The One Who Should Be Stoned

Now, at this point we could go down a lot of side roads. We could ask questions like… where is the man? I mean, after all, as I heard one preacher say about this story, “It takes two to tango.” Obviously, in the act of adultery there is more than one person involved. So where’s the man? We could also ask how they caught this woman in the very act. Adultery is generally something that is not necessarily done openly for everyone to witness. It’s something that is usually committed in private. Did they have spies outside a brothel and send them rushing in when a man entered? Did they set this woman up by having a man seduce her? How did they catch her red-handed?

All sorts of questions could be asked, and those facts may be interesting to study. But they are not the point this morning. In fact, they are not even the point of the story. The point is that this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. Whoever she was with doesn’t matter. However the Pharisees caught her doesn’t matter. What matters is the fact that she was guilty. And we don’t read of her trying to argue the fact that she was guilty. We don’t hear her making any excuses. There was no need for her to try to explain away what the Pharisees thought they saw. There was no pointing at someone else and saying it was their fault. She was caught red-handed. The law said, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” and she had broken the law. She knew she was guilty. Her guilt was undeniable.

And this morning, the truth is, whether we like it or not, and whether we want to admit it or not, whether we want to own up to the fact or not, we are undeniably guilty as well. Scripture tells us in Romans 3:10 that there is none righteous, no, not one. Later in that same chapter Paul says that all have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God. 1 Kings 8:46 says that there is no one who does not sin. There is not one innocent soul in this room today. There is not one person who can claim to have led a sin-free life. We have no grounds on which to argue against the fact that we are sinners. We have no grounds for arguing against the fact that we have broken the law of God. We can try and argue if we want, and many have done that, but 1 John says, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.

The truth of the matter is, no matter how much we try to deny it, we are guilty. The law has commanded us not to sin and we have committed sin. It has commanded us not to lie and we have lied. It has commanded us to honor our parents and we have done just the opposite. It has commanded us to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, but we have not. It has commanded us to love our neighbor like we love ourselves, but we have not. We have broken the law. We have been proven guilty. And we, like the woman in our text, have been caught red-handed and our guilt is undeniable.

II. The Law Is Unmerciful

The second way I think we can relate to this woman is because not only was her guilt and ours undeniable; but we, like she did, have found that the law is unmerciful. The Pharisees throw this woman at the feet of Jesus and say, “Teacher, we caught this woman in the act of adultery and the law of Moses says to stone her.” And they were right. The OT law had a very harsh penalty for adultery. It was one of those crimes that was awarded by death. It was a capital offense that ranked right up there with murder and witchcraft. Deut. 22 tells us that a married woman or a woman betrothed to be married who was found to have committed adultery was to be taken and stoned. If a man was found guilty of committing adultery with a married woman both were to be taken outside the city and stoned. The penalty for adultery was harsh. And that’s exactly what the Pharisees were demanding. They were demanding justice. This woman had broken the law, she had been caught in the act of adultery and proven guilty; therefore, she deserved to be stoned to death.