Talk 7: The Woman Caught in Adultery

0:02 Good morning. We're continuing our summer series of encounters with Jesus in John's gospel this morning, and we're turning our attention to Jesus' encounter with the woman caught in adultery. So let's just dive right into that and read that now. If you have a Bible with you, turn to John chapter 7, verse 53 to John 8, 11. That would be useful for you if you could read that alongside it. If not, the words are up behind me here. This is God's word. Then they all went home, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

0:36 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.

1:17 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.

1:44 Amen. Before we get into the substance of this encounter, we have to deal with the issue that maybe some of you picked up as you read this passage in your own Bible. In most Bibles, this particular account is separated from the rest of the text by a line, or it has an asterisk, or a footnote, or double square brackets around it, with the explanation that the earliest manuscript of John's gospel doesn't contain this particular story. So the Glen Abbey teaching team have not only given me the topic of adultery, they've also given me a passage that arguably isn't in the Bible at all. So I'd like to thank them for that this morning. So what do we do with this particular passage? This idea that perhaps it wasn't in the original text and has been added years later. How do we process that?

2:31 How do we deal with it? Well, for some of us, it's tempting to ignore it. It's tempting to treat it like any other footnote that tells us about where similar passages are or where Jesus is quoting from. We tend to gloss over those. They're useful information, but it's not essential. But I think this one is a bit more important because it goes to the heart of our trust in the authenticity and the accuracy of God's word. Suddenly we have a section in the Bible that those who compile the Bible tell us probably originally wasn't there. For example, Don Carson, one of the most foremost New Testament scholars in recent times, says this.

3:11 Despite the best efforts to prove that this narrative was originally part of John's gospel, the evidence is against them. And modern English versions of the Bible are right to rule it off from the rest of the text or relegate it to a footnote. So if there's a question mark hanging over this passage, how should we engage with it? Let me spend a couple of minutes on this and then we'll get to the passage itself. Firstly, I want to say that I am no expert. There will be people in this room who are far more qualified than me to speak on this. But from what I have read, the questions around this passage stem from a number of issues. The story is missing from all the Greek manuscripts of John before the fifth century.

3:56 The earliest church fathers and their commentaries make no reference to this passage. And it's not until the 10th century that they start commenting on it in this place in John. Other manuscripts put this account in different places in John's gospel. So they put it after John 7 36, after John 7 44, and after John 21 25. Still others place it in the gospel of Luke after Luke 21 38 or after Luke 24 53. And in addition, the style of the passage is different from the rest of John, and it uses terminology not used elsewhere in John. So there's probably enough evidence to say that this was not part of the original gospel of John. So what does that mean for us?

4:41 Should we ignore it? Should we pass over it? Well, it's important to note that the vast majority of scholars and translators throughout the years have said that they are confident that this event actually occurred. They use a technique called textual criticism to assess the passage, and they believe that the text aligns with other scriptures, and it is an authentic account from Jesus' life. They just don't know where it sits in the gospel timeline. So they believe it's authenticity. They just question its chronology. Based on the myriad of assessments done by well-respected scholars, I think it is reasonable for us to take this passage as an authentic account that is part of scripture.

5:28 So having dealt with that, we can move on to deal with the passage itself. Thousands of years ago, the leader of a group of people climbed a mountain and engaged with the God of the universe. And that God inscribed some rules for the good of the people on tablets of stone, 10 in all, and the seventh of which was, you shall not commit adultery. About 2,000 years ago, the son of that same God climbed a mountain and told the people, you have heard it said, you shall not commit adultery. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. God takes sin seriously. It's important that we hold that in our minds because so often the temptation in the passage that we're about to look at is that we decouple the events there from the fact that God takes sin, all sin, seriously. So I want you to hold that thought.

