The Woman Caught in Adultery

I have often thought of this story found in John 8 and thought that it may be the most important passage that begs us to reflect upon our own lives.

For anyone who doesn't know, the religious leaders catch a woman in the act of adultery and they bring her to Jesus in an attempt to find another excuse to accuse Him.  They remind Jesus that the law says she should be stoned to death.  Jesus tells them, ok, whoever of you is without sin can throw the first stone.  The religious leaders all leave the scene.  Jesus, the only sinless one present, tells the woman that He doesn't condemn her, she should go and sin no more.

I think it shows us three different groups we might fit into, and I think we can probably find ourselves in all 3 at some point in our life.  What can we learn from each group?

1 - The "sinner" -- We've all been here.  The wages of sin is death, and we've received a pardon.  Consider the gratefulness this woman would have felt in this moment immediately following a horrible shame and fear filled situation as she receives the grace of Jesus.  It is good to remember where we have come from and thank God often for His grace and mercy on us.  It was the greatest love that Christ died for us while we were still His enemies.

2 - The religious -- The Pharisees are always the bad guys in the Bible, but oh how often I have been them, or I run into people standing in their shoes?  Self-righteousness is such an easy trap to fall into.  How quickly we can forget that we too were sinners and Christ saved our butts.  We turn our nose up at people who don't do the things we do, or do the things we do not do.  We love to cry out for their blood.  We love to see those who do wrong get what's coming to them.  Oh the hypocrisy!  I would recommend that we all examine our own attitudes often to see if we are falling into this pit.  The world won't see our love if they first see our judgement and spite.

3 - Jesus -- Of course we all want to think that we'd be like Jesus in this story.  Jesus sees our hearts and He knows the hurts and lies that have assaulted us.  He wants more than anything to restore us to our created ideal.  Justice for Him is to see us healed and delivered from the enslavement of sin.  He was the only one in the story that had the right to stone her, but He chose to love on her instead.  We never hear what happened to her, but I would guess that her life took a drastic turn after that incident.  I want to be the person that loves people that do things I don't do, things I don't think are right.  I want to see past the surface and see the heart.  Jesus sees our golden centers and He calls us up into that path.  We, as His disciples must learn to do the same.  The world has enough hurt and judgement and hate, we don't need to add to it.  The kindness of God is what leads us to repentance.  Let us strive to be more like Jesus.