Love: Justice and Mercy

John 7:53-8:11

Last week I talked, in part, about healing and how the ministry of Jesus is inexorably connected with healing. Today’s text begins with Jesus in the temple doing what he did wherever he was, teaching and healing. The underlying drama in this story is that it takes place at the end of Jesus’ ministry when the religious leaders are trying to trap him. They have decided he needs to be killed and are trying to find a reason to condemn him to death. So as Jesus sits in the temple courtyard, teaching, the religious leaders and the crowd they have attracted come to him with a married woman they discovered having intercourse with a man who was not her husband.

Let’s look at this event from the woman’s perspective. We don’t know why she was having an affair with another man, but she was caught in the act by her husband. He takes her to the religious leaders who see in this woman an opportunity to trap Jesus and they seize her, dragging and pushing her to the temple. When they arrive, she stands in front of Jesus in the position of the accused.

What is she feeling? To start with, she is embarrassed and  humiliated. Men and women who have affairs are not emotionally and spiritually whole people. Perhaps she was looking for someone to love her because her husband was not loving her. But whatever part of her that was wounded has now been dragged out into the open. What she did in secret is now being shouted from the rooftop. She may have been privately ashamed of what she was doing but now her shame is a matter of public discourse.

She is embarrassed, humiliated, and adding to this is the injustice of being here without the man who was involved. It takes two people to have intercourse and if she was caught in the act, where did the man go? If he ran away, it is hard to believe that he was not known and could not be found. Added to all the woman is feeling is the injustice of knowing that in her culture, it is always the woman who suffers, never the man.

When Errol Muller goes to register the babies of Ain Leuh, he always has the same discussion with the registrar. The registrar makes some comment about what a shame these women are who keep having illegitimate babies. They are a disgrace. Errol asks about the father and the man dismisses them. It is not their fault. They are not to blame. It is these women who bear the responsibility. It is these women who cannot control their sexual desires.

The disgrace and huge injustice done in much of the world today and in the culture of this story is that women face the consequences for their sexual sin while the men walk away without any responsibility or shame.

I am grateful that Jesus elevated the status of women by teaching the equality of male and female in society. May God bless our world and free women from the cultural imprisonment they face.

The woman is embarrassed, humiliated, hurt by the injustice of what they are doing to her, but she is also terrified.

If she didn’t know the law, then she has received an education as she has been dragged from place to place. When her husband took her to the religious leaders, she undoubtedly heard them talk about the Law. Her husband probably told her she would be stoned for her offense and if he didn’t the religious leaders did. As she is dragged from place to place, she begins to realize that she does not have long to live. The reality that they are going to stone her begins to sink in. Does she have any children? If so, she thinks of them and the probability she will never see them again. She thinks of her parents and brothers and sisters and friends. She will not even be permitted to say goodby to them. She is being dragged away and taken to her death and now all that stands between her and her death is this teacher sitting in the temple courtyard.

As the woman stands in front of Jesus, surrounded by her accusers, she is embarrassed, humiliated, hurt by the injustice of what is being done to her and terrified of being very shortly killed.

Her accusers begin to spin their trap as they address Jesus.
“Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.  5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”

The Law of Moses is clear on this point. In Leviticus 20:10 we read:
If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.

Again, notice here that the law condemns both the male and the female involved in adultery. and in fact puts the man first. But this was the law and the Pharisees wanted to see what Jesus would do. Jesus has a reputation of forgiving women who have been prostitutes and they are, in fact, among his most fervent followers. Now they wait to see what Jesus will do with this woman.

Jesus is sitting as they speak to him and after he hears their question, he leans forward and begins to write on the dust of the earth with his finger. Is Jesus stalling for time until he can think of what to do? Is he writing words? Drawing a picture? Just doodling?

As Jesus writes on the ground, the teachers of the law and Pharisees keep questioning him. They may be feeling stronger and stronger. They have set the trap and Jesus is stalling because he has no way out of the trap. They begin to feel very satisfied with themselves. The woman stands there and as the religious leaders feel more and more confident, she feels more and more certain that her death is just moments away.

After hearing their questions and arguments, Jesus straightens up, looks them in the eye and says,
“If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”

And after throwing this unexpected bombshell, he stoops over again and continues to write on the ground. All of a sudden the accusers are silent.

Why are the Pharisees and teachers of the Law suddenly silent? They pride themselves in their obedience to the Law. Why did they not pick up stones and begin to stone her?

