John 8: Jesus and the Woman Caught in Adultery, Go and Sin No More

Introduction

Last time, Jean-Marie Ribay spoke about Jesus and the tax owed to Caesar, a first "trick question" put by his opponents to bring him down. This message is the second part, with another trick question: the one about the woman caught in adultery, in John 8:1-11.

The preacher takes the text and unfolds it "little by little," verse by verse. He shows a trap with no way out, a law that no one really applied, the wisdom of Jesus, consciences touched without a single reproach, and a woman sent away with a word that commits her: "Go, and sin no more."

He also warns against reading this account too quickly. Jesus does not say that sin is not serious. He opens a path to repentance.

Message Outline

1. Jesus Teaches in the Temple

Jesus spends the night on the Mount of Olives, then returns to the temple at dawn. All the people come to him. "He sat down and taught them" (John 8:2).
The temple in Jerusalem means the whole enclosure: the sanctuary, but also the outer courts. Jesus is probably seated in the court of the women.
He is not simply discussing theology as anyone could do. He is seated and teaching: he is in the position of the master, the rabbi.
The scribes and the Pharisees then bring a woman caught in the very act of adultery. The preacher points out what is "completely abnormal": she is alone. Where is the other party? And the husband seems to be given little consideration.
They place her "in the middle." This is no accident: they do not come to consult Jesus in a corner, they want to confront him before the opinion of the crowd. The woman is "put on display." And when they call him "Teacher," it is hard not to hear a touch of hypocrisy.

2. A Trick Question

"Now in our law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. What then do you say about her?" (John 8:5). Theology textbooks call this a "captious" question.
The law of Moses is not a mere regulation. It is the word of God handed down to Moses. To say "the law of Moses" is to say "God has said": total authority.
The "commanded us" is a warning: here, today, with this woman, you cannot find a way out. And in "such women," there is "all their contempt" for her and for sinners in general.
This is not an official trial. No one has a mandate, the woman is not a defendant, and she will walk away free. John says so: "They said this to test him, that they might have something to accuse him of" (John 8:6). The woman is only a pretext, she is being manipulated.
The question is binary. If Jesus says no, he directly opposes the law of Moses, and therefore God. He becomes a rebel, and it will be easy to discredit him.

3. A Law That Was No Longer Applied

If Jesus says yes, it is unacceptable to the people. According to the preacher, for a very long time no one had been stoned for adultery. So the woman was not really in danger of being stoned within the hour, and the Jews, under the Roman Empire, had no right to impose the death penalty: even for Jesus, they had to go to Pilate.
There were prostitutes in Israel. Jesus tells the Pharisees that the tax collectors and the prostitutes will go into the kingdom of God before them (Matthew 21:31-32). Luke 7:37-39 speaks of a sinful woman, who was not stoned.
Joseph, learning that Mary is pregnant, plans to break with her secretly because he does not want to disgrace her (Matthew 1:19). The text does not say he wanted to spare her stoning.
Under King Josiah, the book of the law is found "almost by chance" in the house of the LORD (2 Kings 22:8). Then no Passover like it had been kept since the days of the judges (2 Kings 23:21-23). For centuries, this central point of the religious year was not lived out.
The rest of the land every seventh year was never observed either: 490 years, that is 70 sabbath years, the length of the exile in Babylon. Peter acknowledges it: a yoke "that neither our fathers nor we were able to bear" (Acts 15:10).
The preacher draws a warning from this for those who go back to the laws of the old covenant in order to be sanctified. They pick a few feasts and leave the rest: "it makes no sense." Come back to Jesus, "because he is the one who fulfilled all of that."
The trap closes: if he says no, he is against the law; if he says yes, we discover a man who is "hard, severe, merciless," and his whole character of compassion disappears.

4. The Wisdom of Jesus

Jesus stoops down and writes on the ground with his finger. What he writes is not told, so it is not fundamental: "if it had been necessary to understand this story, John would have told us." Jesus keeps his distance, he is not their consultant.
The preacher recalls that the tablets of the ten commandments were written by the finger of God (Exodus 31:18). They set the law against Jesus, and he too writes with his finger.
Read the commandments one by one: it is hard to feel like a stranger to them. Perhaps you have killed no one in your actions, but perhaps in your words, or in your intentions. "And God looks at the inside."
They insist, they do not want to "let go of their prey." Jesus stands up and faces them: "He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone at her" (John 8:7).
This word acknowledges that the woman is guilty and deserves the condemnation of the law. In the twenty-first century, we often dodge this point to go straight to "neither do I condemn you."
Is that shocking? Our standards for judging it are human: we are "both judge and party." Sin has permeated everything, the mind, the feelings, the will. "Sinners cannot judge sin." God alone is holy, he alone knows what sin truly deserves.
No one is without sin. From the very first commandment, loving the LORD with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength, "we are done for." As for the last one, "you shall not covet," hardly a day goes by without our breaking it. And Jesus taught that whoever desires another man's wife has already committed adultery in his heart (Matthew 5:28).
Jesus is not condemning every exercise of human justice here. This is a particular case, with accusers acting in bad faith. He stoops down again: for him, the dialogue is over.

