The preceding scriptures of this week’s B’rit Chadasha reports that Yahshua on the last day of Sukkot the day of Hoshanna Rabba told the crowd that if “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” 39But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. He also had had many arguments with the religious authorities challenging their interpretations of the scriptures. In their jealousy they began to plot against Him. They made one abortive attempt to arrest Him but fell under His words and returned to the Cohen Gadol without Him. In chapter eight we pick up the narrative referring to the Temple guard and the religious authorities and I will read from chapter 8, verse 1 through verse 11.
Then they all left, each one to his own home. 1 But Yahshua went to the Mount of Olives. 2 At daybreak, he appeared again in the Temple Court, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The Torah-teachers and the P<rishim brought in a woman who had been caught committing adultery and made her stand in the center of the group. 4 Then they said to him, “Rabbi, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. 5 Now in our Torah, Moshe commanded that such a woman be stoned to death. What do you say about it?” 6 They said this to trap him, so that they might have ground for bringing charges against him; but Yahshua bent down and began writing in the dust with his finger. 7 When they kept questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “The one of you who is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Then he bent down and wrote in the dust again. 9 On hearing this, they began to leave, one by one, the older ones first, until he was left alone, with the woman still there. 10 Standing up, Yahshua said to her, “Where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, sir.” Yahshua said, “Neither do I condemn you. Now go, and don’t sin any more.”
This passage is one of those passages in scripture that some people feel should not be there. Some scholars studying the ancient manuscripts have grave doubts whether this incident was written by John at all. They believe it was added later by the redactors. Then there are the squeamish souls who question it because it deals with a woman taken in adultery and it seems to them that Yahshua was soft on sexual sin. Yet, when we review Yahshua’ life we always see Him in the company of the wrong crowd. He was called a glutton and a drunkard because He didn’t seem to be overly bothered about drinking alcohol.
The squeamish will have trouble with the whole Bible, but scholars have legitimate questions. The story is there, in scripture, and it had to come from someplace. It’s unthinkable that some scribe who wanted to put Yahshua in a good light would have invented an incident like this.
In the context, the question John raised, “Is Yahshua God?” So you’d think a scribe would have introduced a story about raising someone from the dead or calling down fire from heaven. In the passage that follows the story, Yahshua calls Himself the “Light of the world.” You might anticipate that an editor would insert something spectacular like the transfiguration to depict that light. Instead we have this story, which was undoubtedly recounted, in the early messianic assemblies. One Greek scholar Bruce Metzer agrees that while Johannine authorship is doubtful, “the account has all the earmarks of historical veracity.”
I don’t doubt that this event actually took place. What is more, I think I understand why it is included here. If no one else understood Him that day, if no one else saw His light, one woman did. It has always been true, I think, that the individuals who have two strikes against them have a clearer understanding of who Yahshua is than people who think of themselves as home-run hitters.
This story demonstrates that Yahshua was G-dand that in the midst of moral darkness, He was the light filled with grace and with truth. This story in its own way, reveals a great deal about Yahshua and the Father who sent Him.
In this story the woman is exposed. Theses religious leaders bring her sin to light and cast her into darkness. Yahshua deals with the darkness of her sin, but she comes to see the light.
At this time people from all over Israel had gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the most joyous of all the feasts-The Feast of Tabernacles, more commonly called the Feast of Booths. The Mosaic law required all men who lived within twenty miles of Jerusalem to go up to the city for the feast. But since it was a time of celebration, people poured into Jerusalem from all over the country.
The Feast of Booths commemorated G-d’s gracious dealings with His people. There was a time when the nation of Israel had lived in booths, temporary dwellings in the wilderness. They subsisted on quail and manna that G-d provided day by day. But then, G-d brought his children into a land of milk and honey, where they enjoyed prosperous harvests and a permanent homeland.
So at harvest time each year, the Jewish people came together, in Jerusalem, to give thanks to G-d for their blessings. As a reminder that life had not always been so pleasant, the people built booths to live in during the week of the Feast of Sukkot. These structures were similar to the dwellings of their forefathers in the wilderness-makeshift shelters of palm fronds and willow branches with loosely thatched roofs. Jerusalem resembled a happy shantytown during the week-long festival. Temporary shacks sprang up in every available place-in the streets, in public gardens, on the flat rooftops of houses, all over the city, just as they do today in Israel.
