Please turn with me now in your Bibles to the Gospel of John. John chapter 7 verse 53 through chapter 8 verse 11. Controversial passage in God's Word. This is God's holy and perfect word. They went each to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning, he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. Scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman. who had been caught in adultery. And placing her in their midst, they said to him, Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now when the law of Moses commanded us to stone such women, what do you say? This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones. And Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? She said, no one Lord. And Jesus said, neither do I condemn you. Go and from now on sin no more. The word of the Lord. Amen. So the Bible is, as you know, it's full of stories. Some are important stories. but are obscure stories. They're hard to understand and hard to remember. But others are important stories and memorable stories. There are stories that we associate with certain books in the Bible, such as the creation account in Genesis, the parting of the Red Sea in Exodus, the walls of Jericho in the book of Joshua, David and Goliath in second Samuel, the wise men in Matthew, the birth of Jesus in Luke. And in the Gospel of John, there are many memorable stories. The marriage of Cana in chapter 2. Jesus and Nicodemus in chapter 3. The Samaritan woman in chapter 4. The Bread of Life discourse in chapter 6. But there's another story that is equally well known, and that is the woman caught in adultery in chapter 8. But this story is different from all of those other stories that I've mentioned, because some feel that this story should not even be in the Bible. And that is quite a statement. That's a jaw-dropping statement. A story in the Bible that shouldn't be in the Bible? Isn't the Bible the Word of God? Isn't it a book without error? Well, the problem is this story isn't found in the earliest Greek manuscripts. And even in the later manuscripts, it shows up in various places. Sometimes it shows up in the middle of chapter seven. Sometimes it even shows up in a different book in the gospel of Luke. But on the other hand, There's good reason for including this story. Some of the church fathers mentioned this story early on, and many scholars believe this story is as ancient as all the other stories in the gospel accounts. So the question then is, why is this story here? Why is it at the beginning of John chapter eight? Well, we'll consider that question at the end of our sermon. But before that, we'll consider some other questions that relate to the story itself as we reflect upon a woman who has been caught red handed in the act of adultery and who is being exploited by the religious leaders and who eventually will be shown mercy by Jesus. Verse 53 concludes the events of the Feast of Booths, which show up in chapter 7, as the crowd disperses, each one going to his own house, and Jesus goes to the Mount of Olives, which is His resting place, when He is teaching in the Temple of Jerusalem by day. But at daybreak, he returns to the temple, he resumes his teaching. And in the midst of his teaching, some of the official teachers, the scribes and the Pharisees, they approach him and they don't come alone. They bring somebody along, a woman they bring with them, a woman who has been caught in adultery. And once they placed her in the midst of all of this teaching and excitement, they say to Jesus, teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now, in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. What do you say? And for once it appears that the law is finally on their side. Leviticus 20, Deuteronomy 22, both command the death penalty for adultery. And in chapter 22 of Deuteronomy, it even spells out how the punishment is to be administered to somebody who commits adultery and is betrothed. And the punishment is death by stoning. That is what the law demands. And not only do they have the law on their side, but this appears to be an airtight case. For apparently, this woman wasn't only accused of adultery, but we're told that she was caught in the very act of adultery. So it seems like an open and shut case. If you've been paying close attention, there's a problem with this scene. They're forgetting something, or perhaps a better way to put it is they are forgetting someone. The law requires the death penalty for adultery. And as we know, adultery involves more than one person, not just the woman, but also her partner, the man. So the question we should be asking is, where is he? Did he escape? Does he even need to escape? Is this woman more culpable than her lover? It's easy to think that, because such thinking goes all the way back to the beginning, when the woman was tempted by the serpent in the Garden of Eden. She sinned first by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And then she convinced her husband who was with her to eat of the tree, tempting him to sin as well. That was original sin. That led to the corruption of all humanity. And that includes a specific type of sin. the subject of the seventh commandment, which is illustrated here in John chapter 8, as a woman is hauled into the temple courts, brought before Jesus for the sin of adultery, which is the classic sexual sin. In the eyes of her culture, she is still the tempter. This is a case of gender hypocrisy. And even though we live in a highly sexualized