Day 29-Wednesday, March 13th
John 8:1-11
No Condemnation

We come today to one of the most beautiful, and one of the most debated passages in the Gospel of John. When you read this passage, your Bible most likely had a disclaimer that “most early manuscripts do no include John 7:53-John 8:11”. The Gospel of John along with the rest of the New Testament was written in Greek. Thousands of different manuscripts containing portions of the New Testament have been discovered throughout the years since these New Testament books were originally written with a good number of these manuscripts including the Gospel of John. The oldest or “earliest” manuscripts do not include this passage. The woman caught in adultery firsts appears in the 5th century AD in the Greek manuscript called Codex Bezae. The thought is simple: the earlier the manuscript, the more faithful it is to the original manuscripts and less likely to have been edited either by omission for addition. There is no way we will ever know why this story isn’t included in the oldest manuscripts we have, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t present in the ones we don’t have. So, where was this story hidden for the first 500 years of the church? No one knows, but, keeping in mind that the Gospel of John is not a biography of Jesus but rather a telling of the life and ministry of Jesus drawn from John’s memory and other eyewitness accounts, this story fits in well with the rest of the Gospel and this one of my favorite passages to preach. Let’s look more closely at this account today.

Frustrated that the temple guards were unable to arrest Jesus and bring Him in before the Jewish ruling council (see 7:45-47), these leaders try once again to trap Jesus in His own words and discredit Him, this time by bringing to Jesus a woman caught in adultery.

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group… John 8:3 NIV
This raises more questions than answers. Who is this woman? How did they know how and when to find her? Where is the man she was caught sleeping with that day? It was Jewish law that both the man and the woman should be put to death.
If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel. Deuteronomy 22:22 NIV

Why was she the only one who was seized “in the act” and brought into the Temple before Jesus?

There is something rotten in the state of Denmark! (a pointless but relevant Shakespearean quote from “Hamlet”) The corruption of these leaders is showing through more and more. They are showing that they are willing to do almost anything to protect their positions of power and influence.

With this woman standing humiliated before the crowds in the temple, the Jewish leaders lay the trap…

(they) 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. John 8:4-6 NIV

With smug glances back and forth these men are convinced they have Jesus caught in a catch 22. If Jesus says stone her, then where is all the love and forgiveness He preaches? If He says to forgive her, then does He not respect and honor the Law?

Jesus understands their motives and refuses to entertain the question. Instead, in a completely unexpected move Jesus begins to write in the dirt.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with His finger. John 8:6 NIV
What was He writing in the dirt with His finger? Obviously, no one knows for sure, but was it possible Jesus was writing the names of all of these Jewish leaders who had slept with this woman themselves? Or possibly, Jesus was listing them one by one with the sin they most struggle with? Either idea would fit with the response of Jesus.
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. John 8:7-8 NIV
Knowing their plan had backfired on them, the older and wiser leaders knew when to cut their losses. One by one these leaders dropped their stones and walked away.
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. John 8:9 NIV
With only the woman left standing before Jesus and this crowd in the Temple, the silence must have been palpable. What would Jesus say to this woman?

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.” John 8:10-11 NIV

Here we find a beautiful balance in the teaching of Jesus between grace and law. While showing compassion, Jesus doesn’t just let this woman off the hook. He offers this woman forgiveness but also commands her to change her way of living and begin to live in a way that honors God’s commands.

What encouragement this is for our hearts today!! Even though we sin and fall short of who God has called us to be, we are not condemned.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus… Romans 8:1 NIV

We can seek forgiveness and receive it, but we also need to heed the call to repent of our sin and turn to walk in God’s ways.

Questions to consider:
For what do you need to be forgiven today? Take time in prayer right now asking God to forgive you.
What sin do you need to stop committing today? What do you need to change in your life to make this repentance possible?

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