She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” (John8:11 ESV)
This amazing verse is a bookend to a story about a women caught in the very act of adultery. The religious leaders bring her before Jesus & tell him she has been caught red handed. They did this with no regard for the life of the woman but, in fact, the very opposite. The law says that they should execute her for her sin & they expect Jesus to decide her fate. They are doing this to catch him at the expense of the woman. And this is what religion always does, it uses people for it's own purposes even to the extent of abusing people, even killing them. History documents this well.
But what is Jesus' approach? They hope to catch him. They know him to be merciful, a friend of even the worst sinners. So will he honor his mercy here? But Jesus is also just. He obeys God's laws perfectly. Will he honor God's law then?
The religious leaders are convinced they have found a scenario that Jesus can't reason his way out of. He will have to either condemn the women & uphold the law or give mercy to the woman & condemn the law. Either way he cannot be a man of mercy & a man of righteousness.
So what is Jesus' response? He writes in the dirt with his finger. The Bible doesn't tell us what he writes in the dirt. We don't even know why he writes in the dirt. But after he does, he asks this question to the crowd who has already picked up rocks to execute the woman.
"Let the person without sin be the first person to throw a rock."
Silence.
No rocks are thrown.
No one sticks around. They all leave one by one, leaving their rocks at the feet of Jesus.
And at the end of the story there is only one person left with the woman: Jesus. The one person that could throw a rock. The one person that is without sin. The one person that could condemn her doesn't.
He chooses mercy but what of the law? Has he not condemned the law with his choice? How can Jesus allow this woman to go free after she has clearly violated the law?
Her sin is not overlooked. It is not excused flippantly. Her sin will be paid for. Jesus is going to the cross to pay for her sin. His life for her life. His perfect life for her imperfect life. His righteousness for her unrighteousness. In this way, Jesus is able to pardon sinners while also keeping the law. He is both righteous & merciful.
Herein lies our only hope. We need both the righteousness of Jesus & the mercy of Jesus. We need to here both the words, "You are not condemned" & "Go & sin no more."
Most people in our culture believe that we can either have the mercy of God or the law of God but we can't have both. We either hear God say to us, "Neither do I condemn you" or "Go & sin no more."
But this passage teaches us that we need both. We need God's mercy, & we need to be told to leave our sin. We cannot accept the mercy of God without repentance that leads to a changed life, & we cannot have a changed life without first receiving the mercy of God. We need to here Jesus say to each of us, "I do not condemn you. Now, go & sin no more."
We cannot expect the mercy of God without repentance of our sin, & we cannot have real repentance apart from God's mercy. We need both. With only God's mercy we are left with cheap grace that doesn't require us to leave our sin. And without mercy all we have is obedience to the law & an attempt at a righteousness of our own (which is no righteousness at all).
But Jesus gives us both. He forgives us & leads us out of our sin. We need to preach this good news to ourselves & to our world everyday: "Jesus doesn't condemn us! Now, let's go & sin no more."
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