culture, women are still considered to be the tempters today. Think about it. Men can wear any kind of clothes they want, right? But what happens when a woman wears clothes that seem to be less than modest? How does society view her? as a temptress, not only in our culture, but also in the church. We have double standards in Christianity and in a highly sexualized culture. Women who are sexually active are considered to be loose. They are tainted. But what about men, especially college age men? Well, then it's natural. It's a right of passage. They used to say, they used to call it sowing your wild oats. And that is very unequal because what that does is it gives men a pass while condemning women for the same sin. This kind of behavior should never be tolerated in the church. Adultery and every other violation of the seventh commandment is sinful, not only for women, but also for men equally. One gender isn't more guilty than the other. In the eyes of God, men and women are equal, spiritual equals. In Genesis chapter 1, on the sixth day of creation, in verse 26, we're told that God made man in his image, but then, In verse 27, he says, male and female, he created them. From the beginning, men and women were equal before God. They're the same essential being. There's a lot of talk these days about men and women having different natures, being ontologically different. You might have heard that word being used, that means of a different being, not ontologically different. But that's not true. They have the same being, the same nature, and the same value. They are image bearers alike. But in John chapter eight, the religious leaders don't seem to care about that, because bringing this woman to Jesus is really not about justice in their eyes. It's a trap. She is a pawn in their trap. They said this to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. It's a trap. This isn't about the woman. This is about Jesus. Jesus has been defying their traditions. Specifically, He's been healing on the Sabbath, which is an example of their oral tradition. But now they're not talking about their oral tradition. Now they're talking about a direct violation of the Mosaic Law. And they're using this woman as a bait for their trap. If he defies this law, if he shows mercy to this woman, then they'll spring the trap. It'll prove that he is soft on the law. And then they can discredit him to the people, and then it'll be easy to arrest him. But what if he doesn't defy the law? Well, they can still spring the trap. Because if he doesn't show mercy, if he pronounces judgment, if he says stone her, Well that, they can just go and tell the authorities. They can say that man is pronouncing the death penalty on that woman and we don't have the right to do that. Jews didn't have the right to pronounce the death penalty on anyone. They were not their own authority. They needed permission from Rome to do so, from the Roman governor. The leaders have brought an open and shut case to Jesus. A woman who's caught in adultery is being used as bait for a trap. Seems like an ingenious trap. How is he going to respond? What's he going to say to this? And the answer is, nothing. He doesn't say anything. Instead of talking, what does he do? He bends down and he starts writing. with his finger on the ground. And this image of Jesus writing on the ground has captured the imagination of so many writers and scholars down centuries. What is he writing? Is he writing a list of their sins? Is he writing something from the Old Testament? Many scholars think He's writing Jeremiah 17.13, O LORD, the hope of Israel, who forsake, you shall be put to shame. Those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth. For they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living water." Jesus has just connected Himself with the living water in chapter 7, and they have been trying to arrest Him, and now He's writing on the ground. It's a very interesting connection, which is possible. But we're not told that he's writing Jeremiah 17.13. We're not told that he's writing their sins. We have no idea what he's writing. We don't know what he's writing. We only know that he is writing. which is important because by writing, by stooping down, by not even looking at them, what he's doing is he's ignoring them. He's not answering them. He's not participating in their trap. And they seem to recognize this because they keep asking him. They're badgering him. They're pressing, trying to get him to commit either way so they can spring their trap. They keep out this. until finally he stops writing. He stands up and then he says some memorable words. Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. He gives them an answer, but it's not the answer they were looking for. It's not an answer to the question they asked. Let him who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." We need to understand here what he's not saying. He's not saying, since we're all sinners, we should never judge anyone. Or, as he puts it in the Sermon on the Mount, judge not lest ye be judged. That doesn't mean that we can never make judgments. Jesus Himself made judgments in the Sermon on the Mount, After he said that, he said, don't cast your pearls before swine. That's a judgment. Judge not doesn't mean we shouldn't judge people at all. It means we shouldn't judge people out of hatred, out of arrogance. We should judge people out of love, out of humility. Likewise, he's not saying here we have to be sinless in order to judge