This coming Sunday is the 5th Sunday in Lent and our gospel is the “women caught in adultery.” When Jesus heard what the teachers of the law said, Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. There is no hint of why he wrote or what he wrote. One scholar offered that Jesus wrote out Ex 23:1 “You shall not repeat a false report. Do not join the wicked in putting your hand, as an unjust witness, upon anyone.”  Another suggested: “O Lord, the hope of Israel, …those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water.” (Jer 17:13 ESV)  The suggestion is that “written in the earth” is the polar opposite of being written in the book of life (Ex 32:32; Dan 12:1).  But already mentioned, there is no hint of why he wrote or what he wrote. 

When the Pharisees and scribes kept on questioning him, Jesus 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.’ According to the law, witnesses to a capital offense had to cast the first stone when the accused was condemned to death (Deut. 17:7). Jesus regarded the teachers of the law as witnesses to the offense. Therefore, they should begin the execution if it were to go ahead. But Jesus’ words challenged the accusers, implying that none of them was without sin and therefore they were in no position to condemn this woman. What sin Jesus was implying they were guilty of is not clear. Perhaps they too were guilty of adultery. Perhaps they were malicious witnesses in terms of Deuteronomy 19:15–21, because they were not interested in seeing justice done, but only in trapping Jesus. However, this is unlikely, because in Deuteronomy 19:15–21 the malicious witness is a false witness; the question of motive is not mentioned. Having said this, again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. This is probably best understood as an indication that Jesus was refusing further debate. We are not told what Jesus actually wrote, so it is pointless to speculate. What he wrote plays no part in the story, because the teachers of the law, the crowd and the woman all responded to what Jesus said, not what he wrote. Therefore it did not need to be recorded.

An optimistic reading of Jesus’ call for the one without sin to cast the first stone is “all the people” have been turned away from their murderous intentions onto the path of life as they withdraw to reflect on their own sinfulness before God. It has often been suggested that the eldest accusers were the first to leave (v. 9) because they recognized their own sinfulness more readily. However, leaving in this order may simply reflect the custom of deferring to the elders. In any case, their withdrawal was in fact a recognition of sin. Those who came to condemn ended up condemning themselves by not casting a stone.

Jesus is left alone, sitting on the ground, bent over and writing, with the woman standing before him. As Augustine says, “The two were left alone, misera et misericordia” (“a wretched woman and Mercy”; In John 33.5). 

Jesus’ Reconciliation of the Woman. This prepares for the fourth and final stage of this story–Jesus’ response to the woman (vv. 10-11). He straightens up and asks for a report of what happened, as if he had been totally oblivious to what took place as he concentrated on his writing. He does not ask her about the charges but rather about that aspect of the situation most heartening to the woman: Where are they? Has no one condemned you? (v. 10). 

But there is one left who could still execute the judgment–the only one present who was without sin and thus could throw the first stone. Is she hopeful at this point or still quite frightened? We can only speculate as to whether the woman was familiar with Jesus and his embodiment of the mercy of God. In any case, she becomes a memorable example of the fact that “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him” (3:17). Jesus says to her, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more” (8:11). Jesus grants pardon, not acquittal. Here is mercy and righteousness. He condemned the sin and not the sinner (Augustine In John 33.6). But more than that, he called her to a new life. The gospel is not only the forgiveness of sins, but a new quality of life that overcomes the power of sin (cf. 8:32-36; 1 Jn 3:4-6).

The story is a succinct expression of the mercy of Jesus; a scene St Augustine captures as he writes, at the end, relicti sunt duo, misera et misericordia (there stand the two alone, misery and mercy).  Reconciliation is not the result of a sinner’s humiliation but the encounter of two persons. Without love, there is no forgiveness. With love, a whole new life is possible.

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Image Credit: Detail of “Christ and the Adulteress” Rembrandt, 1644 | National Gallery London | PD-US