6:34 Have what we've just said as a reference point, as an anchor as we explore the rest of the passage. So let's look at the encounter, or rather encounters with Jesus within the passage. As with many of the Encounters with Jesus series, we're just going to go through it verse by verse together. We're going to let scripture talk, and we'll see what we find there. They all went to their own 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. So that's the scene. The account opens with a fairly usual occurrence for Jesus.

7:14 He's been preaching in Jerusalem, and when the people and the Pharisees went back to their homes, Jesus went to the place that he typically laid his head for the night when he was about the city, either on the Mount of Olives itself, or perhaps just behind, just beyond, at the home of Lazarus in Bethany. And Jesus came early to the temple the next day, and the people came to him. And he sat down and taught them. Into this ordinary day, a most extraordinary scene was about to develop. First of all, there was the planned encounter. The encounter with the accusers. This first encounter with Jesus occurs between Jesus and the teachers of the law and the Pharisees. And make no mistake, it was planned.

8:00 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group. so the teachers of the law and the Pharisees burst into this early morning scene and they drag this lady into the middle of the temple courtyard into center stage making her stand in front of everyone and they turn to Jesus and they make this accusation teacher this woman was caught in the act of adultery now in Jewish law for an accusation of this type to be brought the law was very specific about the witness required. At least two witnesses must agree on absolutely everything. That's why this type of charge was very rarely brought, even in Jesus' time. There's an old Jewish story about a woman named Susanna who was accused of adultery under a tree, and she was acquitted because under cross-examination, the witnesses couldn't agree on the size of leaves on the tree. So on top of two witnesses agreeing, they had to actually see act itself being played out. In other words, it wouldn't work if they saw her leaving someone's house at a strange time or they saw two people in a place that they wouldn't normally have been.

9:17 Suspicion wasn't enough. They had to see the act itself. This suggests very clearly a premeditation to what the Pharisees had done with the sole purpose of trapping Jesus. Their primary concern was not about God's law because if it was and they knew what was about to happen so much so that they could get two witnesses on the scene surely to goodness they could have stopped it happening in the first place no this was to trap Jesus to force him to choose between the law of Moses and the rule of Rome so this woman has been brought before Jesus and she's standing there as though on trial amidst the crowd of people watching and observing her shame. And the Pharisees say this, in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So if you take the bit that we anchored earlier, adultery is of course breaking the seventh commandment. And there's no wiggle room.

10:20 There's no question about whether or not this was against God's law. It could not be clearer. Let me show you some of the Old Testament passages that reinforce that. Deuteronomy 22, 23, and 24. If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, he shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death. The young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man's wife. Or Leviticus 20, 10. If a man commits adultery with another man's wife, with the wife of his neighbor, both the and the adulteress are to be put to death.

11:01 And now this woman has been caught and she's standing before the crowd. Now, you might have noticed after reading those Old Testament references that there is something or someone very noticeably missing. The law itself specifically said that if a man commits adultery with another man's wife, both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be to death. Where is this man? If she was caught in the act itself, he would have been there. It takes two to tango. What happened? Well, clearly we don't have the answer to that supplied to us in the text.

11:43 But if I was to hazard a guess, I would suggest that the reason that they only bring this woman is because they are not sincere about seeking justice. This is a trap, as the author states and the optics of having a lone woman worked in favor of the Pharisees as they are trying to put Jesus in an impossible situation. And they turn to Jesus and they say, now, what do you say? What a question. Jesus can't declare her innocence because she's not innocent. He can't say, well, it's not a big deal. Just let her go. He would be in clear violation of God's law.

12:23 If he agrees with the Pharisees, well, okay, that's the law, go and put her to death. If he does that and he condemns the woman, then he potentially would get in trouble with the Romans, who were the only ones with authority to exercise the death penalty. And he would also be seen as siding with the Pharisees. And that would show him to be no different from them. It's a tricky, complex situation. And everyone was looking to see how Jesus would respond. If you had never heard this story before, it would be edge of the seat stuff. And before we look at Jesus' response, I want to consider the accusers.

