THROWING STONES
In John 7, we learn of a powerful example of Jesus’ wisdom. Jesus had gone to the Mount of Olives and spent the night. (Luke 9:58 tells us that He didn’t even have the ordinary comforts of a home of His own to go “to lay His head.”)
Early next morning, He went to the temple once again to teach. (John 8:1-11) A crowd came to Him and listened to His teachings. (I wonder if we would be as anxious to get up early and go to hear Jesus!? Are we anxious to get up on Sunday morning and make our way to the church building?) Jesus sat down and started teaching. In ancient times, authoritative teachers sat when they talked to people, in the temple. As He was teaching, the scribes and Pharisees once again came to try to trap and confound Jesus. (See Matthew 22:15 which says “Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk.”) Here they brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, who I can just visualize them throwing her down in the middle of the crowd. It is not clear why the man was not brought as well. The Old Law was very specific how to “handle” adultery. In Exodus 20:14 and Deuteronomy 5:19, adultery was part of the 10 Commandments. Deuteronomy 22:23-30 is very specific about the punishment for adultery and rape. The normal punishment was to stone the woman and the man to death. The scribes and Pharisees reminded Jesus of that. (As if He needed a reminder!)
Jesus knelt down and started writing something with His finger, as if He had not heard them. He didn’t say anything. If Jesus had said not to stone her. He would have contradicted Jewish law. If He had said to stone her, He also would have gone against Roman law. Jews were not allowed to carry out their own executions or capital punishments under Roman law, unless approved. (John 18:31) Don’t you wonder what He wrote in the dirt? Some think He wrote the 10 commandments. Others think He started writing the names of these scribes and Pharisees and the women they had committed adultery with. I kinda like the last one myself, but as I said we don’t know. That part of the story is not important for us to know. But whatever it was Jesus did not answer right away.
They continued to bother Him. He stood up and said in verse 7, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” Then He knelt back down and continued to write. These men knew the law. Maybe they realized that they could be stoned because of their own sins, if they admitted they had committed the same act they were accusing the woman of. In fact, Jesus here included ANY sin. Verse 9 reads, “then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last.” While Jesus was writing in the dirt, the oldest scribes and Pharisees, left first and then the younger followed. This left Jesus and the woman standing where they had possibly thrown her. Jesus stood up and asked her “Woman where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” She replied that there was no one.
Jesus tells her “Neither do I condemn you…” Some want to stop right there and try to verify that Jesus condoned the sin. But the end of that verse says “…go and sin no more.” Jesus not only shows forgiveness of sin but then tells her to sin no more. Do not go back to the sin! He did not condemn her, but neither did He condone her sin!
Some today, are so ready to watch and wait for someone to sin, so they can condemn them and some even start gossip. Especially those we work with or associate with, outside of our brothers and sisters. Sometimes this even happens between family members and our brothers and sisters in Christ. In the ladies’ class I am teaching about James, we have talked about the tongue and what damage it can do. I used an example of someone gossiping about me and the use of the funds the church was giving us, when we were waiting for my husbands’ disability retirement to be approved. His work did not pay him for seven months. Even though I was trying to work two jobs and sometimes three, it was not enough with all the visits my husband was making to the hospital and all the bills associated with that. Someone, member of the church, took it upon themselves to start gossip, slander, that I was giving some of the money to a family member. Totally false! Thankfully a friend asked me about it and got that gossip stopped.
When confronted with gossip, Charles Swindoll says, ask them to ‘Wait a minute. May I quote you?’ Which is usually followed by a long pause, stopping that damaging wagging tongue! Read Matthew 7:1-5. Jesus is talking about judging. He says “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” In other words, our vision is impaired when we judge others, because, as the scribes and Pharisees did, judgment is so easy for us to do. Especially when we don’t know the facts of a situation, and when we are prideful thinking that we are not sinners.
After Jesus tells her to sin no more, He tells the crowd at the temple, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” He is pointing out that as the sun is the physical light of the world, He is the spiritual light of the world. As this light, Jesus exposes and gives sight to those spiritually blinded by the world and their own selfishness.
When we feel we are so excited to expose a sin in another, make sure you know the stones are true, that you are throwing. BUT DON’T THROW THEM OUT THERE ANYWAY! Go to that person and talk to them one on one. Matthew 18:15-17 explains how to approach supposed sin in one another. We are told so many times in the bible to judge not. James 4:11 tells us “Do not speak evil of one another…”
Throwing Stones! Don’t be like the scribes and Pharisees, who judged the adulteress, before they looked at themselves and realized that they were sinners too. The lesson of the adulteress woman, shows us that, yes, she was a sinner, but yet Jesus gave forgiveness to her and He gives forgiveness to everyone, no matter what they have done. When Jesus sets us free, we have to still obey His laws and sin no more!
Don’t throw stones so quickly-reach rather for Jesus spiritual light. He helps us not to walk in darkness but rather walk in His saving light!
Till next time!
Keela