URC Daily Devotion Saturday 7 June 2025
St John 8: 1 – 11
While Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he 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 him, 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.’
Reflection
As a crime novelist, I find so many fascinating ‘clues’ in this story that I’d like to know more about! The woman seemingly caught in the very act of adultery! Dragged out of bed? But how did they know the exact right time to get there and burst in and grab her? They must have had information they were relying on.
And I know women are very capable, but to be able to ‘do’ adultery on her own! Because seemingly nobody else was involved! There’s no mention of… a man!
And that’s something that really gets me at the moment in the reporting of crimes against women. It’s all reported using the passive tense. We’re told there’s an epidemic of violent crimes against women and girls. (And I’m hesitating about being honest and stating bluntly ‘male crimes against women and girls’ which is what it is.) The institutionalised finger-pointing is towards the female of the species. As here.
But Jesus doesn’t play those games. He waits for the noise to quieten down. The people using this woman to try to trip him up, keep badgering him for an answer. And he confronts them with their sin – the sin of their hearts, their sinful acts in the past, and the truth of what they’re doing now. And they slink away.
Who has clean hands and clean hearts? Not that crowd of men baying for the woman’s blood – nor the woman herself. And Jesus has an answer for her too. ‘Neither do I condemn you.’ We might remember that when social media fires us up to bay for the blood of those we think are behaving beyond the pale. God’s mercy is much wider than ours.
Let anyone without sin cast the first stone.
Prayer
Give us your peace, Lord Jesus, as we live in these troubled times – peace to let the dust of the tumult settle before we even think to respond.
Give us your wisdom, Lord Jesus, to know our own weakness and sinfulness before we start throwing stones at anyone else – however infuriating!