Day 3 – Jesus Neither Condemns Nor Condones

² At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. ³ The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group ⁴ and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵ In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” ⁶ They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.⁷ 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.”⁸ Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

⁹ At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. ¹⁰ Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

¹¹ “No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Comment

Yesterday we met Jesus beside a well, where his tenderness and truth drew an isolated woman into the light. Today another woman is brought before him, but not by a Saviour seeking her good. She is dragged into the temple courts by religious leaders seeking to use her as bait in a trap.

A note in our Bibles tells us that the earliest manuscripts do not include this episode here. We should be honest about that. We should not use it to establish teaching found nowhere else in Scripture. Yet this ancient account is entirely consistent with the Jesus revealed throughout the Gospels and provides a vivid illustration of what John has already told us: the Son is ‘full of grace and truth’ (John 1:14).

The teachers of the law and Pharisees announce that the woman has been caught in adultery. Her guilt is not invented or treated lightly. But their concern is not justice. The law held the man equally responsible, yet he is nowhere to be seen. They expose her publicly, weaponise her shame and ask Jesus to choose between the law of Moses and the mercy for which he is known. John tells us plainly: ‘They were using this question as a trap.’ (v.6)

Jesus refuses to play their cruel game. He stoops and writes on the ground. We are not told what he writes, and guesses should remain guesses. But when they persist, he stands and gives his famous reply: ‘Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’ (v.7)

Jesus is not saying that adultery does not matter, or that only perfect people may ever distinguish right from wrong. He exposes the hypocrisy of people eager to condemn another while refusing to face the darkness in their own hearts. The accusers came as judges, but find themselves judged. One by one, they walk away.

Then only Jesus and the woman remain. The scene has a breathtaking tension. Jesus is the one person present who is without sin. He alone has the moral purity to cast the stone. He sees through the woman’s life as clearly as he saw through her accusers. If anyone has the right to condemn her, it is him.

Yet he says, ‘Then neither do I condemn you.’ (v.11) Those are words of astonishing mercy. Jesus does not humiliate her, exploit her or reduce her to the worst thing she has done. He addresses her directly and restores her dignity. The guilty woman remains in the presence of the holy Judge and hears a verdict of grace.

But grace does not have the final word by itself. Jesus continues: ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’ (v.11) He neither condemns nor condones. He does not say, ‘Your choices do not matter,’ nor, ‘Your failure defines you for ever.’ He releases her from condemnation and calls her out of the life that brought guilt and destruction. His mercy is not permission to remain enslaved; it is power and invitation to begin again.

This union of grace and truth is part of Jesus’ moral beauty. Truth without grace becomes a stone in the hand of the self-righteous. Grace without truth shrugs at the damage sin causes and leaves people trapped. Jesus does neither. His conviction is unwavering and his compassion is deep. He loves sinners as we are, but loves us too much to leave us as we are.

How can the Judge say, ‘Neither do I condemn you’? Not because judgment simply disappears. As John’s Gospel unfolds, Jesus himself will be falsely accused, publicly shamed and condemned to die. At the cross, the sinless one will stand in the place of the guilty. He bears our condemnation so that all who trust in him can hear, ‘There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 8:1).

Why does God want me to hear this today? Perhaps because I am holding a stone, measuring another person’s failure while excusing my own. Or perhaps I am standing ashamed, convinced that my worst sin has placed me beyond mercy. Jesus calls me to drop the stone, remain before him, receive his grace and leave my life of sin. This is the beauty of Christianity because this is the beauty of Christ.