With the fields of barley and wheat harvested and stored for winter, the people were ready to celebrate and give thanks to G-d. Many came to give praise and offer sacrifices at the temple. But as often happens with religious holidays, observed year after year, the Feast of Booths had become for the average Jew a week-long bash, devoid of much significance. It’s the same with our great holidays, isn’t it? For most Americans, Thanksgiving has become merely a day for sumptuous eating and football games. Just as our occasions for worship and thanksgiving have degenerated into times for food and booze and commercialism, so the Feast of Booths represented for the majority a week of revelry, drunkenness, and debauchery. something like a modern day Mardi Gras.
It is here that our story takes place-at the end of the week-long carnival in the city of Jerusalem. As dawn broke that day, most of the city could be found sprawled in their flimsy booths, sleeping off hangovers. There were some, however, who had come to Jerusalem to worship and they could be seen making their way to the temple. There was one particularly curious group who came to the temple that morning.
We read in verse two and three that Yahshua was in the temple courts. It reads:
“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 Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery.”
What a scene! Who was this woman? How was she caught in adultery, in the very act?
There’s really no indication that she was prostitute by trade. The text merely calls her “a woman caught in adultery,” not a “harlot” or a “prostitute.” It’s doubtful that the Pharisees had her fished out of the local red light district.
In fact, I tend to think she was just a young woman who had given up her virtue too easily. The text indicates she was guilty of adultery, so she was married. Perhaps her husband was out of the country on business. He may have been a merchant off closing a deal in Egypt or Syria. Transportation was slow in the first century and long trips took several months. He may have been away for several weeks, with some weeks still to go, and he had left his wife at home, alone, at one of the happiest times of the year.
Perhaps, she went with friends one night to a party. They sang and danced into the late hours of the evening. The mood was carefree. Laughter came easily and the wine flowed freely. There she met a man who would take away her loneliness.
He was dark-eyed, deeply tanned from long hours spent harvesting his fields beyond the city walls. He was alone, having come to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast. As they laughed and chatted through the dance, he persuaded her to leave the party with him to look for other parties and more entertainment. For the first time in weeks she felt attractive, energetic, and happy.
They wound their way happily through the crowded streets, moving from cafe to cafe. As the parties disbanded and the streets calmed down, they found themselves near the entrance of the young man’s booth. Of course, we can only image what happened, but we do know that early in the morning hours they entered the world of their own intimate affair, surrounded by a curtain of darkness.
However, as daybreak burst over the hills of Jerusalem there came with it sudden exposure. Passing through the cluttered streets on their way to the temple, a band of Pharisees, perhaps one, who recognized her, spied the entwined couple through the loosely tied branches of the booth. They grabbed the young woman from the embrace of her lover.
Startled and confused, she clutched her garments to cover her nakedness. She instinctively reached for the arm of her young man, but he had gone. Seeing the religious robes of the Pharisees, he had bolted off down an alleyway. She begged the men for mercy and reprieve, but they dragged her from the shelter into the street.
Questions flooded her mind as she fought back hot tears of fear, humiliation, and anger. How could he leave her alone-exposed and vulnerable? He had whispered the promises of love in her ear, but in a moment he was gone, as false as his words.
Why had the religious leaders singled her out in the carnival crowd? If they wanted to clean up immorality in the city, why hadn’t they started with the well-known brothels? Or even with any of the booths around her? Why Her?
What would become of her now? How could she ever face her husband? What would she say to him? Why had she ever given herself to someone in the first place? She felt cheapened, rejected, destroyed.
The religious leaders only aggravated her guilt. They bandied her about and called her names. They would show her-a woman of her kind deserved the punishment she would get. They pulled her, sobbing and stumbling, through the narrow streets. Anyone peering out a window at the commotion below could decipher the Pharisee’s faces and find there, contempt for the woman, and indignation for her sin.
As they entered the temple courts, they saw a small group gathered around Yahshua. He was sitting among them explaining the Scriptures, but they didn’t hesitate to interrupt the lesson.
Casting the exposed adulteress into the midst of the group, they demanded, “Teacher (Rabbi), this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law, Moshe commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”
These men were the moral pillars of the Jewish community, upholders of all that was good and holy. At least that is what they appeared to be. Listening to them, you might think they were distressed at the carnival atmosphere of the city at a time when the people should be worshipping. You might think they had launched a campaign to clean up the streets- beginning with this woman. At least that’s the way it seemed. But things aren’t always what they seem. Righteousness is not always what it appears to be.
