Adultery

John 8:1-11  

We all know the story when the Pharisees brought to Jesus a woman caught committing adultery.

According to Jewish law she had to be stoned to death for that sin. In those days adultery was a serious offence; not like these days where many treat it as a joke.

Anyway, the scribes and Pharisees brought this woman to Jesus to see whether He would agree to her being stoned. Notice that the hypocrites that they are, they brought the woman. Where is the man, I ask?

The thing is, it is easy for religious people to hide behind hypocrisy. They stand upright and make out that they are offended by others' sins and yet they hide how truly evil they are.

In this case, they were also trying to trick Jesus into making the wrong decision. Would He follow the Jewish law or not? 

We’re told in the Gospel of John that Jesus wrote in the sand with His finger. We don't know what He wrote. I guess He wrote, ‘Dear God … will they never learn?’

But that’s not important; what is important is that after He said let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone, and when they all left one by one, Jesus turned to the woman and asked ‘Is there no one left to condemn you?’

She said ‘No one …’

And Jesus replied ‘I do not condemn you either. Go, but do not sin again.’

Now Jesus did not mean do not sin any sin whatsoever ever again for the rest of your life!

He knew that that is impossible. The woman was human, and it is natural that she would sin again. Jesus knows our human nature and He knows that we are liable to sin again and again.

What Jesus said to the woman is, do not commit that particular sin again … it is serious enough to get you into a lot of trouble with the Pharisees as well as with God Himself.

And that’s what Jesus is saying to us today.

He knows we are weak. He knows that we will sin. By saying ‘do not sin again’ Jesus is warning us to beware of those particular sins which are serious enough to lead us into damnation, and into an eternity of exclusion from our Father in Heaven.