(REFLECTIONS ON John 8:1-11)

Jesus came to the temple, where all the people were coming to Him, and He sat down and began to teach them. Although what followed were the scribes and the Pharisees trying to teach Jesus a lesson by testing Him so that they might have grounds for accusing Him, however as Jesus often does, He turned things around and rather than fall into their trap, He used their trap to teach them.

3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, 4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. 5 Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?”

What was meant to be a test for Jesus, in order to accuse Him, turned to be a lesson for those that accused the woman caught in adultery, and who were seeking to accuse Jesus. We often talk about what Jesus was writing on the ground and about the details of the woman’s adultery in today’s Scripture, but the turning point is in Jesus’ words to them.

7 But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Scripture tells us that when the scribes and Pharisees heard Jesus’ words, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone with just the woman with no one left to accuse her, or Him.

Notice that Scripture doesn’t say that they saw what Jesus was writing on the ground, or that the woman was innocent, but rather it was Jesus’ words that turned them away, without any words in response. Why is that? Because there is none without sin.

The interesting thing is the Jesus didn’t condemn the woman of her adultery. The natural question then is if Jesus doesn’t care about sin or if the woman’s sin wasn’t that serious. Yet, this passage of Scripture isn’t dealing with sin, but rather dealing with the weaponization of sin.

We shouldn’t use someone’s sin as a way to accuse or test others. We shouldn’t use sin as a weapon to attack others, to justify ourselves, or to prove a point. The woman’s adultery wasn’t the question, but it was the scribes and the Pharisees that tried to turn this woman’s life into a weapon to trap Jesus that was the issue.

Jesus said to her, “I do not condemn you, either,” meaning He would not weaponize her situation, but He also did not condone it saying, “Go. From now on sin no more.”

Brothers and sisters, turning sin into a weapon will always backfire, because we are all sinners, and if we try to turn sin into a weapon, we will soon find that we are the ones that will be destroyed. Jesus said, “Go. From now on sin no more,” and that is what we should do, rather than trying to use sin to attack, justify, and accuse.

Pastor Michael Lu
Enduring Word Bible Commentary: John 8