Forty seventh Page: Gotcha! Now We Stone Her, right?

 

Jesus said “right; go ahead” (not in so many words, but that’s the essence)

Hey, hey, hey, hold on a moment. Did you say Jesus said that?

I thought the whole purpose of His coming was  to save His people from their sins. Isn’t that the meaning of His name? Now you are saying He is okay with a sinner dying in her sin.

There is something funny here. That cannot be the whole story.

True, it wasn’t.

Herein lies the danger in reporting. Running away with a punch line or part thereof. And printing half truths! So a Lie is halfway around the world while Truth is still strapping on its boots. (not my quote; somebody wise said that. It is not important who)

Well if you are fastidious, check and cross-check every bit of news before it gets published, it is scarcely read by anybody for it is stale by the time it hits the stands. Racy competitors and the electronic media are already hunting for tomorrow’s news. On the other hand if your hunger is satiated by one liners, consult Ronald Reagan or if you are clever, you can even make up your own,

That’s for reporters.

Here we are dealing with a crowd that has a set agenda; trap Jesus. (John 8:6)

At the end of the previous chapter we read: ⁵³ And every man went unto his own house (John 7). What happens the next day?

And early in the morning (John 8:2) they bring a woman caught in adultery.

To my mind, they went home, had their dinner and regrouped to watch the movements of a woman not particularly known for her virtue. She was also boringly regular in her illegitimate activities. Being completely nescient of their larger agenda of trapping Jesus, the woman was easily caught.

But what business had they to bring the woman to Jesus?

Legalists. Ayatollahs. Mullahs. Religious police. Morality mafia

Jesus came down heavily on these types at one time (Matthew 23)

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.

²⁵ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

²⁶ Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

²⁷ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.

And Jesus had already denounced the idea of His being a judge in Luke 12:14: “Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you”. Surely He was not about to give advice to a “Katta Panjayat”. That was not His mission at all.

But here we see a situation where the woman is put in the centre and Jesus was being cornered. Diabolical, what?

Legalism up in arms Vs. the Love of God

Mosaic Law Vs. Divine Compassion

Jesus takes His time….writing something on the ground.

Now what did He write? Your guess is as good as mine.

John 8 verse 6 says Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.

At this point, the crowd of accusers could have let Him alone, seeing He really did not want to get involved.

But by persisting in their questioning, the accusers exposed their real agenda. It was not so much to honour the Mosaic law but to portray Jesus as an incompetent nincompoop who was neither here nor there in matters of law.

⁷ So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

wham !!!

It took a while for the crowd to digest this sublime permit that came with an exceptional caveat.

⁸ And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.

Now the word of God was beginning to work. Read Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Back to our narrative

⁹ And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

What started as a barely repressible glee, turned to confusion and then finally into conviction, by their own conscience.

Well did Jesus say in Matthew 7:5 : Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

Going on with our story……. Jesus, though stooping down knew very well what was happening, but he wasn’t given to schadenfreude. He wasn’t going to add insult to injury by mocking the dissolving crowd as it retreats. The Holy Spirit will do the rest.

¹⁰ When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?

¹¹ She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

Yes, this is a trustworthy saying, worthy of full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners 1 Tim. 1:15

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