My wife and I have this little poking fun jab we do with
each other. Whenever one of us is being
judgmental or sanctimonious, the other will form the letter “J” out of his/her
thumb and index finger and call the other person a “Judger.” It is our emotion-friendly way of letting the
other know that they are steering dangerously close to the land of
hypocrisy. Ironically, to pull the
“Judger” sign like that requires a little “judging” itself – which both of us
realize – but the silliness of it breaks the tension just enough for both of us
to return to a more realistic view of the situation.
The oldest and, in the opinion of many scholars, most
reliable manuscripts available do not contain John 7:53-8:11. However, most scholars will agree that the
events that are recounted in that section of scripture most likely did
occur. More importantly, they contain a
valuable lesson about the importance of avoiding hypocrisy and judging others.
The Pharisees were as sanctimonious as they come. Thy made it their pleasure in life to judge
others, although they made little to no effort at judging themselves. They had already judged Jesus in their
hearts, although by the power of God the Father Jesus himself had the authority
to judge all men. The problem for the
Pharisees is that Jesus had become immensely popular with the people and his
teachings were threatening their power base.
In their thinking, the only way they were going to be able to stop him
would be to turn the people against him.
As a result, they were pulling out all the stops to trap Jesus any way
they could in order to do precisely that.
Jesus was known for his compassion. He had fed the masses, healed the lame, and he
given sight to the blind. In their
minds, he had even compromised the law for the sake of compassion. After all, it was Jesus’ healing of the lame
man at the Pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath that had finally set the Pharisees
against him for the purpose of taking his life.
On the morning of the 8th day after the start of
the Feast of Booths – a day that was no officially a part of the Feast of
Booths but was still considered a day of celebration and feasting – Jesus was
once again teaching in the temple. The
Bible tells us that a large crowd of people came to hear him teach. Perhaps the events of the previous day – when
he stood up during the Water Libation Ceremony and claimed to be able to
provide the living water to all who believed in him – had drawn a larger than
normal crowd.
While he was teaching, the scribes and Pharisees joined the
crowd, dragging a woman with them that they claimed had been caught red-handed
in the act of adultery. There was no
question that the woman was guilty of sin. The law demanded death by stoning
for such an act of immorality but in reality it had probably been a very long
time since that sentence had truly been carried out. Would Jesus have compassion on her or judge
her? If he tried to stone her, that
would be the end of his ministry and he would have perhaps gone to a Roman
prison for murder. If he let her get
away with her act of adultery, they would be able to accuse him of not keeping
the law. How shrewd they must have
thought themselves to be. Jesus was in a
pickle for sure. As they presented this
woman to him, they said, “Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such
women. So what do you say?”
Personally, I’m surprised that Jesus didn’t just say
something like “Oh, you precious little ones… you think yourselves so wise and
yet you are such foolish children!” Of
course, that is what I would have said, which would likely have been cause in
itself for the “J” fingers – after all, I sit here judging the Pharisees for
their hypocrisy! Jesus did not do
that.
Of course their plan truly was flawed in so many ways. First and foremost, one has to ask the
question how this woman was caught. How were the leaders so lucky as to catch a
woman in adultery at this specific point in time? Was she set up? Entrapped?
Second and more importantly, where was the man in this
scenario? As usual, the Pharisees had
twisted the relevant law to their own benefit.
The law did not say that “such women” were to be stoned. The law actually said that both the man and
the woman were to be stoned (see Lev 20:10 and Deut 22:22). Where was the man? Wasn’t the woman caught in the act? If so, wasn’t the man also caught? The man had not been dragged into the temple court
to be stoned. If a stoning was to take
place, it should be according to scripture – both the man and the woman should
be accused.
Finally, scripture was very clear about the manner in which
the stoning was to take place. The two
were to be dragged out of the city (see Deut 22:24) so that the city would be
rid of their impurity. Instead, they
dragged the woman right into the courtyard of the temple – defiling the temple
with her uncleanness.
As usual, Jesus was the epitome of cool. As they ranted and raved over the woman’s
indiscretions, Jesus merely knelt down and was casually drawing in the dirt. When I think on this, I am reminded of my
days playing little league baseball. As
I became bored with practice (or sometime even at games), I would often kneel
down and play in the dirt. It would make
my coach so angry! I have no doubt this
seeming act of disinterest angered the Pharisees as well. But in the midst of their rantings Jesus
stood up and, as he so often did, answered their charges. He said “Let him who is without sin among you
be the first to throw a stone at her.”
