"No Condemnation," from Jesus as Seen by John

When a person goes before a board in order to be ordained, that person must answer a number of theological questions which are usually in defense of the paper that they presented. They are also asked some practical questions. I was greeted with, “What would you do if your chairman of the board came and confessed that he was involved in an adulterous affair?” Good question. How do we handle sin in the church? In fact, how should the church look on sin within society. Let’s look at Jesus – as seen by John in 7:53-8:11:

 Then they all went home,

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, “Let any one of you who is without sin 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.”

Let’s start by looking at the situation. After Jesus had been hassled while teaching at the temple, the people went home; Jesus went to the Mount of Olives where several villages were located with friends of his; notably Bethphage where Mary, Martha and Lazarus lived. So the story begins on the next day as Jesus returns to the temple and begins to teach. There are a lot of people there; a crowd who liked to listen to him. They weren’t all believers but they seemed to like what they heard.

Enter some Pharisees and teachers of the law. These were the people who understood and practiced the law; the experts in both knowledge and practice. They didn’t come alone. They brought in a woman who was probably both terrified and humiliated who had been caught in the “act of adultery.” We don’t know precisely how she was caught, but there seemed to be evidence that she was in an adulterous relationship. But, what is wrong with this picture? I believe that adultery can only be accomplished if there are at least two people involved. Where was the man? Of course, the righteous “keepers of the Law” wanted here to be stoned “as the law requires”; or does it?

What does the law really say about this? There are three verses in the Old Testament that are relevant; Leviticus 20:10, Deuteronomy 22:22 and Deuteronomy 22:23. Lev. 20:10 merely states that if a man sleeps with another man’s wife, both are to be killed. Deuteronomy 22:22 says the same thing. Verse 23 is a little different in that it describes a situation where a man seduces a woman betrothed to another in a town; the man is to be killed for committing adultery and the woman for not calling out for help. Note, that while stoning was very “popular”, it is not proscribed. What is required is that both are to suffer death. So, the legal experts start out by breaking the law!

The story goes on to say that this was all a trap. How could that be? It seems that Rome didn’t really authorize the Jews to execute people (at least legally – we do see it done, remember Stephen?) This is evidently why Jesus had to be sentenced to death by Pontius Pilate. Therefore, if Jesus told them to stone the woman, he would be disobeying Rome and could be reported, and if he said not to stone her, he would be guilty of “disobeying the Law” which would infuriate the Jews. They thought they had him, but wait. . . What is Jesus doing? He just stoops down and begins to write in the dirt. What is he writing? No one knows – a mystery. Finally he stands up and says, “OK, why doesn’t the one who is without sin throw the first stone.” Then he stoops down again and continues to write. The trappers were trapped; they knew that none of them were sinless and they all left.

After it was only Jesus and the woman left, he stood up and addressed her. Notice how gentle and compassionate he is with her. He doesn’t condemn her at all; nor does he condone her actions. He merely sets her free and tells her not to live that way anymore. Isn’t this the way that Jesus wants his people to deal with people who are caught up in sinful behaviors?

How should we deal with people outside the church who engage in what we may determine to be sinful behaviors? Leave them alone, it probably really isn’t our business. Look at Jesus at the party with tax collectors and prostitutes. He isn’t condemning them. He loves them. Even Paul tells us that we have to associate with “sinners” in the world; we have to buy from them, work with them – and win them. The operative word is love; we are to love them. We don’t have to love their behaviors. We should also be praying for them. We don’t know their heart and we can’t judge them.

 Inside the church, the operative word is still love. We don’t condone sin in the church; even though we are all sinners. Once we have come to Jesus and been filled with the Spirit, we are being transformed; we have been called to be holy. But, we are still capable of sin – and we are all guilty. We must love one another and gently help them change to a better way of acting (Galatians 6). Even where Paul describes a situation whereby someone is to be dismissed from the church, the purpose was repentance and restoration – not condemnation. Most of us who are Christians are very familiar with John 3:16, but we miss John 3: 17 which states, “For God did not send him into the world to condemn the world, but to same the world through him.” Certainly, if the mission of Jesus didn’t include the condemnation of people then it is obviously not a part of our mission. We are called to love and to bless, not to shame, humiliate and condemn.