Caught!

1. Your Worst Fears Come True

John 8:1–11 ESV

¹ but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. ² Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. ³ The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst ⁴ they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. ⁵ Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” ⁶ 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. ⁷ 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.” ⁸ And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. ⁹ 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. ¹⁰ Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” ¹¹ She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

You Knew It Was Wrong…

What’s the sin you’re afraid of someone finding out about?

There’s a part of us that we want to keep hidden

From our church
From our closest friends
From our husband or wife
Even from ourselves

That shameful sin that you can barely admit to yourself.

… But It Felt So Good

What’s that shameful sin that you keep running back to?

We know it’s wrong. We want to stop. But we don’t. We don’t know if we can. And no matter how much we might hate it right after the fact, we know it’s only a matter of time before it begins to draw us in again.

As we sin we tell ourselves to hide. Conceal. Put on a show. Make one wrong move and everyone will know.

How do you feel when you get caught?

That’s what’s happening with this woman.

She was caught in the very act of adultery. Based on the rather precise Jewish understanding of adultery and the specific punishment of being stoned – she was engaged to one man and sleeping with another.

She knew she belonged to one man – but kept running back to another.

Now You’re Caught

We can assume that this was more than just a one time event. To prove adultery you needed two witnesses to identify both parties, in bed at the same time, with unmistakable movements. Which likely means someone started getting suspicious. Someone noticed a pattern. Someone put in effort to catch her.

And now, that secret sin that felt so good – that secret sin that be confessed to anyone – is known by everyone.

Putting Ourselves in the Story

A lot gets said about Jesus and what he’s writing in the dirt. Plenty is said about how the Pharisees see everything here.

We need to be like Jesus.
We’re often too much like the Pharisees.
But I am the adulteress. We all are. What’s going on in this woman’s head?

This sermon is going to be a little different. Rather than looking at this event from afar, I want to tell this story that places you in it as the one caught, accused, and forgiven.

You’re caught by the witnesses.
You’re dragged to the religious leaders.
You’re brought to the busy temple, placed in front of a popular teacher who’s surrounded by people.
And in front of everybody you are accused.

Now there are a thousand thoughts, justifications, and defenses that come to mind.

Unfair!

It’s unfair! Where’s the man in all of this? Do they not care about how he’s just as guilty as I am?

Suspicious

How long had they known about this? And why didn’t they do anything sooner? Did they just let me go on about this until they could use it for their own purposes?

Scared

But above all you’re scared.

You have a reputation that’s worth nothing now. You don’t have a name anymore, just a label – the adulteress woman. And that’s all anyone will see anymore because no matter how unfair you think this all is, no matter how many justifications you can conjure up, no matter how much you might question the motives of the ones who caught you…

You know that they’re right.

You knew all along that this was wrong. It’s why you tried to hide it, and you hid it so well. You read all the passages where God condemns your sin. You said amen to all the teachings that warned you about it. You acted shocked and disappointed when you heard of someone else caught in it.

You’re scared because you know what happens to people like you.

2. They’re Just As You Feared

They Want to Kill You

John 8:4–5 ESV

⁴ they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. ⁵ Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”

They’re not wrong. The Law says a lot about what should happen to adulterers.

Exodus 20:14 ESV

¹⁴ “You shall not commit adultery.

Leviticus 20:10 ESV

¹⁰ “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

Deuteronomy 22:22 ESV

²² “If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.

There’s No Way Out

The answer is clear in your head, but they still put it to this teacher in front of you.

“What do you say?

But let’s not pretend that they haven’t already made up their minds. What can this teacher say to save you? Don’t follow the Law of Moses? Don’t punish sin? Tolerate evil instead of purging it from God’s people? He’d be stoned right along with you as a blasphemer.

3. He’s Not What You Expected

But this teacher, you hear someone call him Jesus, doesn’t say anything. Instead he’s just doodling in the dirt. You can’t really make it out, and don’t see much point in trying, but that doesn’t stop your accusers. They keep pestering him over and over…

John 8:7–8 ESV

⁷ And as they continue to ask him, he stands up and says to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone.” ⁸ And once more he bends down and writes on the ground.

And now it’s suddenly silent.

What happened to those loud accusations they were throwing out just a moment ago? What’s going on in their heads that has them so silent?

Exposes Them

“Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone.”

Certainly Jesus isn’t saying you need to be perfect to call out and correct sin as God instructed. But what is he saying?

You think he might have Deuteronomy 17:7 in mind.

Deuteronomy 17:7 ESV

⁷ The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

If these accusers who caught you in the very act want to stone you, they have to be ready to do it themselves.

And you also remember what else God said about putting people to death:

Deuteronomy 19:18–19 ESV

¹⁸ The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, ¹⁹ then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

“Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone” but nobody else is.

And suddenly you realize – they can’t. By throwing a stone at you they are inviting stones to be thrown at themselves.

Hypocrites

You realize that just as you’ve been living in your own secret world kept hidden away from everyone else – so have they.

And they realize that to.