sin. That would be impossible because he's the only one who's sinless. What he's really saying is don't be a hypocrite when you judge someone. Don't judge the sin if you're also guilty of the sin. The witnesses of the crime were supposed to throw the first stones, but The question is, where are they? Or better yet, who are they? Are they even present? Are they even innocent? Jesus agrees with the Mosaic law. After all, he wrote it, came from him. But he disagrees with their practice of the Mosaic law, which is really not practice. It's malpractice. What about today? There are some in our circles, thankfully they're in the minority, they believe we should pass laws so that adulterers are put to death. That we should apply the Mosaic Law to our country. That it's for all times and places in all of its judicial rulings. And that assumes a lot. Because I would argue that it isn't for all times and places, at least in this present world. We're living at a different point in redemptive history than Israel was. America, by the way, is not Israel. Our country is not a theocracy. We're pluralistic. We don't stone adulterers to death in our country, and neither do we do so in the church. But the church has a censure for adulterers who refuse to repent, whose lifestyle has been so cemented that they refuse to change, and that censure is called excommunication. That means being put outside the kingdom of God. Which, if they don't repent after that, means they're awaiting a fate that is far worse than simply being stoned to death. So after giving them the answer that they needed to hear, not the answer that they wanted to hear, He again bends down and resumes his writing. He's again refusing to engage their trap. But the answer has had its desired effect, because when they hear it, they go away one by one, beginning with the older ones, the ones who have studied the law longer. They all leave. Why? Well, probably because they're all guilty. None of them can cast the first stone. they would be hypocritical to do so, which leaves two people in the story. And those two people are Jesus and the woman. For the second time, he stands up and he asks her this time, two questions, not one. Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? Notice what he didn't say here. He didn't say, woman, are you guilty? And why didn't he say that? Because he didn't need to say it. He already knows that she is guilty. And she knows that she is guilty. That's indisputable. Has no one condemned you? What's her answer? No one, Lord. My accusers are gone. No one. And since there are no accusers, Jesus joins the club and he says, neither do I condemn you. Go. And from now on, by the way, sin no more. This is a classic example of how mercy and accountability can go together. Jesus knows she's guilty, but since her accusers perverted the law, They didn't bring the guy and they're no longer accusing her. And how can she, we say she broke the law. There's no charge. And if there's no charge, then he's not going to charge her either because he's merciful. God is gracious. That's why he's not charging her, but he's also holy. God is also holy. And we were made in His image, male and female, for what purpose? Not to commit adultery, but to be holy." So He tells her, sin no more. Stop being an adulteress. Turn away from that sin, and every other sin while you're at it, and be holy. He has the same message for us. Sin no more. He's not talking about sinless perfection, even though that's the ultimate goal, right? We're not going to achieve that goal until we die, until our souls go to be with Jesus and are perfected, or when Jesus comes back and we receive our new bodies. We're not going to achieve sinless perfection while we're here on earth. That's our blessed hope. But for now, He is calling us to be holy, to turn away from the sins that plague us, to turn away from those sins so they don't define us. So He says to the woman and to us, sin no more. for a passage that some feel shouldn't even be in the Bible, that is some story, right? The woman caught in adultery, brought before Jesus by hypocritical men who are secretly practicing adultery, and certainly spiritual adultery, because they are not acting out of zeal for God's law. They're acting out of hatred for God's Son. Which brings us back to the question I asked at the beginning of the sermon. Why is the story here in John chapter 8? Why in this particular place? Well, probably because what's going to happen in John chapter 8, where Jesus has another encounter with the religious leaders, And instead of talking about stoning a woman, they threaten to stone a man. And not just any old man. They threaten to stone Jesus. This time, not for adultery. Jesus is no adulterer. They're going to stone Him instead for blasphemy. For claiming to be God in the flesh. That's why they're going to stone Him. Which ironically, he really is. He's not committing blasphemy either. He really is God in the flesh. But they won't believe it. The Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us to live a life free. so that we could live a life free of adultery and any other sin, to die a death for adulterers and sinners like us, to be raised again so that we could cease to become adulterers and sinners, so that we can strive to live holy lives in response to God's mercy. May we do so every day with greater consistency And when we fail, may we fall on our faces before this gracious and merciful God and ask Him not only for forgiveness, but for transformation. Amen.