Loving Without Limits: The Woman Caught in Adultery

Welcome back, dear one! We left off in the last post talking about the overwhelming love that Jesus has for each and everyone of us. If you are anything like me, you have an asterisk after the statement Jesus is love; and that asterisk is “except for me, Jesus could never love someone like me”. The list of reasons why we add that asterisk is literally limitless, but they are always filled with pain. The reality is, however, that the Bible is filled with amazing, beautiful stories of Jesus loving those who lived in the margins. 

Would you allow me to set the stage for you?

The dawn is breaking. You are going about your life. Right, wrong, or indifferent, you are confident that in the safety of your own home, you can let your guard down. Then a group of men burst through the door and capture you. The person you were with, that you loved (and that you thought loved you) disappears before you can even notice. You feel sick. This isn’t going to be a slap on the hand. You know the punishment for being caught in adultery is being stoned to death.

How did they know?

Everyone I know will know I died because I was an adulteress.

I can’t believe this is happening to me.

You aren’t given time to dress properly. You are rushed to the temple. The crowd is growing. Your fear has set your body on full alert, and hot tears burn your eyes. Then you are thrown into the middle of the crowd. It doesn’t really make sense, it does not seem like you are the intended target. Either way, you know your death is rapidly approaching. 

There are a lot of great Bible studies, books, and research out there that focuses on how the Pharisees went about this. There are conversations about how this woman was used to trap Jesus, about the fact that two witnesses would have had to viewed it (meaning there were Pharisees leering in bedroom windows), and that her male counterpart bailed, leaving her to take the full burden of the accusation.

Those are all worthwhile topics to discuss, but dear one, today I would like to focus on the woman caught committing a capitol offense, that walked away not only physically, but spiritually saved. We can see the full story in John 8:2-11:

2 Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 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. 7 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.” 8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 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. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”(ESV)

This story has always been an overwhelmingly beautiful story to me. Be it adultery, drugs and alcohol, anger issues, a history of abuse, or something else, there is always something we are afraid will be discovered. We live waiting for our secret to be outed, and create the millions of worst case scenarios once the truth is revealed. Who needs someone to out us and “punish” us for our self-perceived crime; we are already serving as prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner.

But this story, the story in John 8, it tells a much different story. A woman caught in a crime that called for her death is tossed into the ring for judgment.

“Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”

Fear. Terror. More tears. This is really, really happening. All eyes turn to Jesus, ready for his answer. This was a test from the Pharisees, so it truly didn’t matter what Jesus said, it would prove He was wrong. However, as always, Jesus surprises the crowd. How? He bends down and starts writing in the sand.

Wait, what? Now everyone is confused. What is this man doing? The continue to push him for an answer, and he stands and speaks.

“Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”

A single sentence. Then Jesus returns to writing in the sand. One by one, folks start to leave. First the older men that have assembled. Then the younger ones. After all, they all know they aren’t perfect. They have sinned. They were likely all just standing outside of a window watching the most intimate of moments between two people. As the moments pass, Jesus asks where everyone is. This is obviously a rhetorical question. Jesus is just as capable of noticing who is in a room as this terrified woman. But there is a point; Jesus has a plan…

10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

That was it. From standing at death’s door to totally free in the course of seconds.

There are some amazing parts of this last portion that might not be immediately obvious. First, by asking the woman where the crowd has gone, He presents her with the gift of self-forgiveness. So many times, when faced with our “dark, ugly secret” (even if it is not our fault at all), we wander through life with our defenses up, ready to defend ourselves at any given moment; while simultaneously punishing ourselves over and over again.

The second, and even more important part of this portion of the passage is Jesus’ response to her. Once she tells him that the crowd who was just anxiously awaiting her death has all disappeared, Jesus tells her that He doesn’t condemn her. There are no lectures. He could have pointed out how wrong what she had done was. He could have done a million things. Instead, He told her that she was free.

Dear one, this is so beautiful. At this woman’s most vulnerable, humiliating, terrifying moment, Jesus responded by meeting her where she was. There was no requirement for her to complete to receive his mercy. Jesus saw one of His children hurting, and His limitless and unconditional love drove him to heal her heart right there, at that moment, on the ground that seconds before was to be where she died. He taught her that we have all sinned, and that God loved her. It was as simple as that.

It can be so easy for us to convince ourselves that we will never be good enough to come to God. Dear one, God doesn’t want us to change before we come to Him. He wants us to come, just as we are, and be transformed by His love. Will you let him?

In Love, JSB

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