stones and who can throw them

The incident in bold above took place in Jerusalem around AD 30. It was recorded by an eye-witness disciple of Jesus named John, a fisherman. It was only when he was in his nineties that he wrote down the truths about Jesus which he had been telling others about during the intervening sixty years.

What is most interesting is the way in which he records the details. Each step (D1, C1, B1) leads into a key point (A) and then (B2, C2, D2) away from that key point. All steps reach a wonderful conclusion.

Having read what happened, let’s think first about the key point (A). He stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” Only those “without sin” can punish another. That is indeed a key point.

 

Now take a look at (B1) and (B2). What do you make of them - before and after (A)? (B1) Having bent down, Jesus wrote with his finger on the ground…. (B2) And yet again having bent down, he wrote on the ground. Perhaps the major event in their earlier history as the (Jewish) people of God was when the LORD God gave them the Ten Commandments around 1350 BC. Their contemporary record of that event mentions God’s finger.  [The LORD God] gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.

Maybe Jesus, in (B1) was trying to remind them of how God stooped down to earth to write with his finger his commandments relating to adultery. Maybe, in (B2), by stooping down again he was trying to indicate that the LORD God had one again stooped down to earth in the person of His Son.  

Most interesting of all in that connection is the fact that those historic commandments included a clear prescription regarding adultery. 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. If they did recall that, it would have become ultra-plain to them that by bringing to Jesus only the female and not the male party they were bending truth. They were deceitful in selectively requiring justice against the woman and not against the man. In truth none could throw a single stone.

There’s absolutely no doubt that it’s endemic within every human being to bend truth as well as to engage in ‘virtue-signaling’ by pronouncing others guilty. Using those tools, we’re then free to stone others, aren’t we? 

Look now at (C1) and (C2). What a change! On the way in, these men were full of confidence. One by one they all saw the truth – about themselves – maybe for the first time.

Finally, what about (D1) and (D2)? These don’t seem to be connected to one another. (D1) Jesus made his way to the Mount of Olives…… (D2) Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” But think a little more about this.