5. The Accusers Withdraw

"They, when they heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning from the oldest, even to the last" (John 8:9). For the preacher, this is almost the center of the story.
Jesus accused no one. He brought neither teaching nor reproach. "It is their conscience." This miracle is as fantastic as Jesus walking on the water at three in the morning in the storm: "It is the Holy Spirit walking on their conscience."
The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment (John 16:8). An accusation remains an accusation. When it is the Holy Spirit who convicts, "it is totally different."
Ask people in the street whether they are sinners: many will say yes, but "if everyone were like me, the world would be better off." They know it cognitively, but they are not convicted of sin.
"Break up your fallow ground" (Jeremiah 4:3). In the middle of a fertile field, the little trampled path never bears fruit, even though its soil is the same as a yard away. Some consciences are like that: they need to be plowed.
The preacher tells of his conversion: he had a rather good opinion of himself, "an unbearable guy," but content. When the Spirit of God showed him who he was, he was "flattened, pulverized." No one had accused him. Since then, he no longer wants to trample his conscience.
Great sinners and small sinners, old and young, they all went home with their heads down. In the morning, they were at ease. "How could anyone be saved without first agreeing to conceive that he is lost?" If you hold out a ladder to someone at the bottom of a well, he has to admit he is down there.
Jesus did not fall into another trap: turning this scene into a controversy in order to have the last word. He respected people who respected nothing. They left with the conviction that they had a problem, "extraordinary progress": a basis for repenting.

6. The Future of This Woman

Jesus stands up to speak to her. He treats her with respect. "Jesus respects you in whatever situation you are in." He speaks to you one on one, because you are not a number: God wants to make you a child of God.
"Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?" (John 8:10). It is not a real question: it underlines that the accusers have recognized themselves as guilty.
She is relieved and grateful. The Pharisees could have made her life impossible. But deep down, we know nothing about her. She did not come on her own, she was not the one looking for Jesus.
"Neither do I condemn you." To condemn can mean to disapprove, or to pronounce a sentence. Jesus has already said she deserved the penalty of the law. But he did not come to carry out the sentence: he came so that his grace would bring us out of the bottom of the pit.
Jesus does not say "I forgive you," nor "your faith has saved you." She came with no spark of repentance. He does not give her a "free, arbitrary" pardon, he sets her on the right path, the same one as her accusers.
"Go, and sin no more" (John 8:11). Everything is in the tone, which writing does not convey, and the preacher does not believe Jesus said it harshly. He is sure that this encounter set off in her "a different kind of search."

7. The Impact of This Story

This account has often been disturbing. That is probably why, says the preacher, it does not appear in some manuscripts.
It has been used to trivialize forgiveness or to play down sin, adultery in particular. That is not what the text says. It shows God's will to forgive, "but to forgive with repentance."
God does not want the death of the sinner, but that he repent and live (Ezekiel 33:11). Jesus begins his ministry by saying "Repent" (Matthew 4:17). "Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3). God has set a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness (Acts 17:30-31).
The preacher issues "an appeal to consciences": do not understand this account as if a serious sin were "not so serious." The only conclusion of Jesus for this woman is "sin no more."
"I do not believe that anyone can truly be a Christian without having gone through an existential repentance." Without it, you are a sympathizer or a follower, not a disciple.
If God sent his Son to die on the cross, it is because there was no other solution, and because sin, yours as well as his, was "totally unbearable." If God speaks to you, it is to save you: "Be reconciled to God."

Key Takeaways

Jesus refuses the trap: he does not deny God's law and does not become merciless. He sends each person back to his own conscience.
Jesus accused no one. It is the Holy Spirit who convicts of sin, and this miracle is as great as walking on water.
Knowing that you are a sinner is not enough. A trampled conscience must be plowed in order to bear fruit.
"Neither do I condemn you" does not erase the "go, and sin no more." This account trivializes neither sin nor forgiveness.
No one can be saved without recognizing that he is lost: the Christian life begins with an existential repentance.

Personal Application

Has sin ever been a real matter of conscience for you, or only a notion you know about?
Is there a "little trampled path" in your conscience, an area where you no longer let God touch you?
When you judge another person's fault, do you remember that you too are "both judge and party"?
In your discussions, do you seek to have the last word, or to respect the other person as Jesus did?
Have you gone through a real repentance, or have you remained a sympathizer of Jesus?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

Why was the question put to Jesus about the woman caught in adultery a trap?

According to Jean-Marie Ribay, both possible answers were bad for Jesus. If he said no, he opposed the law of Moses, and therefore God, and became easy to discredit. If he said yes, he would look harsh and merciless in the eyes of the people, who had not stoned anyone for adultery for a long time.

Why did the accusers leave one by one?

Jesus accused no one. He only said: "He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone at her." The text specifies that they were convicted by their conscience. For the preacher, this is a miracle as great as walking on water: the Holy Spirit convicting of sin.

Does "Neither do I condemn you" mean that sin is not serious?

No. Jesus acknowledges that the woman deserves the condemnation of the law, but he did not come to carry out the sentence. He does not say "I forgive you" to her: he says "go, and sin no more." The text shows God's will to forgive, together with repentance.