The Woman Caught in Adultery
John 8:1-11
One of the books read by almost every high-school student is The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850. It is the story of Hester Prynne, a Puritan woman who committed adultery and gave birth to an illegitimate child, and who was severely punished by the members of her community. Her punishment rose to the level of outright persecution.
The story begins with Hester’s walk from the prison to the place of punishment. All the townspeople have gathered to watch as she is led to a scaffold, where she must stand and be publicly shamed for her sin. As part of her punishment, she is forever to wear a scarlet “A” on her dress. Hawthorne describes the scene like this:
… attended by an irregular procession of stern-browed men and unkindly visaged women, Hester Prynne set forth towards the place appointed for her punishment … Haughty as her demeanor was, she perchance underwent an agony from every footstep of those that thronged to see her, as if her heart had been flung into the street for them all to spurn and trample upon … [She] came to a sort of scaffold, at the western extremity of the marketplace. It stood nearly beneath the eaves of Boston’s earliest church and appeared to be a fixture there. In fact, this scaffold constituted a portion of a penal machine, which … was held, in the old time, to be as effectual as an agent, in the promotion of good citizenship, as ever was the guillotine among the terrorists of France. It was, in short, the platform of the pillory; and above it rose the framework of that instrument of discipline, so fashioned as to confine the human head in its tight grasp, and thus holding it up to the public gaze. The very ideal of ignominy was embodied and made manifest in this contrivance of wood and iron. There can be no outrage … more flagrant than to forbid the culprit to hide his face for shame; as it was the essence of this punishment to do … The scene was not without a mixture of awe, such as must always invest the spectacle of guilt and shame in a fellow-creature, before society shall have grown corrupt enough to smile, instead of shuddering, at it … Accordingly, the crowd was somber and grave. The unhappy culprit sustained herself as best a woman might, under the heavy weight of a thousand unrelenting eyes, all fastened upon her … It was almost intolerable to be borne.
It is hard for 21st-century Americans even to imagine that adultery would be considered a criminal act deserving of punishment. In Hawthorne’s words, we have become a society “corrupt enough to smile … at it.” And yet, as Christians, we know that adultery is a sin. It is certainly explicit in scripture that adultery is a violation of God’s law. And it was a punishable offense in the time of Jesus. One of the Ten Commandments is, “You shall not commit adultery.” And the punishment for adultery was quite severe. Leviticus 20:10 reads, “If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife … both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.” Jesus interpreted the law even more stringently. In Matthew 5:27-28, we read his words, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
It is against that backdrop that we read the story found in John 8. The story of a woman caught in adultery. As this story develops, there are several characters that I’d like to take a look at: the woman, Jesus, and the men who brought the woman to Jesus.
First, let’s talk about those men. John tells us that they were all legal experts and Pharisees. They understood the law and they knew exactly what the law said about adultery. There was no question in their minds that this woman had sinned and there was no question about what her punishment should be. And they were correct in their statements.
But these men were not really here because they were so concerned about some woman who wasn’t even important enough to them to be named, breaking the law by committing adultery. They had an entirely different agenda. They weren’t motivated by a sense of righteous indignation at the woman who had sinned, or by their desire for justice to be done. They were there because they wanted to trap Jesus into saying or doing something so flagrantly in violation of the law that they could arrest him and put him on trial.
These men brought a woman “caught in the act” and asked Jesus what he thought they should do with her. It was a trick question. Jesus knew the law as well as they did, and he knew that technically there was only one correct answer that he could give. He was supposed to say that she was guilty of sin and deserving of being put to death by stoning. He could not possibly say that. But if he spoke out of compassion and set her free, then he would entrap himself and the men would have grounds for placing him under arrest. John wrote, “They said this to test him, because they wanted a reason to bring an accusation against him.”
