Part One: The Challenge

“And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,
They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.”
John 8:3-4

This is such an incredible story.
Jesus Christ is teaching in the temple and all of a sudden there’s a commotion.
A group of “religious zealot lawyers” (Pharisees) and their academic scribes march a woman into His teaching service and come right up front and center in front of Jesus.

They force her to sit down in front of everyone as a public display and then look at Jesus.

“This woman is an adulteress and we caught her in the act…what say you, Jesus?”

They wanted the shock value.
They wanted gasps of horror.
They wanted her to be scorned and shamed for her sins.
And they wanted to be the hero posse lauded for their righteous actions in removing an adulteress from society.

I’ve always had a few questions:
How did they catch her in the act?
How did they know her?
Did they set her up to make an example of her?

I can’t imagine this spectacle happening in a modern church service.
Any group of men who would do this are devoid of shame and only want others to be belittled and shamed for THEIR sins.

Sadly, this sort of thing still happens today in Muslim societies throughout the Middle East, where women are dragged into the street and attacked (and sometimes killed) for adultery…whether real or contrived.

We live in a culture that loves to point fingers at sin and blast a bullhorn announcing to the world “how evil that sinful person is!”

The only thing that will ever change the behavior of the sinner AND the accuser is humility. I’ve done wickedly also, and therefore I have no right to shame someone else for their sins when I’ve also broken God’s heart.
And I should confess my own sins first instead of highlighting everyone else’s.
(Matthew 7:3-5)
(1 John 1:9)

Those men had no shame when they hauled that woman before Jesus, but Jesus was about to deal with them publicly…more on that tomorrow.