John 8:2-11 The Woman Caught in Adultery

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The Woman Caught in Adultery

John 8:2-11

Introduction: There is a question about the authenticity of this text. You will notice the notation in your Bible that the earliest manuscripts do not contain the story. We will not bother with examining that this morning. If you would like a discussion on it, or to ask questions about it you could put that in the question box. 

Jesus is still in Jerusalem and the chief priests and Pharisees are frustrated that they have not been able to arrest him. Officers were sent, but returned without him with the excuse, “Never man spoke like this man!” 

The story before us is one that is fairly well known. Two statements in the story are remembered and quoted the most: “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her” and “neither do I condemn you.” Both statements are critical, but it is the rest of the context and the message that are important. 

1. Breaking Down the Particulars of the Text
   1. Verse 3 gives us the description of the scene. The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery. You will notice the words, placing her in the midst (ESV). Many of the other versions record, they made her stand before the group (NIV) or, made her stand in the center (HCSB). We must not read this too quickly. The scene is filled with emotion. The woman must have been horrified, deeply ashamed, and terrified as she is brought before this large group who are in the midst of a Bible study!
   2. There is no getting around it. She was caught in adultery. The NKJV and NASB record the accusation of the scribes and Pharisees as, “she was caught in adultery, in the very act.” She is guilty, and she knows it. There is no getting around it.
   3. Now the scribes, as the experts in the Law, cite the case law: “in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women.” Two references give us the exact words:
      1. “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.” (Leviticus 20:10 ESV)
      2. “If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.” (Deuteronomy 22:22 ESV) 
   4. If you read these words carefully, you will notice something unsettling about what the scribes said and what the scriptures said. The scribes said, “Moses commanded us to stone such women.” Well actually, Moses commanded that both the man and the woman were to be put to death. Where is the man? It was not just the woman caught in the very act; so was the man!
   5. That brings back to John’s narration of the story. “This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him.” This brings up some obvious questions. 
      1. Were they concerned about the sin of this woman? Were they concerned about “purging evil from Israel”? Of course not. That was not at all their concern.
      2. Was this a set up? Did they find some unscrupulous man to make advances to a morally weak young woman, assuring him that he would not be implicated?
      3. How else do you catch the two “in the very act?” Such  “catching” does not occur because a bunch of men just happened to walk into a person’s private room!
   6. One more part of the scene stands out: Jesus seems to ignore them. He bent down and wrote on the ground. We would like to know what he wrote, but the writer does not find that important. Instead, Jesus ignores them until they persist and kept on questioning him. Jesus allows them to press the matter in front of the crowd causing the tension to build even more. Surely they were thinking they finally caught him. If he says, “Stone her,” he will be in trouble with the Romans and look bad before the crowd. If he let’s her off, he will be in violation of the Law and a sinner. Who among us would know what to answer? Again, the emotions of the moment have accelerated dramatically.
2. Jesus’ Response
   1. Verse 7 tells us that after Jesus allowed the accusers to persist in pressing him to answer, “he stood up.” He had been sitting and teaching, and then he bent down and wrote on the ground. Now, he stands up. His words are: “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then he stooped down and wrote on the ground again. In other words, “Okay fellows, you caught her in adultery. Go ahead and follow the Law. Whoever among you is without sin, cast the first stone.”
   2. What Jesus just did with these words is subtle to most of us, but it was obvious to these men. In saying this, Jesus referred to the same Law of Moses they just quoted. Deuteronomy 13:9 and 17:7 declared that the hand of the witnesses were to be the first to act. In fact, they were to be the judge, not Jesus. When God demanded that the actual witnesses be the first to throw the stone, he placed the burden on them to be absolutely sure about their testimony. Further, A false witness in a capital crime, was also to be put to death! 
   3. Now, what was Jesus saying?
      1. Was Jesus teaching that no judgments can ever be made about sin or any crime unless the accusers have never sinned? That would make no sense. God in the Law demanded that “evil be purged from Israel.” God would have demanded an impossibility if the witnesses needed to be sinless. Further, the same principles are given in the NT (Matt. 18:15-17; 1 Cor. 5).
      2. This exposes a common misuse of this text. Any time a person wants to justify their sin or justify staying in their sin, just say, “You can’t accuse me of sin; you are a sinner too!” Well, that makes all sin okay and makes Jesus teach that God simply does not care about sin.