13:02 These scribes and Pharisees are meant to be upholders of God's law. The people who were steeped in the scripture and who should most reflect the God that they're serving. And yet, here we have shameless people using shameless efforts, using this woman and publicly broadcasting her shame and pain to attack Jesus. No desire for proper justice, no concern for those that they use, no lament for sin, just a determination to use anything and everything to show that they are righteous and other people are not. I do get cross thinking about what they're doing. But I think, do you know what? We have to stop and reflect here. The application for us in this is obvious.

13:51 Don't be like the Pharisees. And it's probably very easy to think, well, we're clearly nothing like them. That's okay. But I wonder whether there are times when we are quick to rush to judgment. We might not pick up stones, but perhaps we might be tempted to skite a pebble or two. We judge the song that we don't like, or we judge the speaker we don't like. Perhaps we can be tempted to have a two-tier judgment. We judge other people by their actions, but we judge ourselves by our intentions.

14:27 Or more serious still, we write other people off for their past sins and their past actions. We remarkably, inconceivably hold on to other people's sins and label them and don't allow them to move on. I am no builder, but I think we have a responsibility to ensure that our church isn't pebbledashed. And what I mean by that is where sin becomes public, there is a real risk that stones have been thrown and they have struck and they have stuck. And those on the receiving end of that feel permanently pebbledashed, defined by sin. There is a stigma of sin that sticks, that can't be shaken off, and others don't allow it to be shaken off. We as a church need to allow Jesus to speak to the Pharisee in our hearts to make sure that we don't judge and write others off in a way that Jesus never would, that we don't label others, that we never define them by the sin in their history, rather we define them by the Savior in their hearts. So I think there's a warning here for us to reflect on how we approach judgment and forgiveness.

15:55 Moving on. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. We have no idea what Jesus wrote on the ground. Some people think it might be the commandments. Some people think it's a list of sins. In Jeremiah chapter 17, it says, 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.

16:26 And so some scholars and commentators have thought perhaps he's writing this in the dust or he's writing the names of the Pharisees in the dust. The truth is we don't know and we don't need to know because the Holy Spirit hasn't given us that detail as part of scripture. But we do know two things about Jesus riding in the dust. Firstly, it created a bit of time. Time for the Pharisees to keep questioning him and hearing themselves do that, hearing their vitriol. And then later time for them to reflect on what they have been saying and what they have been doing. We also know that in the act of riding in the dust, Jesus would have had to kneel down before this lady, giving her perhaps some humanity, some dignity, some respect. And for the first time in this scene, for the first time, perhaps she begins to get some of the dignity back.

17:33 We don't know. We can only speculate. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, let any one of you who is without sin cast the first stone. Sorry, be the first to throw a stone at her. I think my King James is leaking out there. What an answer to this cacophony of questions. Kind, just, merciful. Did he say that she was innocent?

18:06 No. Did he say that adultery is not a big deal? No. But he cuts to the heart of the issue with these accusers, which is the issue of their hearts. The issue here was not the adulterous woman, but it was the wicked and hardened hearts of these Pharisees. 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.

18:38 The older ones. That's an interesting line. There's a kind of maturity that ought to come and typically does come with age. That's not true for everybody, as Jenna might remind me the odd time. But it's generally true. The older ones had a lot longer in their lives to count their sins, to know their imperfections, to see their double standards. They perhaps drop the stones that they hold and they leave one by one. They had enough awareness of their sins to consider what Jesus said and walk away.

19:22 The focus now turns to encounter number two, the encounter with the accused. Jesus' conversation with the woman herself. This was an encounter that, unlike the one with the Pharisees, was unexpected. A few hours before this, her day was going much differently. She would not have anticipated encountering Jesus. And yet here she is. In all of what has gone on before, she has been standing in the center of this. She has been placed in the midst of this crowd on public view, her deeds known for all.