John 8:9 ESV

⁹ But when they hear it, they start to go away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus is left alone with you standing before him.

It was all a front. You hid behind one yourself, trying to fool the people around you and never once considered that they were trying to fool you just the same.

They can’t condemn you without condemning themselves – so they run away, leaving you alone with Jesus.

Doesn’t Condemn You

At first you’re relieved, but then you start getting nervous. You start thinking about all you’ve heard about Jesus. He claims to be the Son of God. He acts and talks like so many of those prophets that condemned Israel long ago. He preaches of a coming wrath and the fires of hell like nobody else does.

Your accusers couldn’t condemn you, but this man can. Will he?

John 8:10–11 ESV

¹⁰ Jesus stands up and says to you, “Where are they? Has no one condemned you?” ¹¹ You say, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus says, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

You accusers can’t condemn you without condemning themselves.

Jesus can condemn you, but doesn’t.

4. You Reflect

And now it’s after the fact. You sit down by yourself and try to figure out everything that just happened and sort through your questions.

Does He Care About Sin?

And one of the first things you wonder is: Does Jesus care about my sins? Should I care about my sins anymore?

And as you think back you remember that Jesus didn’t tell them not to stone you. He didn’t say the Law of Moses was wrong. He didn’t dismiss the problem – he only made everyone see that same problem within themselves.

Your sin is serious enough to deserve death and need forgiveness.

Judging vs. Condemning

Jesus also never said anything about judging our actions as good or evil. Your accusers are right in what they said about you – you couldn’t deny their charges. Jesus isn’t concerned about recognizing and acknowledging sin.

He’s concerned about how we treat the sinners.

Twice he used the word ‘condemn.’ Condemning isn’t deciding if something is evil – it’s the punishment against evil.

Solving Sin Through Mercy

You always thought the best way to solve sin was the way you saw so much throughout the Old Testament and in your own experiences.

Stone the lawbreaker and thus purge the evil from your midst.

But Jesus just showed you another way to solve sin – through mercy. Instead of killing you to put a stop to your sin, he removes your sins through forgiveness. Instead of putting you down in the dirt he’s lifting you up to a new way of life that only lives by grace.

Sin No More

The last thing he said to you was “Go, and sin no more.”

You tried telling yourself that so many times.

I won’t do this anymore
This was the last time
I’m swearing off this sin forevermore!

And of course it never worked.

But now, after being brought to the edge of death and only just being pulled back by Jesus, there’s a power behind those words “Go, and sin no more.”

Now you’re fighting sin with his grace, not through guilt and shame.

I Won’t Be Like Them

Now you’re going to solve sin like Jesus, and not like the ones who accused you.

There’s no point in trying to pretend that you’re perfect again. Everybody knows. What’s more, you see that everyone else you thought was perfect is just pretending as well. All that does is give us a security blanket for our pride as we pretend to be something were not.

And the more we pretend the less we do anything about our sin. Pretending just makes it harder. You thought everybody else was so much better because you never realized that they had their own struggles before. So sin was able to isolate you by lying to you:

You’re the only one who deals with this
Everybody else would be shocked if they really knew you
And if they ever find out, even if they don’t stone you you might as well be dead to them

Now you see why shame thrives in secrecy. We don’t work together on our sins, we hide them and stand against them alone.

And we all hide it for the same reason you do. We’re all afraid!

Afraid of being found out
Afraid of being labeled by our sin
Afraid that we won’t hear those same words of comfort Jesus gives to everybody else

You’re afraid, but now you can be forgiven. And if you let your guard down, stopped pretending, and embraced compassion over condemnation – maybe other people would be willing to as well so that we could solve sin through mercy.

Conclusion: Did This Even Happen?

That was her story. It can be your story too.

But we doubt it.

We look at this story and the first thing that stands out are those brackets and footnotes:

ESV Chapter 8

[THE EARLIEST MANUSCRIPTS DO NOT INCLUDE 7:53–8:11.]

Did this story even happen?

Despite the most prominent scholars doubting that it belongs right here in John 8 (it even is found in Luke sometimes) nobody doubts that this story is authentic.

Papias who lived from AD 60-130 told this story
When Jerome, the first bible translator, began working on the Latin text he found this story in many manuscripts

But even if we’re convinced on the historical reliability of this story, we still find it so hard to believe.

I can’t forgive myself
I only see the hatred and disgust towards people like me
Why should I expect Jesus to be any different?

Invitation

Come and see for yourself.

Don’t just listen to this story – live it!

I’m not going to be like the Pharisees and ask you to come down in front of everybody and confess your deepest darkest secrets for everybody to hear.

I know you’re scared. I’ve been scared before too.

Proverbs 28:13 ESV

¹³ Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

I can do more than read that to you. I can tell you it’s true because I’ve lived it.

So come find me after services. Call me. Text me. Talk to me, Craig, Steve, Stuart, or Barry.

We won’t condemn you. We’ll pray with you, guide you, and help you bring it all to Jesus so you can hear those powerful words “I do not condemn you. Go, and sin no more.”