In verse 6 we learn their real intent in seizing the woman: “They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing Yahshua.”
We do know that the Jewish leaders were already plotting to have Yahshua put away. In fact, at the beginning of the week they had sent their court officers to arrest Him. But the temple guards returned empty-handed. They had been impressed with Yahshua’ teaching and found that the crowd loved him.
The authorities knew it would be no easy matter to take Yahshua. The best way, they decided, would be to trip him up in his teaching. They were looking for the chance. So, that morning as they headed to the temple, they happened upon the illicit lovers and reasoning that this was the opportunity to turn Yahshua’ love for the rabble, and his esteemed regard for the law, the Torah against him, and into their own advantage. If he chooses the woman, the crown will begin to question his teaching. If he chooses the law, He’ll loose his following. The Pharisees decided to use the woman to bait their trap for Yahshua.
They were only quick enough to grab the woman, but no matter, one sinner was all they needed for this test. One piece in the game can decide the winner. And this young woman was the pawn.
It didn’t matter to the Pharisee’s whether the woman was stoned to death or not. The life they wanted was Yahshua’s. They weren’t really concerned with her sin or with her. She was “exhibit-A” in a crucial test case.
That was their mood as they dragged her before Yahshua that morning. That was the reason for their question. It all appeared so righteous, so theological. But the appearance was false. Their real intention was to set a vicious snare for Yahshua.
Yahshua knew these men. He perceived the dilemma they proposed. Even more, He saw beyond them to that woman who stood before them in shame and humiliation. To Him she was not “Exhibit-A,” but a hurting sinner, who had indeed violated the law, but who needed grace, forgiveness, and restoration. Yahshua took in the meaning of the whole scene at a glance. But then He did a strange thing. As the Pharisees hurled their questions like stones at him, Yahshua stooped over and began to write on the ground with His finger.
You can imagine what the Pharisees must have thought. “Ha! We’ve stumped Him now. He doesn’t know what to say. He’s just buying time.”
One thing becomes clear as we look on that scene. In stooping over to write in the dust, Yahshua takes the eyes of the crowd off the woman, shuddering in bitter shame, and draws their attention to Himself.
What was He writing? Was He just doodling or was it something more significant? We’ll never really know, of course, what he wrote. Some of the ancient manuscripts add a line that does not appear in our Bibles: “and with his finger he wrote on the ground-the sins of each one of them.” Hypocrite, liar, deceiver, gossip, dishonoring of parents. He would have known their sins, and it’s possible that’s what He wrote on the ground.
His delay in answering the Pharisees only caused them to insist more loudly, “What do you say then, man? Shall we stone her?” They pressed in upon Him demanding a response.
He straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” (v. 7) And having said that - that one single sentence - He stooped down and wrote on the ground again.
The Pharisees had paraded themselves before the people as morally superior bastions of holiness and righteousness. Their facades had been so credible that they themselves had come to believe the mask, for the truth. The Pharisees could tell you everything that was wrong about everyone else and everything that was right about themselves. That is the way it is with Pharisees, whenever you meet them-in the first century or in the twenty-first century; in Jerusalem or in you own hometown. We can see the seeds of Phariseeism planted in the soils of our own lives. The sins we keenly perceive in others may blind us to the sin in our own lives. We can be so angry at other people’s sins that we are tempted to reach down and pick up stones, only to be brought up short when we hear Yahshua say, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone...
That’s all He had to say, no sermon. No Long indictment. A single sentence. Then He went back to writing on the ground.
In Verse 9 we read: “At this, those who heard began to go away, one at a time, the older ones first....” That’s the way the writer of the story puts it, but you can’t help imaging what occurred. A younger scribe may have sneered and leaned over to scoop up some stones, but a Pharisee standing next to him held his arm and nodded with his eyes toward the temple entrance. There through the shaft of morning light could be seen one of the more venerated of the religious men, shuffling out, his head bowed and his eyes cast down. Had Yahshua said, “Let the most respectable cast the first stone,” that old man would have qualified. Or if He had said, “ let the most religious hurl it: that man could have been the stone-thrower. But Yahshua hadn’t said that. “If any of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Whatever his self-righteousness was, no matter how puffed up his opinion of himself was, on that he could not qualify.