Some have speculated and I think I agree that when Jesus was writing on the ground, he was writing down a list of sins these accusers had committed. Perhaps he was writing down names of people the accusers had sinned against. I recently read a book by John Wimber who started what is essentially a worldwide denomination called the Vineyard Church.

In this book he talks about being on a plane and sitting across the aisle from a man. God gave him an insight, what he calls a word of knowledge. He saw the word adultery written across the man’s forehead. Then the name Jane came to his mind and then the insight that if this man did not stop this affair, he would soon die. He spoke to the man and asked him if the name, “Jane,” meant anything to him. The man grabbed Wimber and they went to another part of the plane to talk and the end of the story is that the man gave his life to Christ and went back to his seat to beg forgiveness from his wife who was flying with him.

Perhaps it was words of knowledge that came to Jesus and he wrote in the dust the information about the sins these men had committed. The reason I think this to be the case is that the accusers who were publically known as upright and righteous men and who prided themselves on being righteous and upright were silent. Telling them, “He who is without sin cast the first stone,” I don’t think was enough to silence them.

Do you remember the story of Jesus healing the man born blind? As the Pharisees investigated the case, they made a big deal about Jesus being a sinner and the man who was given his sight being a sinner. When the man who was given his sight begins to lecture them, they respond in this way:
“You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!”

With this attitude, the accusers of the woman would have competed with each other to see who could throw the first stone. But what Jesus wrote on the ground destroyed their public facade of righteousness and one by one, starting with the oldest of the accusers, they began to leave.

With the silence, for the first time, the woman begins to feel a ray of hope. When the first of the accusers leaves, she can’t believe what is happening. But then, one by one they leave and as each one leaves, she has more reason to hope and gradually experiences the euphoria of having been given a death sentence and then being pardoned.

They continue to leave. She stands there looking intently at Jesus. Jesus doesn’t look up and continues to write on the ground.

Finally, the woman’s savior – that’s what she feels about him at the time but she doesn’t yet know that he can save her from more than this physical death. Finally, the woman’s savior looks up and addresses her for the first time.
“Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

Her euphoria is mixed with reverence for this man, her savior, who has rescued her from certain death and she replies.
11 “No one, sir.”

And then come life giving words that went straight to her heart.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Who, among those with the woman was without sin and able to cast the first stone? Only Jesus. Jesus had the moral right to condemn her and stone her to death. But this woman experiences the mercy of Jesus. He says, “Then neither do I condemn you.” She experiences his mercy but also his justice. He tells her, “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

How does the story end? Did she leave her life of sin? We don’t know. She still had to face the cultural embarrassment of her friends and neighbors. She still had to face her husband who had dragged her to the religious leaders. Did she become one of the followers of Jesus? We hope so, but will have to wait until we meet Jesus face to face to ask him that question.

I want to point out two things Jesus teaches us in this story. First, is that no matter how intense the conflict in which we are engaged, we are not to lose sight of the individuals involved in the conflict. Secondly, Jesus teaches us in this passage how to treat people who knowingly sin.

Who or what is the focal point of the story. Is it the conflict between Jesus and the Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees and how Jesus outwitted them once again? Well, actually, I think that is the focus of the story and the reason this story is in John is because it illustrates the conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders.

When you read this story, remember that the woman is not the one on trial here. It is Jesus who is on trial and Jesus knows the hearts of the accusers of this woman. Jesus knows these leaders want to get rid of him. It is the life of Jesus that is at stake here. There is a lot of pressure on Jesus and yet he never treats the woman as an extraneous figure. The accusers did not care about this woman. She was not a person to them, in fact. She was an object being used to serve their purposes.

But to Jesus, no person is ever an object to be used. In the cosmic battle taking place between God and Satan, the devil uses people as pawns in his scheming to hurt God. Satan flatters and lavishes attention on a person only so that person can be led away from God and then when the devil’s goal has been accomplished, the person is discarded like yesterday’s newspaper.

In this cosmic battle taking place, God places highest value and importance on each person and seeks to win them to himself. He shamelessly pursues each person without forcing his will on any person, so they will open their hearts to the love and grace he wants them to experience.

The focus in this story may be on the conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders, but Jesus’ heart was never removed from the woman. He loved her and sought to restore her to wholeness.

We too get involved in conflicts from time to time. We may be in a meeting and trying to decide how to spend some money given to the group we are with. Or we may be trying to make decisions about how to renovate the church sanctuary. Or we may be involved with a disciplinary process for a teacher who has done something inappropriate. Or there may be a disagreement in the strategy of the company for which we work. In any of these conflicts, we need to learn to never put the issues being discussed before the people involved.

