The Woman Caught In Adultery

The Woman Caught in Adultery

John 7:53 Then each of them went home, 8:1 while Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. 5 Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, sir.”And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”

When issues of sin and forgiveness come up, people like to cite this story. But many focus on the mercy and forgiveness, downplaying sin, and use the story as a way to attack someone who brings up sin or who says something is wrong. They frequently declare, "Don't judge" (forgetting that actually we are called to judge right and wrong), and often leave off the "and from now on do not sin again" part. 

I think they miss a couple of points.

First, Jesus did point out that she was a sinner. When He says "do not sin again," He is declaring that she did sin. 

True, He did not preach at her about her sin; He didn't have to. She was brought before Him - in some depictions she is either chased or dragged - by men who planned to stone her. The seriousness of her sin had already been made clear to her; she was facing death because of it. So there was no need for Jesus to beat her over the head with it. 

But he does bring up the fact that she did sin, and tells her not to sin again. It's a command, not a wishy-washy, "Well, try to sin no more." 

"Do not sin again."

So while the people who bring this up as an example of mercy and forgiveness, they are right. But if they leave out the sin part, and the fact that Jesus declared what she did a sin, they are watering it down.   

Pax et bonum