By: Obed Pineda
While He lived on earth, the authority and authenticity of the Lord Jesus as the Messiah was highly contested by His adversaries. Sadly, those who sought to discredit the Savior as Jehovah’s Anointed One were the very religious leaders (i.e., Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, etc.) whom the people esteemed as experts in the interpretation of the Law. The primary reason these men denied claiming that Jesus is the Son of God was the fear of losing their high positions in Jewish society and politics; they were envious of the Lord (cf. Matthew 27:15-18). For this reason, they tried incessantly to tempt Him, attempting to entrap Him in their ruse so that they could then accuse Him before the courts, seeking His execution. The obsession of these men consumed them to such a degree that on a certain occasion they, “brought Him a woman caught in adultery”, pretending to ask for His advice on how to proceed with her trial, John clarifying: “this they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him” (John 8:3-6a). The lack of justice, mercy, and compassion for one’s neighbor described by the inspired John is palpable in the deplorable action of the scribes and Pharisees. It has been suggested that perhaps they had hatched this disgusting plan to catch the woman in the act of adultery for the specific purpose of catching the Redeemer. This is suggested since the man who committed adultery with her is suspiciously absent. However, it is important to understand what the apostle John is trying to accomplish by beginning this section of Scripture with this event. We begin by establishing that the main focus of chapter 8 of this book is to demonstrate the authority of Christ as God, and as the Christ. The Holy Spirit relates through John’s pen that the question of the scribes and Pharisees to the Redeemer was concerning the authority of the Law. The Scripture says, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say” (John 8:4-5)? John uses this event to illuminate the superiority of the authority of the Son of God in comparison to the Law of Moses. Nevertheless, they never expected the authority of Christ to cloud the authority of Moses as it did. Let us not lose sight of the fact that their intention was to apprehend Jesus through His response, to later accuse Him before the authorities. But what happened instead was that He lovingly removed the veil of their hypocrisy and unfair judgment by penetrating the consciences of all, “beginning with the oldest even to the last; and Jesus was left along, and the woman standing in the midst” (John 8:7-9). We must establish that our Redeemer did not break the law by not casting his vote of approval in the execution of said woman. Too often the Lord’s words are misused to stop the reprimand of impiety (cf. Ephesians 5:6-11). The Son of man was not justifying the adultery; rather he was exposing the sin of hypocrisy and injustice of those who accused her of it. This, dear reader, is, by definition, a fair trial. When the Lord Jesus responded, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first”, He was inviting them to do a self-analysis of what they were doing in that moment. He was showing them how they themselves were in violation of the Law of Moses by how they were mishandling the woman’s case. First, they gave themselves away by mistakenly saying that the law dictated, “that such should be stoned” (John 8:5b), since the law commanded, “If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then both of them shall die – the man that lay with the woman, and the woman; so you shall put away the evil from Israel” (Deuteronomy 22:22). Remember that only the woman was brought to the Lord Jesus, accused of adultery. If their intentions were really to comply with the letter of the law, why didn’t they take both of them? Because their desire was not to do what was right in the eyes of the law, Christ showed them their own infraction of the very law that they sought to fulfill. Had He approved the execution of the accused, He would have been approving of an unfair trial. They would have been allowed to dishonor Jehovah’s name by abusing His holy law. Second, understanding that they were the ones who caught her in the act, Christ respected the law with His spoken instruction. Let us remember that the sacred commandment concerning those who accused a person of trespassing the law was the following: “Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses; he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness. The hands of the witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall put away the evil from among you” (Deuteronomy 17:6-7). Correctly reading what the law dictated as to how the execution of those found guilty of breaking God’s commandments was to take place, it becomes clear that the Lord was not contradicting Moses; He was upholding the law. This reveals to us that the Lord was testing the hearts of the scribes and Pharisees who brought the accused to Him. If they were the witnesses who caught her in adultery, and their judgment was just and true, then according to the law their hand was supposed to be the first to cast a stone against her. Ergo, Jesus Christ was essentially saying to them, “If you are truly sure that what you are doing is right before God and in accordance with His law, proceed.” This verifies that when the Lord says, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first” He is not speaking about the requirement of a man to be sinless in order for him to judge his neighbor, as is often misinterpreted in the world. His words were addressed to the woman’s accusers, and His instruction was that they (the witnesses) be the first to throw the stone as the law dictated, if they really had the right to do so. John explains, “Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst” (John 8:9). Behold the superiority of the authority of Christ over the Law of Moses! The authority of our Redeemer awakened in them a conscience which gave birth to true justice, empathy, and grace. It is clear that the Pharisees and scribes lacked mercy towards their neighbor since on another occasion the Lord admonished them, “if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice’, you would not have condemned the guiltless” (Matthew 12:7). It is not being said that the woman was innocent of having committed adultery, but rather that the Master also exposed the cruel reality of formalism and vain religion (cf. James 1:26-27). This example provides an excellent sketch of Paul’s inspired words saying, “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him” (Romans 5:7-9).