (Isa. 6:5)
Once I read an article from a Korean newspaper about the Christianity. The writer told his experience of listening a sermon heard from a Christian broadcasting. The preacher said, according to him, "Even though you do good things, you cannot go to the heaven. Only through Jesus you can come to the heaven. If you do not know God, you shall go to the hell." He adds that the threatening message of the pastor has made him abhor the Christianity and accused some bad aspects of the church behaviors.
When I read the article I felt the depth of the feeling by non-Christians about the churches. When the churches stop being the light of the world, I realized, the church would get the accusation from the non-believers. Also I have felt that the preacher’s expresssion in the article is not rightly express. If I were the preacher, I would have preached, "If you do good things and have done nothing wrong, yoy CAN go to the heaven." But the problem is that there is no such a good person in the whole world!(Rome 3:10)
Once I have attended a missionary commission ceremony held at a local church in Hartford, CT. Miss Hong, the missionary had a chance to say something to the congregation. "Yesterday there was a farewell party for me. Everyone said to me. ’It is sad to send you, a person like an angel, away too far. I will miss you so much.’ But I do not know who they are referring to. I am not an angel, but a sinner who might be perished without the grace of God."
In today’s story Jesus forgave the woman. I am wondering if you have noticed the fact that Jesus did forgave her, not becasue she asked so. There is nothing to show that the forgiveness came from any merit from the woman. Jesus just forgave her.
St. Augustine once mentioned that there are two misunderstandings in our lives. (1) one that we now may do anything wrong because God will forgive whatever we will have done. Yes. Jesus’ forgiveness is not the license of doing bad thnigs. (2) one that there is some hugh sins that God cannot forgive. Yes, there is not too big sins for God to forgive.
Once I see a comic from a Christian magazine based on this story. The first cut shows the woman caught on adultery. The second cut shows that people are questioning. The third cut shows Jesus’ word, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." The forth cut shows that everyone left except Jesus and the woman. And the fifth cut suddenly a stone was thrown from the heaven and the woman’s head got a bump! In the last cut, Jesus faced up to the heaven and yelled, "Dad, Do Not Disturb what I am doing!"
How funny it was! I have enjoyed the comic. And a little later, I raised questions about the misimplcation that the comic might give to the readers. The comic was wrong because it implicates that God is not merciful. Wrong because it implicates that there are some diffentiation between the Father and the Son.
Later when I am preparing the sermon, I was reminded of the comic and could not help admitting that the comic is REALLY true. If God wants to punish her, he could. God is holy and without sin. So God could punish her, if he wanted. But the truth is... he did not. No, he did. He punished Jesus, his only son, instead.
When Jamie, my first daughter, was three years old, she had a sickness. She lost her taste and did not eat anything. My wife, Yoosun, tried to make her eat anything. Jamie liked a funny shape... so Yoosun made a food with a rabbit shape. But Jamie refused to try it at all. A day later she was exhausted, becaue she did not eat anything. Yoosun gave her a banana by chance without any expectation. Then what a surprise! She began to eat it! Then Yoosun bursted into tears. "What a foolish Mom I was! I must have given her a banana early!" After that day we call banana "banana of tears."
What we cannot understand is that God the Father gave his only begotten Son to us to be crucified on the cross for the ransom.
