Tuesday, August 27

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The circumstances that surround the incident of the woman caught in adultery in John 8 are given in the last verse of John chapter 7.  Jesus is in Jerusalem for the celebration of the feast of tabernacles.  He’s just engaged in a long debate with the Jewish people, with the scribes and Pharisees, with the multitude, in the presence of his disciples.

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” ...When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.”  Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee?  Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?”  So there was a division among the people over him.  Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.  - John 7:35-44

The words Jesus spoke and the way the people responded to Him really irritated the Jewish authorities and religious leaders.  The gospels paint the picture that as Jesus’ popularity grew, so did the opposition He faced from the Pharisees and teachers of the law.  These men did not believe Jesus to be an authentic man of God and they were set on finding a way to expose him publicly.

The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?”  The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!”  The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived?  Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?  But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.”   - John 7:45-50

After this incident, Jesus goes out for the night to the Mount of Olives.  I would assume that he went out, since his custom was to do this, to pray, and that he spent a great deal of the night in prayer.  William Law said, “He who has learned to pray has learned the greatest secret of a holy and happy life.”  Jesus probably spent a great deal of the night in prayer, the next morning He arose early, He came into the temple and once again, He sat down and began to teach again.

They went each to his own house,but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them.  The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst  they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”   - John 7:35-8:5

This is not an insignificant question, and it is a very serious problem for Jesus.  He is being directly challenged by the religious leaders in front of a large crowd. (It’s a good thing He is prayed up)  The Pharisees have devised a very clever trap (or so they think) for Jesus.  They think they have Jesus trapped on the horns of an impossible dilemma. 

On the one hand, the OT law did require that an adulteress be put to death.  Lev. 20:10, “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.”  So, if Jesus says not to put her to death, then He can be accused of ignoring the OT law of God!

On the other hand, if Jesus says to go ahead with the execution, then He will lose His reputation among the people as a merciful Messiah and a friend of sinners.  Additionally, He could be arrested for breaking Roman civil law, which stated that only Rome had the authority to put anyone to death.  

The question facing Jesus is one that we all must deal with; should we hold to strict moral standards at the expense of showing mercy, or should we be merciful and thus compromise our moral principles?  Which is it going to be - morality or mercy?  The unique beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that it perfectly reconciles this seemingly impossible dilemma!  (we will look at how Jesus responds tomorrow)

Jeff Frazier