And then he knelt back down and continued writing in the dirt.
The first to throw a stone?
Who should be the first? Deuteronomy 17:17 said that the one who
witnessed the sin should be the first to cast the first stone. Scripture is silent on this matter, but I suspect
there was no actual witnesses present. In
my imagination, I envision that the Pharisees entrapped this woman by
convincing someone to have relations with her. He probably reported the success so that they
could drag her into public shame. Her accuser was probably not even
present. Obviously, I don’t know if this
is true, but clearly no one stepped forward to be the first to cast a
stone. In addition to the high
probability that none of them were witnesses to this indiscretion, none among
them were without their own indiscretions either. The Bible says that all have
sinned and that the wages of sin is death.
We all ultimately deserve death because of our sinfulness and the Pharisees
were no exception to that universal truth. One by one, beginning with the
eldest, they simply turned and walked away.
Have you ever wondered what Jesus was writing in the
sand? No one knows, although many have
guessed that he was writing things that reminded them of their own
indiscretions. If that is the case, can
you imagine what they were thinking? How
could he know that? He wasn’t there when
that happened! Oh man, I thought I had hidden that! Many have suggested that Jesus was writing down
the sins of those who had brought up charges against this woman. Maybe they had also committed sins that were
subject to stoning. As best as I can
tell from the law, there were 16 different types of sin that demanded
stoning. Some of them, such as being an
obstinate and disobedient child, could probably apply to all of us. Ultimately, all sin leads to death, which is
why all men need a savior – and why none of us should take upon ourselves the
mantle of “Judger.”
Perhaps Jesus really did write the names of their sins in
the sand, but I am more apt to think that instead of calling out their sins generically
he may have written subtle hints into the sand indicating that he knew their
most secret sins. It would be too easy
for me to ignore the word “disobedient to parents” written in sand and justify
that it did not apply to me. However, if something were written that reminded
me of a very specific incident in my life, the guilt would be
overwhelming. In essence, I think Jesus
was holding up the big “J” and saying “Judger!” – except that he did it in a
much more sanctified (and more effective) way than we do it in our house!
As a result, all of the accusers left the scene, leaving
only Jesus, the woman, and a large crowd of spectators - oh yeah, how could we
forget about the large crowd who were there to hear Jesus teach? Can you imagine? You could probably hear a pin drop as the
crowd waited breathlessly to see what Jesus would do next. Would he condemn her still? He had forgiven sinners before – what would
he do?
Ironically, in dragging this woman to the feet of Jesus the
Pharisees had intended evil; but like Joseph’s brothers who sold him into
slavery, God meant it for good. After
all, what better thing could you do for someone who is lost in sin but to bring
them to Jesus? Like the Pharisees, we
tend to judge. We all deserve to have
the big “J” shown to us. We look at the
sinfulness of those around us and we judge them for it. Judging others makes us feel better about
ourselves, so we are often as self-righteous, condemning, and sanctimonious as
the hypocrites who dragged that poor woman into the temple courtyard. Lest we forget, 1 Timothy 4:1 (among other
scriptures) tells us that Jesus is the one who is to judge both the living and
the dead. Likewise, we shouldn’t forget (or rather ignore) our own sinfulness
the way the Pharisees did. Jesus previously
addressed this in that famous Sermon on the Mount when he said “how can you say
to your brother ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is a log in
your own eye?” (Matt 7:4)
Instead of being like the accusing Pharisees, we should
forego whatever condemning and judgmental thoughts we may have about the
sinfulness of those around us. They
unintentionally did the best thing they could have for this woman – that is, to
bring her to Jesus. We should be
absolutely intentional about bringing them to Jesus. Only when they face Jesus can they then face
their own sinfulness, which is precisely what happened to this woman.
Jesus looked at her and said, “Go, and sin no more.”
God is a God of grace, but he still must address the
sin. He is willing to forgive, but we
must also be willing to repent. The
Pharisees could have repented of their hypocrisy, their hatred, and whatever
other sin was keeping them from seeing the truth in Jesus’ teachings. Instead, they walked away in the shame they
intended for this woman. At the end of
the day, the condemned, sinful woman walked away clean – and the Pharisees were
the ones who were judged.
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