At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered round him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’ They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, ‘Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no-one condemned you?’ ‘No-one, sir,’ she said. ‘Then neither do I condemn you,’ Jesus declared. ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’
John 8:2-11 NIVUK
When I was a student, I was very active in the Christian Union. We put on some fantastic events during Fresher’s Week. My big favourites were our international student ministries: working on a welcoming ministry (meeting them in Glasgow Airport and in a little portacabin in George Square) and the fantastic International Students ceilidh.
One evening, while working in the cabin, I got talking to a Scottish student. After chatting for a while, I learned that she lived a few miles up the road from me, so we caught the train home. I invited her to church that Sunday. However, she declined. And her reasoning has always stuck with me since.
She told me that she had been to church before. However, she was a recreational drug user. She knew she wasn’t living a good life. The last time she’d been to church, she felt like people were staring at her, and condemning her for the life she led.
I don’t recall ever seeing her again. But the sadness with which she told me why she couldn’t come to church has never left me.
The verses we are about to study are among the most controversial, and misunderstood, versed in Scripture. In fact, there are actually theologians who argue that they should not be in the Bible at all.
They touch on a very interesting – and very relevant – subject: how do we, as Christians, deal with immorality?
There are many who believe that sin is a poison, so it must be dealt with and uprooted from our society.
There are others who teach compassion and understanding for sinners.
There are others who go even further, blur the lines entirely, and say that, since God is a God of love, we can’t judge anyone, and therefore everyone is acceptable.
In this passage, we see two of these three approaches. We don’t see the third because there is nothing Biblical about it.
That is, the very idea that a God of love could tolerate sin, which is destructive and harmful to His creation is theologically and logically absurd. What kind of parent would permit their children to repeatedly put their hand in a fire? It’s complete nonsense!
The Bible does not teach this. And neither do these verses.
But what we do see is a harsh, intolerant view of sin in other people, and a merciful, compassionate view of sin in other people.
And those words ‘in other people’ are critical to our understanding of these verses. Jesus was clear as crystal in the Sermon on the Mount that we must be ruthless with sin in our own lives (Matthew 5:17-20, 27-30).
But when it comes to other people, that’s when things get a little tricky.
We cannot be so harsh on sin that we cross the line into being judgemental. We cannot be so compassionate with sinners that we cross the line into being tolerant of harmful behaviours.
So how do we walk the line?
When sin appears to abound around us and righteousness is in short supply, this is an issue every Christian needs to deal with.
Jesus teaches us how, in this, one of the most controversial and debated-over passages of Scripture.
We’ll start by looking at a major character in this drama: THE SINFUL WOMAN.
Comments