I SAY UNTO YOU - JESUS

JOHN 8

1. JESUS WENT INTO THE MOUNT OF OLIVES.

2. AND EARLY IN THE MORNING HE CAME AGAIN INTO THE TEMPLE, AND ALL THE PEOPLE CAME UNTO HIM; AND HE SAT DOWN, AND TAUGHT THEM.

3. AND THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES BROUGHT UNTO HIM A WOMAN TAKEN IN ADULTERY; AND WHEN THEY HAD SET HER INT HE MIDST,

4. THEY SAID UNTO HIM, MASTER, THIS WOMAN WAS TAKEN IN ADULTERY, IN THE VERY ACT.

5. NOWMOSES IN THE LAWCOMMANDED US, THAT SUCH SHOULD BE STONED: BUT WHAT SAYEST THOU?

This was the trap. They wanted to trap Jesus, because Moses has said that such a woman should be stoned. Nothing is said about the man. Such a woman should be stoned to death: Moses has said this. Now they are creating a problem for Jesus. If Jesus says ’Yes, do as Moses says’ then they can accuse him, because he has always been talking about love, compassion, kindness, forgiveness. Then they can say ’What about your compassion? What about your forgiveness? What about your love? You say this woman has to be killed by stones? This is hard and cruel and violent.’

Tricky fellows.

And if Jesus says ’This is not right. Moses is not right’ then they can say ’So you have come to destroy Moses? So you have come to destroy and corrupt our religion? And you have been saying to people ”I have come not to destroy but to fulfil.” What about that? If you have come to fulfil, then follow Moses’ law!’ Now they are creating a dilemma. This is the trap.

6. THIS THEY SAID, TEMPTING HIM, THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE TO ACCUSE HIM. BUT JESUS STOOPED DOWN, AND WITH HIS FINGER WROTE ON THE    ROUND,  AS THOUGH HE HEARD THEM NOT.

7. SO WHEN THEY CONTINUED ASKING HIM, HE LIFTED UP HIMSELF, AND SAID UNTO THEM, HE THAT IS WITHOUT SIN AMONG YOU, LET HIM FIRST CAST A STONE AT HER.

It is really incredible, it is beautiful – that was his hesitation. He has found a golden mean. He has not said a single word against Moses and he has not supported Moses either. This is the delicate point to understand. Jesus was really utterly intelligent – uneducated, but utterly intelligent, a man of immense awareness.

8. AND AGAIN HE STOOPED DOWN, AND WROTE ON THE GROUND.

9. AND THEY WHICH HEARD IT, BEING CONVICTED BY THEIR OWN CONSCIENCE, WENT OUT ONE BY ONE, BEGINNING AT THE ELDEST, EVEN UNTO THE LAST: AND JESUS WAS LEFT ALONE, AND THE WOMAN STANDING INT HE MIDST.

10. WHEN JESUS HAD LIFTED UP HIMSELF, AND SAW NONE BUT EH WOMAN, HE SAID UNTO HER, WOMAN, WHERE ARE THOSE THINE ACCUSERS? HATH NO MAN CONDEMNED THEE?

Have they all gone? Has no man thrown a stone at you?

11. SHE SAID, NO MAN, LORD. AND JESUS SAID UNTO HER, NEITHER DO I CONDEMN THEE

Jesus says ' I am not accusing you.'

According to JESUS The whole idea of punishment is barbarous
An action is a small thing. Don't make it too big. And we are making it too big. Somebody does something wrong – and remember it is human to err; everybody commits mistakes. But the mistakes should not be taken as equivalent to his life. It is only a small fragment in a long series. Don't give it too much importance. Don't make it the focus of light. Don't throw that man into a jail, undignified, dishonored, all his humanity taken away. Don't behave with that man as if he is an animal.