Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” | John 8.5-11
This is my fifth post in a series on Christian worldview (you can read the others here, here, here, and here), and I want to reiterate why I am writing these: I want people to know what the Bible says. This goes for both people who are not Christians and for those who are.
The position that most debates take in our society is to create two extreme positions around a topic and to them lump everyone into one of them. In the case of homosexuality and same-sex marriage, this means that you are either:
-
For it, and celebrate, affirm and declare it good #lovewins
-
Against it, and condemn the people who participate in such things #antigay
The Bible does not allow the Christian to adopt either of these positions, so the Christian sits in between these two trying to explain to both ‘sides’ how the love of God is both comforting and convicting; it both tells us that we are never so good that we don’t need God, but never so bad that we are out of His reach. I will use a story that often comes up in these discussions to illustrate this.
In the gospel of John we see the story of Jesus rescuing an adulteress from the hands the religious leaders. The issue at hand is not the guilt of the woman; she is guilty of adultery. The issue at hand is how she should be treated in light of her sin. The mob is ready to execute justice, to stone her (as her offense deserved according to the law of Moses), but Jesus stops them. He doesn’t defend her actions, but challenges the mob to look at their own sin. He tells them: Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.
In this, Jesus is leveling the playing field: they have no right to be the executors of justice because they are not just. He is the Judge, the one who will make a final judgement on ALL people and is making it clear that it is not the job of Christians to go around killing people for their offenses toward God. It will be dealt with.
The way that Jesus is often quoted here makes it sound like that is where things end. That Jesus is calling Christians to just ‘live and let live,’ and is in some ways putting His stamp of approval on the lifestyle of the adulteress. If you finish the story you see this is not the case. Jesus reveals to the woman that she will not be stoned today and then tells her: Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.
The point of this story is not that Christians are hypocrites who should just mind their own business and let God sort things out in the end. The point of the story is that the grace of God is big enough to cover the sin of adultery. It is big enough to cover the sin of murder, theft, or homosexuality. So it isn’t the job of Christians to go around making sure everyone receives their just punishment, instead, the job of Christians is to reveal the gracious love of God and to call people to turn from a life lived for their own gratification toward a life of worship to Him. What does a life of worship look like? Go and sin no more.
Christians do not need to throw stones, but Jesus isn’t telling them to stop being discerning, speaking truth, and calling people to repentance. In this story, Jesus calls everyone out on their sin. He also gives them all a chance to change and a reason to do it.
*As to what Jesus was writing in the sand, no one knows for sure. Maybe it was: stop misquoting me.