Let’s look a little deeper at these men. While they seemed to be the religious and spiritual leaders of the people, what condition were their hearts in? Ken Gire describes them like this:
The teachers and Pharisees appeal to the Law and call for the death penalty. But for a person to be put to death the Law requires that there be at least two eyewitnesses. Eyewitnesses to the very act of adultery. Can you picture the scene? Peeping Pharisees nosing around her windowsill. How long did they watch? How much did they see? And were not their hearts filled with adultery when they eavesdropped on that clandestine rendezvous? At least two witnessed the act. Yet without compunction for the sin. Or compassion for the sinner. When they had seen enough, these guardians of morality stormed the door … Meanwhile, where is her lover? By prior agreement allowed to slip through a window? Part of the plot no doubt – the plot to ensnare Jesus. For it is not the woman they want to bring down or the Law to uphold. It is Jesus they want. She is only the bait; and their question, the spring to the trap … The question … is a question of life and death in whose balance hangs not only the fate of the woman but the fate of Christ as well.
Those were the men who brought the woman to Jesus.
And what about Jesus? We know that Jesus was a man of forgiveness, a man of compassion, especially for people who seemed to deserve it least. Jesus spent his time on this earth more in the company of sinners than of saints. But on this particular occasion, Jesus was in the courtyard of the Temple, the place where God was thought to be most present in Israel, and he was surrounded by people who had come to learn from him. I would imagine they were the same ordinary, everyday people that Jesus normally attracted. It was certainly not a crowd made up of priests or other Temple officials, at least not until the Pharisees and legal experts dragged the woman through the crowd to Jesus.
Jesus looked up to see this clever and vicious band of religious personnel surrounding a woman who was probably scared to death and extremely vulnerable. Jesus watched them as they approached, and he never said a word. He didn’t respond to their questions. He didn’t engage them in conversation or debate. He just bent over and wrote something in the dirt with his finger, while they continued to state their case and demand a response.
I’ve often wondered what Jesus wrote in the dust. Maybe he was writing the names of those men and the sins that they had committed. Maybe he was writing a quote from scripture. Maybe he was listing the names of the people standing there who had committed adultery themselves. We’ll never know. But apparently whatever Jesus wrote had some kind of meaning to the people standing there.
When Jesus finally did stand up and speak, he still didn’t answer their questions. He still didn’t try to argue with them. He never even mentioned the woman or her sin. Instead, Jesus said to them, “Whoever hasn’t sinned should throw the first stone.” And then he bent down and started writing in the dirt again. I can almost hear the noisy silence that followed. One by one, the men dropped the stones they had been prepared to throw at this woman and they left, starting with the oldest in the group. Maybe they were the wisest. Or maybe the most guilty. Or the most honest.
Finally, there was just the woman there. When Jesus looked up, the crowd had gone. And Jesus asked her, “Where are they? Is there no one to condemn you?” She answered, “No one, sir.” And Jesus spoke the words of grace, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on, don’t sin anymore.” I wonder how long it took for his words to sink in. She had been dragged from her home, tossed into a circle of shame and disgrace, stared at by angry eyes in this crowd of people. She knew that she had broken the law. She knew that the penalty was death. She had listened as some of the best legal minds in Jerusalem made a case against her. Surely she must have felt the eyes of everyone around her “branding a scarlet letter onto her soul.” (Gire) And now, beyond any hope, beyond anything she imagined, she was free to go. Free from punishment, but more importantly, free from her sin. She was given a second chance, a fresh start, a clean slate. I’d like to believe that she made the most of it.
We are all – every single one of us – worthy of wearing a scarlet letter on our souls. It might not be an “A” for adultery. It may be a “C” for coveting what our neighbor has. Or an “L” for some lie that we told. Or an “S” for our selfishness. Maybe your scarlet letter is an “M” for meanness, or an “I” for ingratitude, or a “G” for greed. The list could go on and on. Sooner or later we all recognize the letter that has been branded onto our souls.
But that is not the end of the story. It wasn’t the end for Hester Prynne. It wasn’t the end for this woman caught in adultery. It wasn’t even the end for her accusers who went away condemned. Yes, we have all sinned. Yes, we are all worthy of punishment. But we aren’t branded by our sins forever. Those who believe in Jesus are forgiven, those who repent are redeemed. We are made right with God again. The grace of God surrounds us and all that God sees when he looks at us are his beloved children. Like the woman in the story, we have a fresh start, a second chance, a clean slate. We may be only a stone’s throw from death now, just like that woman who was brought to Jesus, but when we turn to Jesus for mercy, we find ourselves only a stone’s throw from grace and life and freedom. It is truly amazing grace.
