The Woman Taken in Adultery

1. The Woman Taken in Adultery Christ and the Fallen Woman (detail) - Oil on copper transferred from wood The Hermitage, St. PetersburgCRANACH, Lucas the YoungerGerman painter (b. 1515, Wittenberg, d.1586, Weimar).

2. Woman Takenin Adultery Fourth Passover, Thu, Apr 4; Jesus 33/34 Ministry begins; Jesus about 30 Tabernacles Second Passover; Jesus 31/32 Third Passover; Jesus 32/33 First Passover; Jesus 30/31 Sermon on Mount January 1, AD30 January 1, AD27 January 1, AD28 January 1, AD29 Transfiguration A Time-Line for Jesus’ Ministry

3. The Law on Adultery • Deut 22:22 (NIV): If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. • Lev 20:10 (NIV): If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife – with the wife of his neighbour – both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.

4. The Dilemma • If Jesus had contradicted Moses he would have been discredited with the people. • If he had advocated the woman’s death then the Pharisees would have had grounds to lay a complaint against him before the Romans: • John 18:31 (NIV): “… we have no right to execute anyone,” the Jews objected (when Pilate at first refused to judge the Lord).

5. This was a Set-up • The record says so: • John 8:6 (NIV): “They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.” • “In the very act”. Where was the man? • Both were guilty; the law said both should die. • Stoning only the woman would be unjust. • The episode shows careful planning. Was the man one of the conspirators? • They had no interest in the actual question!

6. Escape From the Trap • There are questions to which the best answer may be silence. • Jesus seems to have considered the woman’s sin to be less of a pressing issue than the Pharisees’ perversity. • A wise man not only knows when to be silent, he also knows how to be silent. • So he withdrew – writing on the ground – leading them to think they had triumphed.

7. What Did Jesus Write? • Cannot be known; it’s possibly a waste of time to guess. However… • May have just doodled. • Some texts are apt. A few suggestions: 7

8. What Did Jesus Write? • The priest shall bring her and have her stand before the LORD.Then he shall take some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle floor into the water.After the priest has had the woman stand before the LORD, he shall loosen her hair and place in her hands the reminder offering …Numbers 5:16-18 (NIV) 8

9. What Did Jesus Write? • O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the LORD, the spring of living water.(Jeremiah 17:13, NIV) 9

10. What Did Jesus Write? • For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.(Hosea 6:6, 7, AV) 10

11. What Did Jesus Write? • The LORD said to me: “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then confront them with their detestable practices, for they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands. They committed adultery with their idols; they even sacrificed their children, whom they bore to me … On the very day they sacrificed their children to their idols, they entered my sanctuary and desecrated it. That is what they did in my house. …” (Ezekiel 23:36-39) 11

12. What Did Jesus Write? • Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people. Oh, that I had in the desert a lodging place for travellers, so that I might leave my people and go away from them; for they are all adulterers, a crowd of unfaithful people. They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies; it is not by truth that they triumph in the land. “They go from one sin to another; they do not acknowledge me,” declares the LORD.(Jeremiah 9:1-3, NIV) 12

13. He that is Without Sin… (vs 7) • Jesus’ summation may have been based on the law of witness in Deuteronomy 17:7 – • The hands of the witnesses must be the first in putting him to death, and then the hands of all the people. You must purge the evil from among you. (NIV) • Only those who are themselves “purged from evil” are qualified to purge the evil in others: Executioners must be guiltless!

14. With What Judgement Ye Judge...Matthew 7:2-5 • They came as a group to Jesus, secure in the rightness of their cause. • He challenged them to measure themselves (even) against the standard of Moses’ law. • Then he gave them time and space to feel the weight of their individual share of that challenge (vs 8). • They left as individuals (vs 9), unable to endure the righteousness of the Lord Jesus. • When we judge others we must first, as individuals, feel the weight of that judgement.

15. What of the Pharisees? • Do we relish their discomfort and humiliation? • If so we’ve just moved them into the place formerly occupied by the woman – and have taken their place ourselves! • A kind of paradox: Criticising the unspirituality of another may merely declare our own.

16. Who Can Stand Before the Lord? • In this case only the woman – whose sin was openly acknowledged! (vs 9) • For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.(Heb 4:12, 13, NIV).

17. What of the Sin? • It was condemned without condemning the sinner. • Here is the whole basis of atonement: • The principle acknowledged, the sin “passed over”. • What God has done for us we must find a way to do for each other!

18. The Woman Taken in Adultery Christ and the Fallen Woman (detail) - Oil on copper transferred from wood The Hermitage, St. PetersburgCRANACH, Lucas the YoungerGerman painter (b. 1515, Wittenberg, d.1586, Weimar).