The Woman Caught in Adultery John 8:1-11

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. 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, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."
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."


This is a familiar story, one we have heard often in church. The concentration seems to be first on Jesus and His response. Volumes have been written speculating what he wrote in the sand and why. Volumes more point to the fact that we are not called to judge each other, that none of us are good enough to take on that role.
Let's look at the passage again.
Jesus doesn't wander onto the scene of her stoning. She is drug into the midst of a crowd gathered around Him as He teaches. The authorities are using her as a trap to test Jesus' wisdom. Yet, the woman almost seems incidental. Where is she in all of this? Crouched and cowering in the dirt, awaiting a fate that for her time and her crime was warranted? No. She stands! She stands before Jesus and responds boldly. She doesn't fall to her knees, blubber out pleas for Him to forgive her. Nor does she wipe her tears with the hem of his garment. Can you speculate as to why she doesn't?
There is no doubt she did what her accusers said, is there? The passage says she was caught in the act. It never says she's remorseful about it. There are no verses telling us she was a believer in Jesus or a follower of His teachings. Nothing indicates she has a clue who this man drawing in the dirt is until she sees His authority in action then watches the people who accused her walk away, defeated in their efforts. Even then,


she calls him Lord - or teacher. In Biblical terms, that is like us saying, "Sir." It was not an acknowledgement of faith, but it was a beginning.
Jesus demonstrates to the scribes and Pharisees, the crowd and the woman that everyone is a sinner. No one can cast a stone. Then He stands, looks her in the eye and commands her to go and sin no more.
Did she go away, converted and become a different woman? Did she turn her life around? Did she join the women who followed Jesus as he traveled with his disciples? We are never told.
What can we learn from her?
First, it does no good to deny our sin to others or to God. God doesn't want to hear platitudes of how we promise to never do it again, or we will do this, if only He will do that. No plea bargaining. Instead, when we are caught in the sin, our job is to come and stand before Him. Christ initiates the forgiving act. That is why He died on the Cross. It is freely offered. It is up to us to humbly receive it or proudly reject it.

There is only one way she could do as Jesus commanded —to go and sin no more.

There is only one way any of us can do that. Stand before Jesus each time we've sinned. It was not her faith that saved her, but Her Savior.
Secondly, God can even use people who do not believe in Him to teach us lessons of His mercy and grace. He can show us how to see them through His eyes. At least the scribes and Pharisees did one thing right, even if they did not realize what they were doing. They brought her to Jesus.