The Adulterous Woman

Teaching at sunrise. “Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them” (8:2). Jesus loved to open God's Word to people. Brought in front of everyone. The scribes, who taught God's law, and the Pharisees, who were very strict about keeping it, brought a woman to Jesus. They “set her in the midst” (8:3), right in front of the crowd. Caught in sin. The leaders said she had been caught breaking God's law about marriage, the sin the Bible calls adultery. God calls it sin, and so must we. What the law said. “Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” (8:5). God's law did treat this sin as very serious (Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22). A test. “This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him” (8:6). The leaders were not trying to help the woman. They wanted to catch Jesus. On the ground. “But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger” (8:6). The Bible does not tell us what He wrote. We do see that Jesus stayed calm and patient. A person, not a tool. To the leaders, the woman was a way to trap Jesus. To Jesus, she was a person God made, and He had come to save sinners like her. What we learn. Sin is serious, and God's law is good. But people are never tools for winning an argument or making ourselves look good. Ask Jesus to help you see people the way He sees them.

Back at the temple (8:1-2). Jesus went to the Mount of Olives, and “early in the morning He came again into the temple.” A whole crowd came to Him, and He “sat down and taught them.” The Son of God was giving people His Word. A public scene (8:3-4). The scribes, who taught the law, and the Pharisees, who were strict about keeping it, “set her in the midst.” The sin the Bible names here, adultery, means breaking God's law about marriage. Scripture calls it sin, and so do we. Moses' law (8:5). The law did give the death penalty for this sin (Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22). Both passages name the man as well as the woman, yet only the woman was brought. Peirazo (8:6). “This they said, testing Him.” The Greek word peirazo (say: pay-RAHD-zoh) means to test or to tempt. Matthew uses the same word when the devil tested Jesus in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1). Now the test came from religious leaders. The trap. Most likely they expected any answer to hurt Him. If He said to let her go, they could say He set aside Moses. If He told them to stone her, His welcome for sinners would look empty. His enemies already called Him “a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” (Luke 7:34). Stooped down. Jesus “stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.” The Bible does not tell us what He wrote, so we do not guess. We see His calm: He would not be pushed into their timing. Used as bait. The leaders treated a sinner as bait and God's law as a weapon. Neither was right. The law is holy, and people are made in God's image. Why it matters. Jesus treated the law as holy and the woman as a person He came to save. When we care more about winning than about people, we are standing with the accusers, not with Jesus.

Jesus loved to teach people about God. Then the leaders came in with a woman. She really had done wrong, and the Bible calls it sin. But the leaders did not come to help her. They wanted to catch Jesus in a trap. They used the woman like a tool to get what they wanted. Jesus was not afraid of their trap. He knelt down and wrote on the ground. The Bible does not tell us what He wrote. Jesus saw a real person God made. Jesus sees you that way too. We should never use people to make ourselves look good.

The leaders used a woman to trick Jesus. They were not trying to help her. Jesus cares about every person!

He stood up. “So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, ‘He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first’” (8:7). Not a yes or a no. Jesus did not say the woman was innocent, and He did not say God's law was wrong. He answered in a way no one expected. Looking inside. Jesus turned the leaders' eyes from her sin to their own hearts. Before anyone judged her, each one had to look at himself. All have sinned. Every person there was guilty of sin. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Writing again. “And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground” (8:8). The quiet gave them time to think. One by one. The leaders, “being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last” (8:9). Your conscience is the sense God put inside you that tells you when you have done wrong. The only One without sin. One person there had never sinned: Jesus. Hebrews says He was tempted in every way, “yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). He was the only one who had the right to throw that stone, and He did not. What we learn. It is easy to see other people's sins and miss our own. Before you point at someone, ask God to show you your own heart. Then remember that Jesus came to save sinners like you.

He raised Himself up (8:7). They “continued asking Him,” so Jesus stood and said, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” Anamartetos. The Greek word for “without sin” is anamartetos (say: ah-nah-mar-TAY-tos), meaning one who has not sinned. Jesus' standard was not less sin than she had, but no sin at all. The law upheld. Jesus did not deny her sin or set aside Moses. He held up God's standard and applied it to everyone in the courtyard. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Again He stooped (8:8). Jesus bent down a second time and wrote on the ground. The question was left with them in the quiet. Convicted by conscience (8:9). John says they were “convicted by their conscience.” They went out “one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last.” Each one knew he had sinned, and not one of them could pick up a stone. Left alone. “And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.” The crowd that had come to judge her was gone. Which of you convicts Me? Later in the same chapter Jesus asked His opponents, “Which of you convicts Me of sin?” (8:46). No one could answer. He was the one person in that courtyard who had the right to throw a stone. Why it matters. The law shows everyone guilty; it cannot save anyone. What the woman needed, and what the accusers needed, was not a sharper stone but a sinless Savior. Before you judge someone else, let God's standard search your own heart first.

Jesus did not say the woman's sin was okay. He did not say God's law was wrong. Instead, Jesus made the leaders look at their own hearts. Every person in that crowd had sinned. Their hearts told them so. One by one, they turned around and walked away. The oldest men left first. Only one person there had never sinned. That person was Jesus! Jesus could have thrown a stone at her. He did not. Jesus came to save sinners, not to throw stones at them. Sometimes we point at other people's sins. First, we should ask God to show us our own.

