Behold the Lamb!

She was a pawn. The temple leaders brought her before Jesus in a crowd because they were trying to trap Him. She had been "caught in the act" of adultery. Interesting. They didn't bring the man she was with before Jesus. The Law said both of them should be stoned.

The leaders didn't care about her. If they had someone would've made an attempt to restore her in private. We never meet the witnesses, but the story says she was "caught in the act" which means two eyewitnesses had to see the same thing at the same time and provide corroborating testimony. Dual confirmation was supposed to prevent the abuse of the Law. It's interesting that the religious leaders didn't challenge the witnesses. It wasn't enough to witness a sin. Eyewitnesses had a legal obligation to intervene and provide moral guidance to the person(s) caught in sin. They were supposed to stop it, or prevent it from happening. Why didn't they? Where were they when the leaders brought her to Jesus? The text doesn't say. However, it does say they were trying to trick Jesus.

With one little sentence, Jesus turned judgmental, would-be stoner's into disappointed, rock dropper's. "Let anyone without sin throw the first stone." Stopped them dead in their tracks. Jesus wasn't saying the woman didn't sin. He wasn't saying that people don't have the right to question the sinful behavior of their fellow man. He simply exposes their hypocrisy.

They walk away. It's just her and Jesus. She calls Him, "Lord". She knows He can help her. No one has spoken with such authority to her, or the religious leaders. Perhaps for the first time in her life someone is looking at her without ulterior motives driven by hedonistic pleasure. Someone is looking at her with unconditional love that has nothing to do with her body. Someone is looking at her with hope.

His response doesn't ignore her sin. He tells her to stop, but His response is less about her and more about His sovereignty. It testifies to His God-given authority to forgive sin. She is me. She is you. She is every person whoever sinned. All of us. Not one of us gets a pass. We need Him every bit as much as she needed Him. He wants us to heed His warning to stop sinning. But He also wants us to go, to move on, pick ourselves up and take one step in front of the other walking in His way, not our flesh.

Scholars say the earliest manuscripts don't have her story. Many believe it was a later insertion. Several translations relegate her story to the appendix. Others make special notations, or tell us it should actually be John 7:53-8:11, instead of 8:1-10. Check your translation and see if there's not a parenthetical statement, or footnote about the accuracy of the passage. It doesn't really matter, or does it? The church has told her story for centuries. The story doesn't violate the integrity of the religious leaders (or lack thereof), or the historic character and actions of Jesus. It's consistent with the stories of Jesus found in the rest of the gospel story.

The point of the story is what's important. Whether this text is accurately placed, inserted at a later date, held out by the scribes of old, or not doesn't matter. What matter's to us is what mattered to her....that Jesus is sovereign and has the authority to forgive sin. She needs Him and so do we! John knew it and declared it in the first chapter of his story of Jesus: "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."