This does not mean we cannot disagree about issues, but Jesus always saw the people involved in a conflict as people needing to experience the love of God and acted accordingly.

We need to look at people with whom we have conflict as God’s creation in need of the experience of his love. If we are able to do that, it will make a huge difference in the way we act and in the way we view people with whom we disagree. What good will it do if you win the conflict but lose the person? Take that thought with you the next time you find yourself in conflict.

The second lesson from this passage has to do with how we treat people who knowingly sin. This story of the woman caught in adultery is often used to make the point that we have no right to judge the behavior of others.

Those who say this are quick to point out the teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount:
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

The spirit of the age in which we live is one that says we should let each person do what they want. If someone is not harming me, why should I interfere with what they want to do? Is Jesus affirming the spirit of this age by teaching us, in the passage we just read, that we have no right to make judgements about the behavior of other people?

Let me point out that Christians are not to judge the behavior of non-Christians. The biggest need of non-Christians is to experience the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ in their lives. Whether they have sex outside the bounds of a married relationship, get drunk or take God’s name in vain or lie or cheat or steal is a secondary issue. Pointing out the sin in the lives of non-Christians does not really accomplish much. What non-Christians need to know and experience is that God loves them so much that he died for them and that he offers them the free gift of eternal life.

The teaching of Jesus about judging refer to Christians, not non-Christians. Why is this?

Baptism is a wonderful symbol of what happens to us when we become Christians. When the person being baptized goes under the water, he or she dies with Christ. The sinful self dies. When the person comes up out of the water, he or she rises with Christ from the dead. Baptism makes the point that we now live with Christ. We share with him his death and resurrection.

To knowingly sin is to reject all that Christ did for me. To knowingly sin is to reject God, to separate myself from him and from his church. For this reason there are some strong teachings about discipline in the church.

But what about these teachings? Does the story of the woman caught in adultery teach that we are not to make moral judgements about others, even if “others” is restricted to people in the church?

If this story teaches we are not to make moral judgements and Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, “Do not judge or you too will be judged,” reinforces that, what are we to do with the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 18?

“If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.  16 But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’  17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

The verse I quoted from the Sermon on the Mount is probably the most often misquoted verse in the Bible. When it is read in context, the meaning of what is said takes on a subtle but critical shift.
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?  5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

When the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law came to Jesus, what was in their heart? Did they come because they were concerned about upholding the Law and being made righteous through the Law? Not at all. If they were so concerned about upholding the Law they would have brought the man caught in adultery as well. They didn’t care about the Law at this point, they had a overriding purpose. They were seeking to trap Jesus so they would have an excuse to kill him.

When Jesus bent down and was writing on the ground, if he was writing the sins of the woman’s accusers in the dust of the earth, he was exposing the accusers to the log in their eye and making the point that they had no right to condemn this woman.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches us that we are not to sit on the seat of judgement and pass sentence on any person. We have no right to take the position of moral superiority and pass judgement on another person as being morally inferior to us.

In context with the other teachings of Jesus, we are to stand beside the one who has sinned and seek to encourage that person to repent and come back into fellowship with God and the church. We stand beside the brother or sister who has sinned, not above, but beside.

In Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth, he writes to them about a man who is sleeping with his father’s wife.
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife.  2 And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this?  3 Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present.  4 When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present,  5 hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.

Paul tells them to take a severe action, kick the man out of the church. But this action is done with the purpose of bringing him to his senses and back into obedience to Christ. “hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.”

This is further reinforced in his second letter to the church at Corinth.
If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you, to some extent—not to put it too severely.  6 The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him.  7 Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.  8 I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him.  9 The reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything.

Paul was severe in his first letter, to make sure the church saw the importance of taking this man’s sin seriously. Now in this letter, he is able to take a softer position and emphasize the need to do what was done out of love for the man.

I said there were two lessons in this story, but really there is only one lesson. There is nothing more important than for you or me or anyone we meet than that they open their hearts to receive God’s free gift of salvation. God views us in this way. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. When we were sinners, God did not look at us disapprovingly and say, “How disgusting.” God did everything he could without forcing us so we would turn to him.

This is how we should be as well. As Christians, we are not called to look at the behavior of those in the world and say, “How disgusting.” We are called to love and to work for the best interest of those we meet. We are called to care for and encourage those we meet so they will turn to Christ.

On the Judgement Day you will not receive congratulations for having disapproved of another person’s behavior. You will not receive congratulations for having won a fight. But you will receive congratulations for having had a part in bringing to eternity those you had the opportunity to love.