The Good News Is…Rooted in Justice, Mercy, and Faithfulness
John 8:2-11
Fifth Sunday in Lent, March 22, 2026
John 8:2-11
Early in the morning Jeus came again to the temple.
All the people came to him, and he sat down and began to teach them.
The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery,
and, making her stand before all of them, they said to him,
“Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery.
Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”
They said this to test Jesus, so that they might have some charge to bring against him.
Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.
When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them,
“Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground.
When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders,
and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.
Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.
Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
So many questions arise from this text.
The obvious first question: Where is the man?
Where is the man who was caught in adultery with the woman?
Why was he not held accountable for his sins?
They dragged this poor woman before God and everybody in the temple courtyard.
Why was the man not also dragged before God and everybody?
The accusers referred to the Law of Moses found in Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy 22:22 “If a man is found lying with the wife of another man,
both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman.
So you shall purge the evil from Israel.
Now, according to first century scholars, what was supposed to happen in such a civil case,
and what seemed to not happen very often, was that the Jewish authorities,
if they were interested in justice, should have taken her to their courts.
In court, there would have been required several eyewitness testimonies,
and the witnesses would have to provide consistent witness statements.
In court, of course the man involved would also have to be present.
Who was this missing man? And was he put up to this act by the authorities?
Was the whole situation a set up?
Clearly, these accusers did not care about this woman or about equal justice before the Law.
They were trying to set a trap for Jesus.
The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees thought they had Jesus caught
between a rock and a hard place.
The only authority who could approve capital punishment at the time was the Romans.
Only the Roman prefect, Pontius Pilate, could authorize a death sentence.
So, if Jesus were to condemn the woman and go along with the stoning,
he would be in hot water with the Romans.
But, if Jesus were to condemn her accusers for bringing her before him,
the Jewish authorities could label him a heretic who failed to uphold the Jewish law.
They knew that Jesus had been merciful to so many other “sinners”,
so they were fully prepared to accuse him, before God and everybody,
of not upholding the Law of Moses.
At first, Jesus does not respond; he kneels down and writes in the sand.
My take on this is that Jesus’ silence indicated something like this:
“Really? You guys are really going to do this right now, here in the temple courtyard?
You’re really going to humiliate this woman and embarrass yourselves?”
There has been much speculation of course about what Jesus wrote in the sand.
Some scholars theorize that Jesus was writing the sins of the accusers in the sand,
We can imagine the accusers coming in close, bending over Jesus,
wondering what he was writing, then recognizing their own sins
written clearly in the sand before them.
That might give them pause, perhaps a moment of personal reflection,
in the midst of this tense scene.
Many commentators, including Augustine and Chrysostom of old,
speculate that Jesus was alluding to Jeremiah 17,
that Jesus writing the names of accusers in the sand signified their guilt
of turning away from God.
The religious leaders would have known about the ancient prophecy from Jeremiah 17:13
“O LORD, the Hope of Israel, all who abandon You will be put to shame.
All who turn away (from you) will be written in the dust,
for they have abandoned the LORD, the spring of living water.”
The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees would not want their names written in the sand,
for having one’s name written in the sand meant that that person had abandoned God
and that their identity would soon be forgotten by God and by the world.
Another commentator on this passage said that what we might easily miss in this text
was that Jesus bent down, knelt down, before a woman.
For a first century Jewish man to kneel before a woman, especially a woman caught in adultery,
is the real “surprise” in this text, something we might miss in our contemporary setting.
Jesus kneels before her, not once, but twice.
In this, he displays an ultimate act of humility, before her and before the sin of the world,
and in this act of kneeling in silence, he also displays an act of defiance
toward those who would use this woman for the sake of their own power and influence.
Jesus’ initial silence before the accusers and his kneeling before the woman
would have greatly offended the religious authorities.
They claimed that this woman was caught in the very act of adultery.
Was she simply an unfaithful wife?
Who was her husband? Where was her husband?
Was he even alive? Had he abandoned her? Had he been abusive to her?
And who was her illicit partner? And were her relations with him even consensual?
Could this woman have been vulnerable, as were many women in the first century?
Did she have any extended family nearby as did so many others?
There seemed to be no men who were standing up for this woman,
no protectors to keep the accusers from dragging her before Jesus at the temple.
Did the woman have children to feed?
Had her husband failed to provide for her and her children?
Had this woman engaged in adultery in order to feed herself and her family?
One of the videos we watched at our Wednesday Bible study
included a child who ran up to the woman after Jesus released her.
That was a surprising twist. Had you ever imagined this woman having a child?
And what of the woman’s future?
Did she go, as Jesus commanded her, and sin no more?
So many unanswered questions. So many things we do not know.
But what we can know from this text is the mercy of Jesus.
Jesus fully sees the woman, just as he sees us at our very lowest points,
and he does not condemn her. He has mercy upon her.
Each one of us has received such undeserved grace and mercy in the presence of Jesus.
We have all sinned. We have all fallen short. We have all rightly deserved God’s displeasure,
but thanks be to God for God’s indescribable grace made known in Jesus of Nazareth!
If we were not aware of our own sin, if we were to say that we have no sin,
then we would be no better than those teachers of the law and Pharisees who,
in their self-righteous judgment and lust for power,
not only misused this woman but offended Jesus.
When Jesus held up a mirror to them, forcing them to pay attention to their own souls,
they all went away, beginning with the elders, the older ones.
They knew that they were not without sin. They knew that they could not throw the first stone.
And what of us? What of the Church today?
Have we been too ready to judge? Too ready to condemn…
the neighbor next door, the person from the other political party,
the immigrant who looks different and dresses different than we do,
the vulnerable ones who sleep on the sidewalk?
What stones have you and I been ready to throw?
At whom have we been tempted to throw them?
Jesus’ humility before sin and judgment,
and his defiance before those who would misuse their power –
perhaps this, this could be an effective model for the Church today?
Have you ever considered what the world would be like,
what our nation would be like, without knowledge of the New Testament?
Though there are competing narratives in the Old Testament, to be sure,
the Law of Moses still ends up with “an eye for an eye” and “a tooth for a tooth” theology,
which, of course, in the end results in everyone being blind and toothless.
Jesus represents a far different way of dealing with the inevitability of human sin.
In the timeless Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, Jesus turns the world upside down:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’
But I say to you: Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek,
turn the other also, and if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt,
give your coat as well, and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.
Give to the one who asks of you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise
on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.
For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?
Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters,
what more are you doing than others? Do not even the gentiles do the same?
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Be whole, be complete, in your unconditional love.
Friends, we live in a harsh, war-mongering world.
No person, no nation, is so guiltless as to throw the first stone.
In the presence of Jesus, all stones are dropped to the ground,
and we learn to be more complete, more whole as human beings,
more mature as we seek to live with Christ-like, unconditional love and mercy.
To God be the glory as we choose love over stones. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Todd Speed
Decatur Presbyterian Church
Decatur, Georgia
