Throwing the First Stone

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

THROWING THE FIRST STONE

John 7:53-8:11

53 [The earliest and most reliable manuscripts and other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:53-8:11.]

Then each went to his own home.

John 8

8:1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."  8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"  11 "No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin." 

NIV

There is and has been much debate and investigation into the various ancient manuscripts and that which are the most reliable or earliest and which either include or exclude this narrative of the woman caught in adultery. The debate is so intense and it has many scholars at odds with each other over the centuries of time. So we will leave that debate to the debaters and simply look at the passage for what it is, another attempt by the Jews to trap Jesus by using the Law of Moses as their reason for this question. Without reiterating the whole of the passage, which is easy enough to understand, non-believers will attempt to test us, even using verses from the bible to see what we will do. The other point that Jesus makes clear within this passage is that no man is without sin. That is sometimes the trap non-believers use on us who believe. They will try to catch us in sin, and then accuse us of being hypocrites because we are Christians and we are supposed to be perfect or at least different from them. Although we do make every effort to keep from sinning, we are still subject to the frailty of this body. The difference is when we do fail, or fall, or sin, we repent. We know we have failed to live sinlessly. We know we committed a sin against God, and we seek his forgiveness which is an act of repentance. It would seem the non-believers do not even care if they are sinning against God, for they do not believe they sin is that bad, that basically they are good people, which in many cases they are good people, and they do good things for their fellow man. In the time of Jesus, there was almost a war between the classes of people. The leaders, the pious self-righteous Pharisees, teachers of the Law, the chief priests felt they were better than the average Jew, and certainly far better than any gentile, or those half breed Samaritans. There was hatred among those who confessed faith in God, in fact, they hated Jesus so much they conspired to have him killed. How different it is today, we believers love those who sin against us. We do not hold any grudges or judge those who sin. We do not have any resentment against those who have more than we do, or get jealous or envious or get greedy or lust after more and more, like those non-believers do. Of course, we are speaking tongue in cheek, for we are still subject to those temptations and we fall short of perfection all too often. This is why Jesus told those high-minded hypocrites that whoever is without sin, go ahead and throw the first stone. None of them could do it for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The difference between those of us who believe and those who do not believe is that we have repented, having guilt about our sin and seeking God, have been forgiven. Who is without sin, throw the first stone.  Can we cast a stone at anyone?