Sermon for 8th Nov - "Due Consideration" from John 8:2-11

1. Introduction

Jesus came into the world to really show what God was like, and how committed God was to humanity experiencing salvation. This incarnation would entail challenging any embedded injustice and upsetting any institutional resistance to embracing the merciful nature of God.

The religious leaders of this time however, were not prepared to have their control or authority questioned, and desperately wanted to see Jesus trapped and discredited. You could imagine them having clandestine secret meetings together in the middle of the night, trying to come up with possible ways of compromising Jesus’ ministry and getting rid of him. This incident recorded in John’s Gospel is an example of such an attempt.

2. Jesus Being Tested

The “Scribes and Pharisees” of the time were actually prepared to use a woman merely as a pawn in their attempts to trap Jesus, not the slightest bit concerned that this action could result in her humiliation and destruction. Even though the man involved in this alleged act of adultery would have been equally as guilty under the law as the woman was, the accusers chose to use the law selectively, picking on an easy target.

How would this woman be caught in the very act (v.4) of committing adultery anyway? Do you sense a set-up here!? Was the man involved in this act actually employed by this band of hypocrites!?

Here was the test they were putting to Jesus. If Jesus simply let the woman off, it would be said that he was not upholding God’s law and being lax concerning moral standards. On the other hand, if Jesus condoned a stoning, then he would be applying the strictest application of the law, thus contradicting his teaching on mercy (this potentially also bringing Jesus into conflict with Roman authorities who controlled the passing of death sentences). The religious leaders thought they were on a winner here!

So would Jesus be up to such a test? How would Jesus respond? There was an audience waiting with bated breath! Jesus of course knew he was being tested, and knew the corrupt hearts of those seeking to challenge him! Jesus could have quoted Scripture concerning the gravity of sin, endorsing a severe judgment on the woman unless she could come up with a convincing charter of atoning sacrifices or good deeds (as we humans might tend to do). However, this would neither challenge the inappropriateness of the accusers’ attitude, nor positively open the possibility of hope for the woman.

3. What was Jesus writing on the ground?

Possibilities are:

(a) Doodling – pretending to write something while thinking about his response … stalling for time?

(b) In the exercise of his authority, a Roman Judge would write down his sentence before delivering it. Jesus could have been imitating this, but with a twist – not symbolically listing the sins of the woman, but rather the sins of her accusers … those who would so deliberately seek to undermine God and so oppress a human life. This would be in line with Jesus’ teaching recorded in Matthew’s Gospel (7:1-2):

“Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.”

(c) Another suggestion is that this writing on the ground merely showed Jesus’ contempt for the question being put and his disengagement from this attempted test. This question (v.5), as put, with the venom behind it, didn’t really deserve his attention.

4. How would Jesus respond?

Jesus would give due consideration to providing the most appropriate and helpful response. There were two criteria that Jesus would want to cover in any response:

(i) How to offer this poor woman a way forward toward liberation – to open a path of healing and reconciliation; and,

(ii) How to challenge these arrogant and thoughtless accusers toward a change of attitude. Jesus wanted to straighten out the errors in the attitudes of these accusers, but there was no way that Jesus was going to allow this woman to be left vulnerable in the middle of such a debate. He wanted to offer her the best ministry he could.

So, to achieve both of these outcomes, Jesus says, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her”.

Jesus was saying to all those gathered, ‘Who is prepared to set themselves up as perfect enough to judge this woman and bring down a death sentence”. “Who has never made a mistake … who has never fallen for temptation … who has never succumbed to a weak moment … who has never hurt another … who has never found themselves manipulated into activity they regretted’?

Game, set & match! Having heard Jesus’ bold challenge, each one examined themselves. One-by-one they dropped their stones and left! The “elders” (the ones with the most influence) left first, their credibility in tatters. Jesus just had to call them on their hardheartedness, and demonstrate to them how their obsession with orthodoxy and legalism had led them to treat one of God’s children abysmally. These religious leaders had also become obsessed with their own importance, thus becoming much less able to sympathize with the weaknesses or difficult circumstances that others faced.

In effect Jesus was asking the question, “Where is your compassion?”

“Jesus turns an attempt to trap him into a penetrating moral challenge to those who were prepared to play politics with human sin and misery” (Robin E. Nixon).

This woman had made mistakes, and could be condemned, but only by the sinless – therefore only by God, who chooses not to condemn her! Frank Rees describes Jesus’ activity toward the woman here as “stunning, gutsy, liberating grace”.

5. Pastoral Care

Now just left in view, are the perfectly credible figure of Jesus, and a lost & needy woman. An opening for ministry has been created! How would Jesus progress with this? If Jesus had out-rightly condemned her, this woman might have sunk deeper into a self-destructive lifestyle; however Jesus refused to close the door on her. Rather, the Jesus agenda was how he could introduce this woman to the Living God and allow her to experience salvation, growth and freedom.

The question Jesus asks of this woman (in verse 10) is designed to restore this woman’s feeling of equality and sense of value. No other human being is superior to her or more worthy than her. Those who were seeking to accuse and penalize her, because of their own fallibility and callousness, had been forced to drop the charges. She was no worse than them and they no better than her!

Indeed, she was likely to have been a very vulnerable woman, in need of significant caring support! To the accusers she was just a means to an end; however to Jesus she was a real person with complex feelings, and a desire to belong. Jesus opened for her the path to forgiveness, by showing that he believed in her, and valued her. Jesus appreciated this woman for who she could become.

However, it was still true that the path to forgiveness and salvation requires sincere repentance – the decision to travel in a new more Godly Spirit-led direction. Jesus reinforces this principle by saying, “Go, but do not sin again” – meaning do not take the path of sin, negativity or evil, nor give in to temptation … but rather take the path of light and truth and positive change.

6. Affirmative Action

In deciding that the well-being of this woman, and the well-being all other people caught in a similar vulnerable and needy state, was the primary concern here, Jesus took affirmative action to challenge those who would treat human need in such an egotistical and uncaring way. The “scribes and Pharisees” were only thinking of their own position and their personal agenda, whilst ignoring their own faults and fallibility. This was injustice in the extreme. Jesus creatively challenged such unjust behaviour, and as those stones dropped to the ground – injustice did actually bow to Jesus’ authority.

At the same time as such injustice being brought down, the woman herself was lifted up by expressions of compassion, understanding and love. There is only one way forward for such sufferers, and it is not through condemnation, but through love. We know that a lot of suffering is self-originated through poor decision-making, yet also much suffering is imposed by certain environmental, economic and political conditions. In all cases it will be loving and practical concern that will open new possibilities. Followers of Jesus seek to cut through negativity and evil, so that individuals and whole communities might experience hope for a better future.

Ironically, the sort of freedom on offer here was not only for the woman, but also for her accusers, if they could just leave their stones on the ground and never pick them up in violence again. The person who has no desire to lift their own position by pressing another down, because they are happy, peaceful and fulfilled in themselves, is certainly enjoying the freedom that Jesus offers.

As Jesus’ followers, we will follow his example:

(a) in opposing forces of darkness and injustice; and,

(b) in looking to create opportunities to minister, and being deeply committed to introducing people to the Living God.

Do we need to ask ourselves some questions?

(i) Do we turn people away because of our attitudes, or embrace them for the people that with God they could become? We should show people we value them; offer them a place to belong; and recognize their potential.

(ii) Do we refer to people according to labels based on their behaviour or physical appearance, or do we see the person that God loves underneath these things? There’s no situation too difficult for Jesus to resolve or bring hope to.

(iii) Do we hold any stones in our hand that we need to let go of?