Then another white-headed leader started for the doorway, followed silently, suddenly, by a stream of graying men in flowing robes. The younger man forgot the stones and rose slowly to follow the troupe of religious leaders into the temple.
Stunned by Yahshua’s words they left the woman behind-- as they filed out. Their task had back-fired. They had lost another bout with the masterful young rabbi.
When Yahshua shone His light upon their lives, they were exposed as no better than the sinners they condemned. The truth they claimed to uphold defeated them. Had they responded to the light Yahshua offered, they would have found His grace. For Yahshua loved Pharisees as much as He loved that woman. He simply spoke those words and then went back to writing on the ground. He was occupied with His writing as the Pharisees left the temple.
What was He scribbling this time? Hypocrite, liar, gossip, adulteress, thief. His thoughts may have raced forward to the days to come, when he would bear each of those sins and more. While He would commit no sin, He would become dark as sin itself in the sight of the Holy G-d, His Father. Maybe he scratched the shadow of an execution stake in the sand.
We do not know, of course, but we do know that for all His life the shadow of the execution stake hung over Him. For He came to die for that woman, those Pharisees, for me, and for each of you---for the whole world.
As the last religious leader left the temple court Yahshua slowly straightened up and faced the woman for the first time. “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir.”
No doubt she was a bit bewildered by the whole thing. She had been caught in her sin. She knew she was guilty-there was no other plea. And these religious men who were so moral and upright, these accusers---suddenly, they were gone. Could it be true that not one of them could cast a stone at her? They had hurled verbal stones, but could it be that before G-d they could not throw even a pebble? She was confused. She was frightened. What would He do with her now? She was, after all, guilty. Surely, she was due some punishment for her sin.
It’s strange, isn’t it; the things that sin can do to us. Somehow, it has an unbalancing effect on our lives. On the one hand, we may regard our sin too lightly, as did the Pharisees, and focus on the worst in others. At that point, we’re tempted to cast stones at other sinners and disregard our own hidden deeds. On the other hand, our sin can overwhelm us so that we can see nothing else. Hounded by guilt, we look for punishment and chastisement. We almost cry out for punishment. Sin does that to us. It unbalances us.
The only one that could have stoned the woman that morning was Yahshua. He was without sin. He could have stoned her, but he did not.
“Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?
“No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Yahshua declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” (v. 10-11)
As she looked in his face she knew for certain that she was a free woman, fully forgiven for her sins. There was not a trace of condemnation in his eyes, or in His voice. She stepped into the light of day feeling whole, feeling clean, feeling restored. She may not have fully understood how, but that He had the power to do so, she never doubted. Her story, that had such a sorry beginning ended in a stunning triumph-a story of G-d’s forgiveness.
When the “Light of the World” shines His spotlight on your soul, you have a choice in the way you’ll respond. Like the religious leaders you can go in darkness, or like the woman, you may see yourself totally exposed by the light of His truth.
Today, you may feel deeply uncomfortable because of a sin you committed. You may be embarrassed to be with friends or to face people around you, because somehow, you sense that if they knew your sin, they would hurl stones of judgment and rejection at you. But look again. All your accusers have left the room. Not one of them can condemn you.
But now, like that adulteress, you may be face to face with G-d. Deep inside, you may be overwhelmed with the burden of guilt for your sins. You wonder, if even G-d could forgive you. Your sins are too dark, too evil, to many, too often. Listen carefully to the words Yahshua spoke to that woman in the temple long ago. Listen very carefully, because He not only speaks them to her; He speaks them to you. Whatever your sin, hear him as he says to you, “Neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.” If you respond to Him in Faith and Trust, in those words of complete forgiveness, you can walk into the light without fear. We either choose darkness or walk with Him in the light of grace, truth, and Torah. We choose trust and obedience or doubt and disobedience. The Living Torah and the Written Torah or dishonor the Living torah by rejecting the Written Torah. Choose life, trust in Yahshua and be reconciled to YHVH Elohim from your past sins and live in obedience to YHVH’s Word, His Torah, His instructions for a successful life. Repent and Go, and sin no more.
Baruch haba b’shem Adonai
Rab Davis (R. Milchamah b. David)