I don’t think it is necessary to try to figure out what Jesus wrote on the ground. Whatever it was, it so pricked the conscience of those who wanted to trap him that they left without a stone being thrown. That being so I think it is helpful for context to look at the story as a whole.
First, those who caught the woman in adultery had probably framed her, after all adultery is not the sort of thing done in the open. That being said, they were complicit, probably, in her sin since they knew she was adultering herself and instead of counseling her they sought instead to use her as a political tool against Jesus.
Next, because of this they showed that they could not have cared less about her sin but only about the opportunity she presented to them.
Because they did not care abut her sin, their question to Jesus concerning the Law was irrelevant. They did not care about her sin and so they did not care about the Law which her sin had violated.
The question they pose has nothing to do with righteousness and everything to with politics. Roman Law held that people could uphold local law and custom but that only the Romans could execute prisoners. Since the crime of adultery commanded the death penalty, and her accusers knew that, they sought only to trap Jesus because if He commands them to stone her, then He has violated Roman Law and if He commands them to release her then He has violated the Law of God.
But Jesus only spoke this, “Let Him who is without sin cast the first stone.”
Well, who was the only one without sin present at that time?
Jesus.
Jesus was claiming His right as executioner under the Law, and not only that righteousness demands death for sin, but that, as the Perfect Righteousness of God, He alone was the One who had the right to pass judgment or mercy because God’s judgment is not without mercy and neither is His mercy independent of His righteousness. The accusers had neither right nor cause to stone this woman because that they had so entrapped her and showed a callousness toward her and the Law itself they had no right to bring any charge against her. So when Jesus claims right as executioner, they understood, since Scripture tells us that no charge was ever found against Jesus, that He was claiming the Law of Moses to execute them as well as the adulteress.
Concerning her, Jesus does not pass over her sin. He certainly does tell the pharisees to execute her, she was guilty, but he casts it in such a light that they cannot do it because they are also guilty before the Law. But when He tells her that He does not condemn her, He is not excusing her, He is telling her that though she is guilty and deserves death, he is willing to forgive her sins if she, “go(es) and sin(s) no more.”
So there are two lessons.
- Don’t be so quick to try and catch other people out in their sins because we sin when we do so. We have every right to counsel each other when we see our brothers sin, but we do not have the right to tsk and cluck at the sins of other because when we do we show how hard our hearts are and sin ourselves in our pride by assuming that we are somehow more righteous than that brother before God.
- We must never presume on the mercy of God. Just because God forgives our sins or does not immediately punish us for them does not mean that God has not seen our sin and is not offended by it. We must never think that just because everyone is a sinner that our sins don’t stand out before God. Scripture tells us that God will judge us each and not collectively, so we must live each and every day in repentance before Him that our sins may be forgiven and then do our best to, “go and sin no more.”
God bless and merry Christmas.
