OUR FATHER WHOSE SON CAME NOT TO CONDEMN THE WORLD

After teaching at the temple, Jesus retreated to the Mount of Olives but returned early the next morning and all the people gravitated towards Him to hear Him speaking. The religious establishment, still trying to find a way to trap Him with something He said, brought a woman caught in adultery and asked Him to comment on her fate.

Jesus, let the tension in the air rise by remaining silent and stooping to the ground to write with His finger on the ground.

Even as Jesus ignored them, they pressed Him for an answer and when the tension peaked, He stood up and said that the ones among them who had no sin should throw the first stone. He then stopped down again and continued writing on the ground.

John chapter 8 verses 1 - 11 relates the event this way;

1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

2 Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them. 3 Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, 4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. 5 Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” 6 This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.

7 So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” 8 And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. 10 When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”

11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

The group that had assembled to stone the woman to death slowly dispersed starting with the oldest ones and when they were gone, Jesus stood up again and asked the woman where her accusers were.

When she said there were none left, Jesus told her that if there were none to accuse her, then He would not accuse her either and He told her to go and sin no more.

Amen.

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