In front of the growing crowd, a woman stands, trembling. She makes no eye contact with the scowling faces in front of her. She is on display, as individuals in the crowd take turns criticizing her. She knows they are right about what they are saying. She had been doing a bad thing…a very bad thing. She had been secretly engaging in her wrongdoing for a while without others knowing. Only this time, she had been caught. Now others knew her secret, and they were making a scene out of it.
Unable to force herself to look up, too ashamed and afraid to make eye contact with anyone, she just stares at the ground. All of a sudden, one of the men grabs her arm and begins dragging her away, and the crowd follows.
This is it, she says to herself. They will surely kill me now for what I have done.
Instead, the group heads to the temple. Upon arriving there, the woman realizes there is some kind of event being held. There is a speaker, and a crowd has gathered to listen to him.
Great,” she thinks, still looking downward, more people to watch me at the epitome of my worst day. Oh well, I do deserve the ridicule, and whatever else they decide to do with me.
One of the men, the one firmly grasping her arm, finally pulls her up front to where the speaker is. “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now (the Law) commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”
Oh no, it’s true. They do plan to end my life today! The woman is terrified and begins shaking uncontrollably. She can barely continue standing as her life flashes before her eyes. Her feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness overtake her.
The speaker bends down and starts writing something on the ground with his finger. Not amused, men in the crowd begin badgering him to give some sort of response to their inquiry. Does he back the Law or not? Should this woman die today for what she has done?
Finally, the man at the front stands up from his crouched position. He stares directly at the crowd, who simply cannot wait to take vengeance on the woman they have already condemned in their minds.
The teacher says, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” After saying this, he crouches again to write on the ground.
The woman prepares herself for a sudden barrage of stones. She braces herself, still shaking violently. A few moments pass, but no stone hits her. She realizes she has closed her eyes tightly, so she slowly opens them to see the crowd. Each person seems to be pondering what the teacher has said. One by one, they lower their heads, dropping the stones they were ready to throw only a few moments earlier.
The woman’s thoughts are racing. What is going on here? I don’t want to die, but I know I deserve to! They cannot just walk away from this, can they?
She suddenly realizes the teacher has not left. She cautiously turns her head to glance at the teacher crouching near her, still drawing on the ground. Her heart sinks even further. So, he will be the one to carry out the punishment.
Before she can brace herself for the certain attack, he slowly stands to face her. It’s as if he knows she is scared, so he is carefully avoiding any sudden movements that might startle her further. Although she expects him to have a scolding voice, she is taken aback as he places his hand on her shoulder and gently says to her, “…where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
She can only get out a whisper of an answer in response to him, “No one, Lord.” The man then says to her, with a tone more tender and loving than she has ever heard, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
Many of us have a flawed perspective when reading Scripture.
The above story (John 8:1-11, ESV) has been retold from a different perspective than the one I used to have when reading or hearing it. For a very long time, when I heard that final line, “go, and from now on sin no more”, I automatically pictured Jesus saying: “You need to try harder Neil! I saved your butt this time, but now you need to get back out there and make sure you do not sin anymore! I may not be so forgiving next time!”
When we read the last line in John 8:1-11 or any other portion of scripture, many of us hear God saying something He is not. I would often picture Him saying to “work harder to sin less” or pointing out how bad I’ve messed up, with an arrogant, condescending scowl on his face. Other times it was with an overwhelmingly disappointed look.
How we view God and what we picture Him saying is crucial to how we experience everything in our lives. Our perspective of Him has a direct impact on how we relate to others and react to our circumstances. Sometimes our perspective is truthful, sometimes it is flawed causing us to miss who He really is and what He is really saying. Too many times, we misinterpret Him telling us to work harder to be a better Christian so that He will accept us. God knows we cannot manage or control our sin on our own, so why would He ask us to try to do that? He wouldn’t!
Jesus offers us something far more powerful and life-changing than a better self-management plan for sin.
If Jesus is not merely telling the woman to try harder and to do better, what is he really saying? We can attempt to see Jesus’ message by putting ourselves in her shoes. In the midst of my own fears, guilt, and shame, I picture myself in the same predicament the woman found herself in. I am in awe of the fact that Jesus is not scolding me. He is choosing not to condemn me at all. He is choosing not to identify me by the bad choices I have made. So, in the end, when I picture him looking at me and telling me that he does not condemn me and for me to go and sin no more, I realize what is really happening.
What the woman experienced…what I am able to picture myself experiencing, is His grace!
Jesus was not preaching self-effort…He was teaching dependence on Him. Instead of condemnation, He was offering unconditional love and acceptance. That experience with grace is what would give the woman the power to move forward in her life, with sin losing it’s power over her. No longer would she have to constantly seek attention from men who would wind up using her. Instead, she could rest in the eternal affection of a loving Lord. She was finally free! It would not be her efforts that would cause her to overcome her sin, but the grace of her Heavenly Father working in and through her to accomplish it every step of the way. She only needed to experience it to embrace it, and Jesus’ loving act of rescuing her did just that! He didn’t just rescue her from stones, but from a life of bondage and emptiness. Just like her, the more I embrace His grace in my life, the more freedom I experience in everything, including the bondage of sin.
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Hello. I just recently discovered your website from an email I received from Wayne Jacobsen…to my delight.
I have read the above scripture and heard it read sveral times over the years. This is the very first time something else was revealed to me. I saw Jesus showing the woman that these men were not without sin. Her sin was no worse than their sin. There are no measurements in sin or degrees. I saw grace coming on the scene.
So glad to connect with you.
Hey Carol, I’m glad to connect with you as well! Thank you so much for sharing your experience with this wonderful story. His grace is all over the place, and I love how He keeps helping us see it.