Only a person with no sin could throw a stone. Everyone has done wrong. So the leaders all went away, one by one.

Where are they? “When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, ‘Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?’” (8:10). A respectful word. Calling her “Woman” was not rude. Jesus used the same word for His own mother (John 2:4). He spoke to her as a person who mattered. No one, Lord. “She said, ‘No one, Lord’” (8:11). She called Him Lord. Not condemned. “And Jesus said to her, ‘Neither do I condemn you’” (8:11). To condemn means to declare someone guilty and give the punishment. Jesus, the only one without sin, chose not to. Grace. Grace is God's kindness that we do not deserve and cannot earn. She had done nothing to earn it. Truth. Jesus added, “go and sin no more” (8:11). He did not pretend her sin was small. He called her to leave it behind. Both together. “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). Jesus never offers one without the other. How could He? Jesus was on His way to the cross. He would take the punishment for sin Himself. What we learn. When you sin, do not hide from Jesus. Come to Him. He forgives everyone who trusts Him, and then He helps you live a new way.

No accusers left (8:10). Jesus “saw no one but the woman” and asked, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” Calling her “Woman” was respectful; Jesus used the same word for His mother (John 2:4). Katakrino (8:10-11). The Greek word for condemn is katakrino (say: kah-tah-KREE-noh), meaning to judge someone guilty and pass the sentence. Jesus uses it in His question and again in His answer. “No one, Lord.” Her answer is short. She called Him Lord, and she was still standing there when everyone else had gone. The Judge speaks. “For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22). The One who has the right to condemn her says, “Neither do I condemn you.” Mercy first, then the call. Jesus did not tell her to stop sinning first and then earn His verdict. He spoke mercy first, then gave the command: “go and sin no more.” Forgiveness is the start of the new life, not the reward for it. Not excused. “Sin no more” calls sin what it is. Jesus said almost the same words to the man He healed at Bethesda: “Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you” (John 5:14). The cost. Jesus could set her free because He would carry her sin to the cross. “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17). Why it matters. Grace without truth would say sin does not matter. Truth without grace would leave every sinner condemned. In Jesus we receive both: full forgiveness, and a call to a changed life.

Jesus spoke to the woman kindly. He asked her if anyone was left to judge her. She said that no one was. She called Him “sir.” Then Jesus said He would not judge her guilty either. That was kindness she did not earn. But Jesus did not say her sin was fine. He told her, “You may go now, but don’t sin again.” Jesus gave her a brand-new start. He wanted her to live a new way. Jesus is kind, and He always tells the truth. How could Jesus let her go free? He was going to take the punishment for sin Himself. When you do wrong, run to Jesus, not away from Him.

Jesus did not punish the woman. He was kind to her. But He told her to stop doing wrong things.

Jesus speaks again. “Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life’” (8:12). Jesus said these words “in the treasury, as He taught in the temple” (8:20). I am. Jesus did not say He carries a light or knows about light. He said He IS the light, the light that gives life (8:12). His followers shine only because His light shines on them. God's light. On the first day God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light (Genesis 1:3). David sang, “The Lord is my light and my salvation” (Psalm 27:1). Darkness. In the Bible, darkness is a picture of sin and of not knowing God. Jesus said that people “loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). Light that shows. Light shows what is really there. Jesus' words had just shown the leaders the sin in their own hearts. Light that leads. Light also shows the way. The woman was told to “go and sin no more.” She could only walk that new road by following Jesus. For the whole world. Jesus is not only Israel's light. He is the light of the world, for every person in every country. Follow Me. To follow Jesus means to trust Him, listen to Him and do what He says, every day. What we learn. You do not have to stay in the dark. Come to Jesus, follow Him, and He will give you “the light of life.”

Then Jesus spoke (8:12). “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” John tells us where: “These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple” (8:20). Phos. The Greek word for light is phos (say: FOHS). In John's Gospel, light belongs to God Himself. John 1:4-5 says that life was in the Word, the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness. The light of the world. Isaiah promised a great light for people living in darkness: “The people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light” (Isaiah 9:2). God also said of His Servant, “I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles” (Isaiah 49:6). Jesus claims to be that light for every nation. Light that exposes. “Everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed” (John 3:20). That morning the light had exposed the accusers' hearts, and they went out. Light that leads. “He who follows Me.” Follows is present tense: keeps on following. The woman had been told to “go and sin no more.” The only way to walk that road is to keep following the Light. The light of life. Jesus does not only show the way; He gives life. “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Why it matters. The same Jesus who refused to condemn the woman is the Light who leads her new life. Grace forgives the past; the Light guides the future. Both come from Him.

Later, Jesus spoke to the people again. He said, “I am the light of the world.” Think about walking at night with no light. You cannot see where to go. Sin is like darkness. It keeps people from seeing God and His good way. Jesus is the light! He shows us what is wrong in our hearts. Then He forgives us and shows us how to live. Jesus said that people who follow Him will never live in darkness. To follow Jesus means to trust Him and do what He says. The woman needed that light for her new life. You need it too!

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.” Light helps us see. Jesus shows us the way to God!