19:57 The dark secret that she held has been exposed for public shame. I'm not going to deal with the substance of adultery this morning, except to remind you what we parked earlier on. We dealt with adultery as part of our Corinthians series, and I encourage you to go back and listen to that if you want to cover that topic. The focus that I want to zone in on today is not the sin, but the savior, not the deed, but the deliverance. Her darkest secret, the sin that she thought no one knew about has been placed front and center in the public sphere. I want us to try and put ourselves in her place this morning. So as an experiment, I want you in your head only to think of the deepest, darkest sin that you have, The one that no one knows about. Not even your spouse, not your family, not your closest friend.

20:50 The one that you would be most ashamed of. So bring it to mind now. Okay? Now, tell it to the person beside you. Don't do that. But I wonder, for a moment, Did you experience some of the fear and the panic and the shame that this woman would have had? Standing in the middle of the crowd, her deepest, darkest secret, her deepest, most shameful sin led bare.

21:23 Do you know, some of us are holding on to secret sin and shame. You may not be in the public square with pointing fingers, but the shame is real for you. And it's paralyzing. And at some point, you know you're going to have to deal with it before Jesus. Just you and him. And as the Pharisees and the crowds in this scene melt away, the woman is in the same position. She is left with her sin and the Savior. Jesus straightened up and asked her, woman, where are they?

21:57 Has no one condemned you? Jesus is the first in this narrative to address the woman directly. The first to give her worth. The term woman here might sound a little disrespectful in our vocabulary, but in Greek it's entirely respectful. And actually Jesus uses the same term to address his mother at the wedding feast in Cana. So Jesus becomes the first in this scene to give respect and dignity to this lady. And as he asks if anyone has condemned her, she replies with three short words. No one, sir.

22:33 Jesus goes on to say, neither do I condemn you. This is mercy on display. Jesus was not condoning her actions. He's about to call them sin. He's about to say, go and don't do that anymore. But he does not condemn her. Earlier in the book of John, Jesus speaks about condemnation with Nicodemus. He says this, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

23:03 this verse does not mean that God does not condemn sin it means that Jesus coming was not to show up to make sure that everyone knew what was right and what was wrong and that they were doing wrong that was already accomplished by the law we all know that we don't live perfect lives if you're married you get someone to tell you that you don't live a perfect life we all sin but jesus came to save sinners that is why he came the bible tells us that he came once to deal with sin and he will come another time to rescue those who love him and punish those who reject him if you're not a believer today you have to hear this you need to know this we have all done things that have broken the relationship between ourselves and a perfect god those things deserve condemnation deserve judgment the bible calls those things sin and as a result there is a separation between us and god but because god so loved the world he sent his son jesus to live a perfect life and to go to the cross to die to take away those sins from me and from you if you put your faith in jesus the punishment you deserve, the condemnation that you have built up will be taken away from you and placed on him. And your sin will be nailed to the cross so that it doesn't get nailed on you. God frees you not only from your sin, but from the guilt of those sins. You'll be free from condemnation. That's how it works.

24:41 Relationship restored. You will be part of God's family forever. If you're not a believer, that is what we desperately want for you. This is the good news, the gospel. God is in the business of forgiveness and reconciliation. Jesus did not come to condemn you, but to save you. And Jesus then says to the woman, go now and leave your life of sin.

25:07 So Jesus does not condemn this one, but neither is he condoning what she does. That's really, really important for us to grasp. The sympathy we may have for her ought not to blind us to the tragedy of sin. Somewhere before we came to this point, she has made wrong choices. She has decided that her desires were more important than God's direction. And Jesus says, go now and leave your life of sin. I don't condemn you, but go and leave that life. Don't do those things anymore.

25:39 He is not abandoning judgment, but he gives the opportunity to her for a fresh start. How many of us dealing with secret sin and shame need to hear those words? New start. Let's go again. Here's another chance. Whatever you have brought to church this morning, whatever is heavy on your heart, whatever sin is weighing you down and crushing your soul, whatever was brought to your mind in our experiment earlier, Jesus says, new start. Let's go again. Here's another chance.

