The Gospel story of the Woman Caught in Adultery is a very well-known one, but it’s also a very controversial one, for a few different reasons. The earliest record we have of the story is in Christian writings from the 4th Century. It’s in the Vulgate, for example, the first Latin translation of the Bible which was completed in the year 384, but it doesn’t appear in the earliest surviving manuscripts of John’s Gospel itself (some people think it was perhaps omitted from early versions because of the lenient way Jesus deals with the sin of adultery in the story). But whatever the reason, there’s an issue with its provenance and because of that, even today, the story isn’t included in some versions of John’s Gospel and some commentaries on John’s Gospel don’t comment on it but simply omit the story. There’s also an issue about its authorship. Although it’s now part of John’s Gospel, some biblical scholars think it was actually written by Luke because it’s portrayal of Jesus as a merciful, forgiving, healer, and the prominence given to a woman in the story is much more typical of Luke than it is of John. But whatever the controversies there’s no reason whatsoever to doubt that this is something that did happen in Jesus’ ministry; there’s nothing, either in the story itself, or in terms of doctrine to suggest otherwise. So what is this story really all about?
First of all, it’s a story, another story, about the religious leaders trying to set a trap for Jesus. The scribes and Pharisees bring a woman to Jesus, whom they say has been caught committing adultery and they want to know what Jesus thinks should be done with her. But this has absolutely nothing to do with justice. I know times have changed, but human biology hasn’t; it took two to tango just as much in 1st Century Judea as it does now. So where is this woman’s partner in crime? If she’s an adulteress, where is the adulterer? Why hasn’t he been brought to Jesus too? So these people were clearly interested in something other than justice, and it’s equally clear that what they really wanted was to trap Jesus into saying or doing something to incriminate himself.
The trap is this. According to the Law of Moses, the woman should be stoned to death, but there’s a problem. In the stories of Jesus’ trial we read that the Sanhedrin take Jesus to Pilate because they have no authority to put someone to death for a crime. And we think that was true because in the Talmud, the main Jewish text on law and theology, we read that the right of the Jews to carry out a death sentence was taken away,
‘Forty years before the destruction of the Temple…’
In other words, about the time that Jesus’ ministry began. We know only too well from our own arguments about Brexit, a people’s right to govern themselves and not have their own law overruled by a foreign power, is a very big issue. So Jesus’ ministry took place in a time of heightened tension with the Roman rulers of Judea. It would have been another reason why the Romans were hated so much. So what would Jesus do? If he sided with the Law of Moses and said that woman should be stoned to death, he’d put himself in conflict the Romans but, if he said ‘No’ the woman shouldn’t be stoned, he could be accused of being a collaborator with the Romans; a Jew putting Roman law above God’s law. What kind of prophet would do that? So it was a trap, but how could he get out of it?
Well, as he did on so many occasions, Jesus turned the situation completely upside down and threw the problem back on the woman’s accusers. They’d set a trap for him, and he turned it into a snare for them.
Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”
And how could anyone do that without claiming to be sinless, like God? Without, to all intents and purposes claiming equality with God? Without, to intents and purposes, claiming to be the Messiah? Without, to all intents and purposes, claiming to be the very things they were looking to kill Jesus for claiming? So they went away leaving the woman alone with Jesus. And what Jesus says to her is entirely in keeping with what we read earlier in John’s Gospel. He’d said,
“…God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
And here we have this conversation between Jesus and the woman;
“Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
So while this story might be controversial in terms of provenance, it’s entirely in keeping with the Gospel as a whole, and consistent with John’s Gospel as a whole too, for a reason that I think is often missed.
Jesus’ immediate response to the questions of the scribes and Pharisees was to bend down and write on the ground with his finger. We’re not given any explanation for that in the story, but Jesus must have had a reason for doing it, and whoever wrote the story must have had a reason for including that detail in the story. So what was that all about?
Some people think that Jesus might have been writing the sins of the accusers in the dust on the ground. Perhaps things like, pride, self-righteousness, anger, jealousy, deceitfulness, lack of faith; because all of those things and probably more besides were at work in what was going on there on that day.
Others think that what Jesus was doing was alluding to the Old Testament story of Belshazzar’s Feast when a finger appeared and wrote on the wall,
words which Daniel interpreted as,
“Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
The implication being that, just as that king Belshazzar had been judged for profaning the scared vessels taken from the temple in Jerusalem, and sentence on him had been pronounced, so Jesus was implying that those who were now refusing to believe in him were being judged and sentenced. Again, as we read earlier in John’s Gospel,
“Whoever believes … is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgement: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.”
Either of these things would be an acceptable explanation of what Jesus was doing when he wrote on the ground, but I think what Jesus was really doing was fulfilling scripture.
Almost immediately before this story in the Gospel, Jesus had said,
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
That reminds us of a prophecy of Jeremiah who described the punishment of Judah for its sin in this way;
O Lord, the hope of Israel,
all who forsake you shall be put to shame;
those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth,
for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water.
So perhaps was Jesus was really doing when he wrote on the ground, was fulfilling this scripture.
This gospel story might be controversial for a number of reasons, but it’s a wonderful part of the Gospel. It’s in keeping with the Gospel as a whole because it’s not the only story of its kind we find in the Gospels. The portrayal of Jesus in the story is consistent with how Jesus is portrayed in the Gospels as a whole. Jesus’ teaching in the story is consistent with his appeal for mercy and forgiveness and his instruction not to judge others because we will be judged by the very same standards we use to judge them. And, I think, it’s another example of Jesus, the Messiah, fulfilling scripture.
So let’s treat this story as we would any other Gospel story, as one that we can learn from and put to use in our daily lives. But let’s also use this story as one we can take encouragement from. We’re all sinners, and there is no shortage of people who’ll condemn us for what we’ve done. But let’s always remember that Jesus doesn’t condemn us. He simply says to us what he said to that woman caught in the act of adultery that day in Jerusalem:
“I do not condemn you. Go on your way, and sin no more.”
Amen.
Propers for the 5th Sunday of Lent, 6th April 2025
Entrance Antiphon
Give me justice, O God,
and plead my cause against a nation that is faithless.
From the deceitful and cunning rescue me,
for you, O God, are my strength.
The Collect
By your help, we beseech you, Lord our God,
may we walk eagerly in that same charity with which,
out of love for the world,
your Son handed himself over to death.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
The Readings
Isaiah 43:16-21
Psalm 126:1-6
Philippians 3:8-14
John 8:1-11
Prayer after Communion
We pray, almighty God,
that we may always be counted among the members of Christ,
in whose Body and Blood we have communion.
Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Amen.
Parish Church of St Mark Chadderton 