John 7:53-8:11

I recently preached about the wonderful mercy and grace of our Lord. My passage was from John 8 about the woman caught in adultery.

At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around 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

We must understand that God takes the sin of adultery so seriously that he included it as one of the Ten Commandments. It was such a grievous sin that it was a capital offence so if a man and woman were caught committing adultery then they would be put to death.

The religious leaders who brought the woman to Jesus wanted to trap Jesus with this very serious accusation. They gave Jesus a dilemma, the Jewish law commanded that she be put to death for committing adultery, but the Roman law said that if the Jews sought to impose capital punishment, they were breaking Roman law. The Old Testament says she must be put to death, but Roman law says you cannot invoke capital crime and punishment as a Jew.

So if Jesus says, “you should obey the Old Testament law and put her to death”, then the Romans will come and arrest him, throw him in jail, and could execute him for violating Roman law. However, if he says, “Well, you should not put her to death because of Roman law,” then he’s violating the Law of Moses, and in so doing, according to Deuteronomy, he’s a false prophet.

Jesus cannot win!

So what does he do, he ignores them!

Instead of answering their question, he bends over, and he begins to write in the ground. I believe that this is the only time when we see that Jesus writes something, and here it’s in the dirt and we have no way of knowing what he writes.

After ignoring further questions Jesus then speaks up. He says that they should impose Old Testament law and put her to death, and following this law he asks someone to step forward and cast the first stone. In the Old Testament, the witnesses who brought the accusation were to be the people to initiate the judgement and throw the first stone (see Deuteronomy 17:7). However, you had to be very careful with your accusation, because if you brought a false allegation, then they would be able to do exactly to you what you had sought to do to them (see Deuteronomy 18:18-19).

So the challenge from Jesus is “he who is without sin casts the first stone.” And slowly the men drift away, until only one man remains standing with this convicted woman, and that is Jesus. Interestingly, Jesus could have then picked up a stone and cast it as he was without sin. If anyone could ever invoke capital punishment, it would be Jesus. He has every right. He’s God, he is the author of life, and he can take life. But of course, Jesus treats with ultimate mercy and grace and in fact is the only man in the story that does not take advantage of and abuse this woman.

Instead Jesus addresses her as “woman”, the same way as he addressed his mother, with utmost respect. He looks upon her with compassion, does not condemn her and forgives her for her sin.

Jesus showed great mercy. One very simple way of understanding mercy is “not getting what you deserve”. We are told in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death, this is what we all deserve; this is what the woman deserved. We all need the mercy of God. Jesus saved her life, and then went to the cross to take our punishment of death upon himself.

But does Jesus let her off the hook? No he does not. He says, “Go and leave your life of sin.” Even though she may have been a victim, she was not unwilling. She has lived a life of sin and Jesus does not ignore this. Jesus addresses her sin, and says that her life must change.

Whereas mercy did not condemn here, it was the grace of God that empowered her to life a new life. The simple way of understanding grace is “receiving what we don’t deserve”.  The woman had been declared not guilty, and had been given a new and different life in Jesus. We have been born again in Jesus, the old life has gone and we are a new creation. As a result if his grace we are able to live a new and hoy life. Not because we are under laws and regulations, but because of his grace.

For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

Romans 6:14

We are told in 1 Corinthians 15:10 that “Holy living is not a result of our hard work, but is a product of his grace.”  We need to understand that through the grace of God we are able to live lives that are different and holy, bringing glory to Jesus in everything that we do. We are able to see victory over sin, and through his grace and righteousness reign in life.

For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

Romans 5:17

Let us confess our sin before Jesus. Confession is recognition of our sin, owning it and agreeing with God. It’s coming to Christ and saying, “You’ve got me, you’ve caught me – here’s where I am” and throwing yourself upon his mercy. God speaks loudly about the sin in our lives, but speaks even more about his love and forgiveness. He will forgive us and free us from condemnation.

Then let us ask him to give us the grace to move forward, to live new life, without those things that we are addicted to, without those things that have ruined our reputation, without sin, and condemnation. When Barnabas arrived at the church in Antioch he saw evidence of the grace of God (Acts 11:23). We are recipients of God’s mercy, but do our lives demonstrate his grace?

Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Hebrews 4:15-16