26:17 Perhaps like the woman in the story, you didn't expect to encounter Jesus this morning. Yet here you are and here he is, ready to give you a new start. No condemnation. So we get to the end of our story and actually we don't know how it ends. We know Jesus has offered grace and mercy and we know that he has encouraged her to go and sin no more. But what we do not know in this encounter is what she did, how the story ends for her. For most other encounters that we have explored over the summer series, we have more certainty. We've seen the outworkings.

26:51 So Nicodemus expressed an open loyalty to Jesus after the crucifixion. The woman at the well ran and told everybody about the Messiah that she had seen. Here, we do not know what the woman's story is after this encounter. I'm sure we would all like to think that this was a defining moment in her life, a point where she has experienced the grace of God and that it has given her the opportunity to begin again, to start a new life hand in hand with God, changed, renewed. We want to think that this moment was a watershed moment for her, a moment like the watershed moment in 1998 when a student gave his life to Jesus in his university accommodation. That watershed moment did not change the world. But you know what? It changed my world.

27:43 And I know that watershed moment, that defining moment, can be told again and again, in chair after chair in this building, in row after row. The grace of God changing lives, sin forgiven, relationship restored, future secured. You want to know what Jesus can do in a life? You want to be reminded about the saving power of Jesus? Speak to the person beside you or the person in front of you and hear the story of God at work. Watershed moment after watershed moment. For some of you today, perhaps this is your watershed moment. I sincerely hope it is.

28:25 This is the point where you turn and you put your trust in Jesus. And if that's the case, there's the prayer room after the service. Go there, people will be willing to pray with you. If you want, come and talk to me. I would be privileged to pray with you about that. But the reality in this biblical encounter is that we do not know if that's what happened. She may have walked away from that encounter completely unchanged. She may have thought, whew, got away with one there.

28:54 I thought it was tatty bread. She probably wouldn't have said that. But I hope she was changed by that encounter. I hope that grace did grip her heart and that on the day that Jesus comes or calls, we will see her in the hallways of heaven, lined with the saints, no more shame, only glory, having finished well. What about our encounters with Jesus? How does the story finish for you and for me? Will we finish well? You might be listening to this this morning and thinking, it's too late for you to finish well.

29:34 You've made mistakes, and they are big mistakes. And because of those, you could never hope to finish well. Those deep, dark sins we were thinking of earlier stand as roadblocks to finishing well. Adultery, pornography, greed, pride, lust, addiction. Whatever it is, you are here and you are convinced you cannot finish well. But you know what? God is bigger than your sin and he is greater than your doubt. This lady's encounter with Jesus can serve as a springboard for your encounter with Jesus here and now.

30:16 New start. no condemnation grace mercy forgiveness perhaps for some of you today your encounter with with jesus is not one of shame but it's one of mediocrity same old same old you're going through the motions of faith but your heart hasn't been fired like it used to be jesus is calling you to an encounter today with the living god who will rain down his spirit upon you. All he is doing is waiting for you to ask. Jesus wants you to have a new start. No condemnation, grace, mercy, forgiveness. Perhaps today Jesus is speaking to the Pharisee in your heart, telling you to put down the stones, to stop defining others by their past sins, encouraging you to leave judgment to the one who judges justly. Folks, engage with God today.

31:23 We don't know how this woman's encounter ended, but we get to know how ours ends. Walk away from your encounter this morning with God, changed, renewed, saved and secured in his love and grace. Let's pray. Father God, we are so thankful for your word and what it teaches about your son, the Savior. We bow our hearts before you this morning and we ask that this encounter with Jesus changes our lives. Amazing love pouring out on each of us. May we be free from the condemnation of sin, ready to live for you. Amen.