      3. No, the sense of Jesus’ words are, “Let him who is without sin in this matter cast the first stone.” Yes, yes! They all knew they were culpable. This was a setup. Where is the man caught in the act? Why did you not take this case before the Council? Why have you dragged this woman into the midst of this crowd in the presence of Jesus? Are you really concerned about this woman or sin in Israel! Not in the least. Not a one of them are pure in this matter.
      4. Jesus is the one who is on trial, not this woman. 
   4. One by one these men trickled away, beginning with the oldest. The young ones might have persisted, not wanting to give up in their desire to catch Jesus. But the older ones knew they had been exposed. “Cast the first stone?” No, our purpose was to catch Jesus, not to put this woman to death, and certainly not to have to participate in it!
   5. “Neither do I condemn you.” Again, let us be careful as we read these words. Jesus is not condoning her sin. He follows up with, “Go and sin no more.” There is no excuse for her sin, setup or not. She is guilty.
   6. Are we shocked? Why has this text been so shocking to people? It is because of the seriousness of adultery. Adultery carried the death penalty under the Law because it is a sin that is so destructive to God’s community and to God’s world. Marriage is destroyed by it. A spouse is crushed by it. Children pay a huge consequence for it. We see the damage done, the betrayal, the lies that accompany it, and we are angry. This person deserves to be punished! This is one of at least 7 sins in the OT for which God demanded the death penalty. Therefore, Jesus took one of the seven most damaging sins and simply said, “Neither do I condemn you.” He let her off the hook. How can that be?
      1. But before we get too high and mighty about it; before we congratulate ourselves on not committing the sin of adultery, would you like to hear Jesus say these words to you? Listen to Paul in Romans 7, “So I find this law at work: although I want to do good, evil is right there with me…What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? … Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! … Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” 
      2. Romans 3:23; 6:23. What is your sin? What is the least sin you have ever committed? Do you know the wages of that sin? It is death. It is forever separated from God
      3. Let’s stop talking about how bad a person’s sin is. Though some sins have greater earthly consequences and are more damaging than others, when Judgment Day comes, there is only one thing that will matter; you and I have sinned, and the wages of all sin is death.
      4. How does it happen that these people were so condemning of this woman? How is it that they so despised her and felt no compassion or desire for her soul? It happens when we forget that we also sin. Please note, I did not say, we also have sinned. We also sin. How can we despise a fellow human being because of their sin, when we also sin?
      5. Please notice how Jesus addresses her: “Woman…” This is the same way he addressed his own mother. It was a tender and loving address. Someone else might have said, “Harlot…”
   7. One more thing. There is nothing cheap about the words, “neither do I condemn you.” Jesus could say those words only because he knew that he himself would become a ransom for the sins of the world. Please be careful. In order to utter these words, Jesus had to go to the cross. There is no other way. No person is forgiven because they are “good” or because they promise not to sin so much in the future. No one can be saved without the cross. Jesus said, “Except you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.” Jesus chose the cross so a woman caught in the act of adultery would not have to die eternally for her sins. And he has done the same for the sins you have committed.
   8. In Acts 2, the first day the gospel was preached, salvation was offered to 3000 Jews who murdered Jesus but accepted Jesus’ offer of grace by repenting and being baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. The first people in the Lord’s new church, were the people who murdered him. He will forgive you too. You do not want to stay in your sin. The result is a life of death and a knowledge of being forever lost in eternity.
   9. Romans 3:23-24 “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift.” Please note the word gift. How would you evaluate the gift Jesus gave this woman? Now take it a step further. How would you evaluate and describe the gift that God has given to you? There is only one way you can know the answer to that question. The answer can only be seen in how you have responded to the gift. If your response is mediocre, if your response is less than passionate, you know that you have not evaluated the gift properly. You’ve not considered the eternal consequence that would’ve happened if Jesus hadn’t given you the gift. The proper response to the gift can only be seen in a person who realizes he cannot give God enough and works every day to lay his or her life down for him. 
3. Final Lesson: The texts that are prior to this incident, as well as the narrative that follows the incident, give us a unique contrast between the Law of Moses, the law Paul refers to as a law of sin and death, and the reason Jesus came. In chapter 6, he’s the bread of life. In chapter 7, he is the living water. And later in chapter 8, he is the light of the world, freeing the world from the bondage of sin. This narrative of the woman caught in adultery is a perfect illustration of Jesus freeing a woman from the bondage of sin and death.

Berry Kercheville