Sunday sermon: "Jesus Meets a Trapped Woman"

As we deal with this passage as it has come to us, we find one of the more powerful stories of Jesus' gracious dealing with sinners. The setup of the story is the trap set for Jesus, by men whose motives were obviously suspect. Why only the woman if she was caught in the act? Why ask Jesus, who had no particular authority to deal with the matter? Why mention a form of punishment Rome would most likely have issues with if it was carried out? The text is clear that this was designed to be a no-win situation for Jesus.

The picture of Jesus stooping to write on the ground is memorable. For a passage so many scholars question, there is certainly a lot of speculation about what Jesus wrote. While many of the speculations are  plausible, none of them make any difference. I believe what Jesus was doing was buying time to think-not for Himself, but for the accusers.

So we have the famous statement, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." I think Jesus wasn't referring to someone being sinless in general, but to their innocence in this matter. He was challenging these religious leaders: "If you are pure in your motivations in accusing this woman, go ahead and throw a stone." From oldest to youngest, they depart, leaving no accuser.

At this point, with no witness and no accuser present, Jesus is perfectly within the Law to dismiss the case. But it is important to remember two things. (1) There was someone present who could, under Jesus' strictures, cast the first stone-Jesus Himself. (2) Although the woman was the victim of the religious leaders' setup, she was actually guilty of the sin of which they accused her. Yet Jesus shows mercy, and lets her go free.

However, it was not an unconditional freedom. "Go now and leave your life of sin." Jesus does not condone her sin, nor does He excuse it. He expects that the result of His mercy will be a change in her life, a desire to do what is righteous. It is vital to keep these two in the proper order. Righteousness is the response to grace; it is not the condition of grace. The grace of God precedes our righteousness. We cannot buy or earn grace; if we could, it would not be grace. The grace of God is given freely, so that we receive what we do not deserve. Our response then is to live in a way that honors the God who showed us grace,

It is also vital to remember that when Jesus forgave this woman, He could do so because He knew the price for her sin would be paid by Him. In grace, we do get what we do not deserve, but it is because Jesus got what He did not deserve. He paid the price so our debt could be paid. Nothing you or I can do can pay Jesus back for the cross.

As we encounter "sinners," we need to remember that we ourselves are sinners saved by grace. We are to be instruments of the grace of God, showing the love of Jesus to those we encounter so that they might see Him through us.

John 7:53-8:11 and Textual Criticism

This is a brief discussion of the textual question that I will provide as a bulletin insert this Sunday.

Why is John 7:53-8:11 set apart in my Bible?

The passage we are studying today, John 7:53-8:11, is set apart in most modern translations. There is usually an explanatory note that says that this passage was probably not part of the original writing of John. Why do scholars think that is so, and why is this passage still included in our Bibles?

We have a great number of manuscripts of the New Testament in existence today, dating back to the 2^nd century. We have more manuscripts from later periods, and also a large number of manuscripts of early Bible translations. Very few manuscripts read exactly alike; there is usually some variation between them. This is due to the fact that they were copied by hand, and occasionally the copyist would make a mistake.

Fortunately, we have so many manuscripts of many different types that we are able to figure out by studying them what the original wording was. The process by which we do this is called “textual criticism.” This isn’t the kind of criticism that questions the reliability of the Bible, but is the process of recovering as best we can the original wording of the Bible.

We have a lot of confidence that most of the New Testament we have today is exactly what was written by the original human authors. Where there are differences, they do not affect any point of Biblical teaching or call into question any doctrine we believe.

This passage is one of the longer passages that are questioned by scholars. Here are a few of the reasons for this:

1) This passage is not found in the oldest manuscripts of the New Testament.

2) This passage is not found in the oldest translations of the New Testament.

3) The earliest commentators on the New Testament do not mention this passage.

4) Many manuscripts which include this passage set it apart from the rest of the text, much like we do in our modern translations.

5) Where this passage is found, it sometimes is put in a different place in John, and in some manuscripts it is even found in Luke instead.

So if there are so many questions, why do we keep this passage in our Bibles today? Some reasons scholars keep this passage:

1) Some very early church writers mention a story circulating at their time that sounds much like this one.

2) Jerome, who made the Latin translation we call the Vulgate, around AD 400, mentions it as existing in many manuscripts he used.

3) Augustine (also around 400) writes that he believes the passage was “removed” by some who were concerned that the passage gave license to adultery.

4) There is a general consensus that this story is a genuine account of an incident in the life of Jesus that circulated in the early church. It eventually became attached to a gospel account (which is why it shows up in different places). The sayings and actions of Jesus here are very much in character with what we see of Him in the rest of the Gospels.

I believe that we have here in this passage a genuine story about Jesus, acting in mercy toward a sinner, and that we can study this passage with profit.