Maybe you’ve heard the story. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day, in one of their many attempts to entrap Jesus, bring a woman before him. She has “been caught in adultery,” and so they use her as an object in their plot to have Jesus arrested. “Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” (John 8:1-11).
It’s a clever trap. Roman law forbade execution for adultery. So, they’ve got Jesus between a rock and hard place: follow Jewish law, or Roman law? Either way, they could have him arrested.
Notice again the way the religious leaders are treating the woman. They have put her in the role of adulter, sinner, pariah. Maybe they didn’t even have to cast her in that role themselves. The gospels contain many examples of people who are labeled “sinners” in a way that sets them apart from the rest of society.
While Jesus dines at a Pharisee’s house, a woman enters and anoints his feet. The Pharisee is aghast that Jesus would let her touch him, because “she is a sinner” (Luke 7:36ff). When Jesus visits the home of Zaccheaus, a tax collector, the people grumble because “he has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner” (Luke 19:7). Jesus tells the Parable of the Prodigal Son in response to religious leaders complaining that “this fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them” (Luke 15:2).
There are certain people who are recognized as The Sinners. Something about them, about who they are or the way they live, sets them apart from everyone else in a way that makes them outcasts.
The religious leaders occupy the opposite end of the social spectrum. They are the leaders in righteousness, the ones who interpret God’s will, members of the inner circle of The Good Ones. Even if their sins become public, people probably make excuses for them.
So the religious leaders bring this woman before Jesus with total confidence. They are the Good Ones setting out to stop this renegade messiah wannabe. The woman is just another one of The Sinners, an object in their trap. “Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”
And Jesus responds: “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Jesus is forcing the religious leaders to look at themselves. It’s something they are probably rarely asked to do. Are you willing to publicly declare yourself to be perfectly righteous? Are you so confident in your own righteousness that you will be the one to throw a stone? To commit violence in the name of your own goodness?
It’s a version of a question that we are asked more often than we realize.
How will we respond to our spouse’s mistake? What will we do with the gossip we hear? How will we talk about “The Sinners” in our culture? What do we have to say about the violence we see on the news? Do we notice when judgment gets too easy?
John Bradford (1510-1555) served as chaplain to King Edward VI of England. People called him “Holy Bradford” – not mockingly, but because of his reputation as a remarkably unselfish and humble man. The story goes that whenever Holy Bradford saw criminals being led to their execution, he would exclaim, “But for the grace of God there goes John Bradford.” In other words: That could have been my fate; I’m standing here not because I’m a better person by nature than they are, but because of God’s grace – because of forces beyond my sin or morality.
This is the attitude Jesus tries to cultivate in those religious leaders.
They have been asking a question about public righteousness. They have been asking a question about obedience to competing powers. They have been asking a question about reputation. And it’s a trick question, a loaded question, that was asked in bad faith.
Jesus turns it into a question of grace. “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And one by one, the accusers drop their weapons. They are a living parable. None of us are fit to cast stones. None of us could make it in a world that demands complete perfection. And in that realization, we find grace. Thankfully, it is grace that is given to us by God.
What was an attempt to entrap Jesus has become a story of amazing grace handed down through the ages. When we hear it, the machinations of the religious leaders are drowned out by Jesus: by the story of the Son of God stopping a group of people from being overly-judgmental, prideful, and violent; by the story of the Son of God once again giving one of The Sinners mercy and a new beginning: “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
– Pastor Kate
Rev. Katherine Museus and Rev. James A. Wetzstein serve as university pastors at the Chapel of the Resurrection at Valparaiso University and take turns writing weekly devotions.
