Scripture Daily

Context No. 3110 of 4322 · John

Context · Reflection

John 8:1-6: in context

1but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2Now very early in the morning, he came again into the temple, and all the people came to him. He sat down and taught them. 3The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman taken in adultery. Having set her in the middle, 4they told him, “Teacher, we found this woman in adultery, in the very act. 5Now in our law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. What then do you say about her?” 6They said this testing him, that they might have something to accuse him of. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with his finger.

Early in the morning Jesus is teaching in the temple when the scribes and Pharisees drag in a woman caught in adultery, set her in the middle of everyone, and demand: Moses commanded us to stone such women; what do you say? The text tells us their real aim: they said this to test him, so they might have some charge to bring against him. And Jesus stoops down and writes on the ground with his finger.

Notice the cynicism of the trap. The woman is a pawn; the leaders care nothing for her or for justice, only for catching Jesus. If he says stone her, he seems merciless and defies Rome; if he refuses, he seems to set aside Moses. They have reduced a human being in real danger to a rhetorical weapon. And Jesus, rather than snatch the bait, stoops and writes in the dust, a pause that refuses their frenzy. The One who truly cares for the woman will neither condemn her cruelly nor excuse her sin, and the answer he is about to give will expose them all.

Do I ever use another person's sin or plight as a weapon in an argument, forgetting they are a human being before God, and can I learn Jesus' unhurried refusal of the trap?

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