Key scripture- “Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” (John 8:3-11 ESV).

In John 8, a woman caught in adultery was dragged before Jesus by an angry, self-righteous mob. The woman in the story was a pawn. How awful that her very life was at stake when this wasn’t even about her. The religious leaders weren’t concerned about her sin, her life, her heart or humiliating her. They were using her to test Jesus, which shows their obvious, evil intent. But before they could trap Jesus, they first had to trap her.

Pastor, James McDonald asks us to think about that. Which is more shocking—the fact that a woman committed adultery or that the religious leaders were there to see it? The woman was caught in the very act of adultery, which takes two people, but where was the man and how was she caught?

Did the religious leaders have spies? Was it like a witch hunt? Did someone send a group text? “Get over here now! We have a live one!” How many watchmen set out to find this one woman? How many women did they track in order to catch one in the act of adultery? How many windows did they peer through to make this arrest? How many laws in Scripture did they blindly break to find someone breaking the law?

They whipped themselves into a self-righteous frenzy and arrived at Jesus’ feet with an ultimatum. That wasn’t a good idea because the Lord does not respond to ultimatums. The leaders thought they had Jesus cornered and demanded, “So what do you say” (8:5)?

Silence.

Picture the scene: The Pharisees were high and mighty, towering over the broken woman. They pressed on each other’s shoulders, trying to peer over the mob to gloat over the fallen prey, but the Son of God said nothing and got down below them all. They got high; He got low. “Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground”(8:6). What did He write in the sand? We don’t know. We’re not supposed to know. If God wanted us to know, He would have included it in the Bible text. Perhaps we’re not supposed to know so that we can think of some possibilities. Whatever He wrote, it was convicting.

Maybe Jesus wrote the names of the leaders who had engineered this trap and shamed this woman: “Ananias, Caiaphas, Gamaliel . . . ”

Maybe Jesus drew arrows to the people standing in the crowd.

Maybe Jesus wrote specific sins.

Maybe He wrote the sins the leaders were committing in order to expose this woman’s sin.

Maybe Jesus was just kneeling down to hide His tears and the grief that He feels for the pain that His children cause one another.

We don’t know. We aren’t meant to know. We’re meant to see that when the self-righteous got high, the Son of God got low.

Like the Pharisees in this story, when we are in judgment mode or making a critical assessment of others, we don’t let go of our rocks as quickly as we should. Even when the Lord convicts us, we say, “Oh well, I was justified in hanging onto this because of what they did or said.”

Like the Pharisees, we hold our rocks to tightly, look at Verse Seven where it says, “when they kept on questioning him.” That makes it clear this was a persistent line of questioning. They didn’t just bring the woman to Jesus and say, “Hey we caught this woman in adultery so what do you say we should do?” When Jesus bent down to write something in the sand they were saying, “Hey don’t stick your head in the sand, you need to do something about this. What are you gonna do about this? You need to deal with this Jesus, we need an answer now? What is your verdict Jesus, stand up and stop ignoring us.” They kept after it, they kept on asking, and asking, and asking. They wouldn’t let it go, they were like, “We’re going to stone her, we have our rocks and we are ready to go right now. Are you with us? Are you going to do this with us in honor of the law or not?”

Can you just picture their clenched teeth, along with the anger that was spewing from their mouth, and how tightly they were holding onto the rocks, ready to go, ready to condemn this woman and stone her. Can you just picture the white knuckle grip they had on those rocks, with their self righteous attitude.

Then Jesus stood up. “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.” (John 8:7). The words “stood up” literally means, Jesus straightened. When you were young did you ever have your parents do that to you when you kept on and on bugging them after they had told you to stop, and then they finally stood up and said “Enough”. I never want Jesus to look at me and have to say “Enough”.

While Jesus was bent down maybe they were calling the woman names, accusing her, spewing venom at her. Maybe that’s what made Him stand up. Maybe they called her something and Jesus was like, “That’s enough”. Maybe they were accusing Him of something because He would not jump on board to stone her and condemn her. Something was said, we don’t know what it was, but it made Jesus Christ straighten up, and He turned and stood and said to all the accusers, “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). Sometimes you can say a lot by saying nothing and Jesus is very good at that. He simply said what He had to say and then He said nothing and waited. I bet you could hear a pin drop after He said that. In Jesus’s statement and in His silence they were able to see themselves and their own sin.

So what is going to happen now, they are all standing there with the rocks in their hands, and they are full of hatred and anger. They all standing in a circle around Jesus and this woman, who is half clothed and her head is hanging in shame, and Jesus basically says, “If you want to stone her let the one without sin cast the first rock. Let’s have the sinless person go first.” I’m sure at that point Jesus and the woman began to hear, thud, thud, thud as they all started dropping their rocks and as the people started leaving. You can just hear the rocks falling to the ground after Jesus stood up and said that.

Experience teaches us that we all pick up rocks to quickly, and we hold them too long and to tightly. Experience is also teaching each and everyone of us to drop the rock. Look at Verse Nine, it says “those who heard began to go away, the older ones first.” That is really telling because one of the reasons we hold onto rocks is because everybody else is doing it. We usually say, “This is the majority opinion. This what everybody thinks. I want to do what they do because I don’t want to stand out from the crowd.” Most of us need a large contingent of people to bail on an opinion before we will finally stand up for what is right and say “I don’t agree with that either”.

Verse Nine also says, “the older ones first.” The Holy Spirit wants us to know that they didn’t just leave one by one, the older ones dropped the rock first. Boy do I relate to that. Experiences in life teach us to drop the rock. When you are young you are more proud, more sure, and at times more arrogant and confident, and less inclined to drop the rock. You are more inclined to want to exact the truth. People in their 30s and 40s are just starting to learn some hard lessons, but they are not there yet. But as you get older, you are able to identify each and every one of your failures and mistakes. You understand your faults and you understand your weaknesses. You have failed more and you have seen the consequences of your bad choices, therefore, you are a lot less inclined to harp on the mistakes that others make. You are so much more willing to drop that rock and let it go.

Look at what happened after everyone left, 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).

Maybe instead of towering high over sinners, we should follow Jesus’ example and not condemn them but instead kneel beside them. We need to all remember that; Even when you’re right, if you’re wrong in the way that you’re right, then you’re wrong even if you’re right.

So I want you to drop the rock that you are holding onto; the rock of anger, rock of revenge, rock of pride, rock of judgment, rock of self righteousness, rock of unforgiveness. Jesus is telling you to loosen your death grip on that rock and drop it right now. Let it go!

Pray this – Our Precious Heavenly Father, when the religious leaders towered high, Jesus could have gotten higher. All authority in heaven and earth belongs to Him. He’s the second person of the Trinity, enthroned on high, ruling the universe. Yet He knelt before this broken woman and the angry mob. He got low. He responded to ultimatums with silence. He showed such power, such restraint, such humility, such love. Teach me how to drop the rock and never to pick one up just because everyone else does, but instead to follow Jesus example and do what is right even if everyone is against me. Teach me to love others like Jesus loves me. Give me the courage and strength to always do with is right. Teach me to get low, and make me more like my Savior, Jesus, in whose Name I pray, Amen.