Grace & Truth

I like doing puzzles.

To be honest when we deal with John 8:1-11 we are dealing with a puzzle.

Introduction:

Background on where and how this text fits into the gospel of John.

No record of it in any of the earliest manuscripts. No mention of it by any of the early church father’s either. It is not until the 4th and 5th century that it finds it way into a number of Greek and Latin manuscripts.

There it sometimes placed in Luke and in others John’s gospel.

Even though it is not in the oldest manuscripts most scholars seem to believe it is a factual account and is the inspired word of God. One commentator said it's a text looking for context.

Read John 7:53-8:11

John 7:53–8:11 NIV

Then they all went home, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 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.”

1. The Adulterous Woman

-What does the Mosaic law say about adultery?

Biblical law forbids adultery

Exodus 20:14 NIV

“You shall not commit adultery.

Adultery carried with it a hard punishment

Deuteronomy 22:22 NIV

If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.

This reflects the to laws of many of the ancient Near Eastern nations.

...ideas about marriage and the family, tended to emphasize stability within the social and economic relationships of the households in local community

The Mosaic law, however, treats the violation of the marriage as a violation of the covenant relationship between Israel and Yahweh.

In societies where marriage was a strongly established social institution, well-formulated codes of sexual morality could be expected, because marriage was, and still is, the ultimate regulated sex life among human beings. In such societies, there are normally primary rules, such as those related to incest, polygamy, perversion, and adultery; and secondary rules, governing the conduct of the sexes where no carnal crime is involved, prohibiting the obscene, the indecent, or the immodest (Epstein, Sex Laws and Customs, 3). Thus regulations addressing adultery are found in the Old Testament and throughout the literature of the ancient Near East.

-What does the Roman law say about adultery?

The Romans had some strict laws regarding adultery as well

Julian Laws On Adultery, were instituted along with closely related Augustan marriage legislation in an attempt to revive the (supposedly) strong social morals and customs from an earlier period. These laws harkened back to a supposed ‘golden age’ of Roman morality.

Before the Julian Laws cases of adultery and infidelity were handled internally, by the affected families.

But now the courts handled such cases. Not that it seems any better the Father of the of the adulterous woman was then empowered to kill both his daughter and the man she is caught with. A husband could not kill his wife if caught in adultery but he could kill the man she was with.

Suffice to say…Adultery in the 1st Century carried a death penalty from the the church and the state. But here’s the rub, the Jews could not impose as death penalty on anyone.

-What is the trap being laid for Jesus?

They have a woman caught in adultery. Where is the man?

Their only motivation is to find a way to accuse Jesus. (the woman is only a pawn)

If Jesus says stone her—They go to the Roman government with accusations of over throwing Roman legal procedures

If Jesus says let her go—They go back to the Sanhedrin with accusations of a rabbi unwilling to adhere to the Mosaic law.

2. Jesus responds to the Jewish leaders questioning

-Why is Jesus writing on the ground?

This seems to be a mystery

There is one other place where this concept of drawing in the dust like this shows up, in Jeremiah.

In a section God is speaking through the prophet Jeremiah and he recounting Israels sin. He says Jeremiah 17:1-2

Jeremiah 17:1–2 NIV

“Judah’s sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars. Even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles beside the spreading trees and on the high hills.

Then he says in verse 13

Jeremiah 17:13 NIV

Lord, you are the hope of Israel; all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water.

-Jesus turns the tables on the accusers

They have brought this woman to the wrong man.

When he says “let any on of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” He’s saying “yes she’s guilty, go ahead, stone her. But only if you too have are 100% innocent. Only if you are free from any kind of sin.”

Paul says something similar in Romans 2:1

Romans 2:1 NIV

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.

-The accusers all wonder off

They know they have no leg to stand on.

3. Jesus demonstrates Grace & Truth

Jesus is the only one there who could pick up a stone and throw it at her. Instead he points out there is no one left to condemn and he says,

-"Then neither do I condemn you."

Based on what we know about Jesus this is amazing.

But Jesus says something that is equally important

-"Go now and leave your life of sin."

this is repentance

this is rehabilitation

Jesus hangs out with sinners but he never says, “as you were”

It would not have mattered what kind of sin this woman was engaging in Jesus would have said the same thing to her, “leave your life of sin.”

Application/Implication

1. Compassion for sinners should be our first response to people lost in sin.

-Where is the compassion? Don’t over look the necessity of compassion when dealing with others caught in sin.

2. What does the Christian life look like when it is all grace and no truth?

3. What does the Christian life look like when it is all truth and no grace?