The theme this year for midweek Lenten services has been Tell Me Something Good from A Sanctified Art. I only very loosely followed the theme for Ash Wednesday, and since we do midweek Lent worship in partnership with other congregations, this final week hosted by Living Hope is the only other one for which I’m responsible. The story for this service is the story of the woman caught in adultery in John 8:2-11, a passage generally seen as a later addition to John’s gospel and therefore not included in the lectionary of the ELCA. So, this is my first time preaching on it!
Here’s my sermon on this profound story of the forgiveness and grace Jesus offers. When the religious leaders drag before Jesus a woman caught in adultery, he refuses to condemn her, instead pointing out their hypocrisy and choosing to offer grace, mercy, and forgiveness to her.
The Scripture readings for tonight’s Lenten service are Matthew 7:1-5; Psalm 130; Matthew 23:1-7, 23-24; and John 8:2-11. Since this story isn’t in the lectionary, I discovered there’s a dearth of preaching commentaries on it, but in addition to the preaching notes from Rev. Lizzie McManus-Dail in the series materials, I did find helpful this post from Far Above Rubies Collection as well as the discussion of the story’s authenticity at Text and Canon, which is where I found the St. Augustine quote. Here’s the worship livestream and sermon audio podcast.
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Grace to you and peace from God our Creator and our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen
Not too long ago, a survey found that 72% of unchurched US adults believe the church “is full of hypocrites.”
In a more recent survey, over half of non-religious adult Americans described American Christians as self-righteous, hypocritical, and judgmental…I’m glad you came to worship tonight.
I think tonight’s Bible story makes it clear religious hypocrisy is not a new problem. Maybe part of the good news for tonight is that Jesus is just as frustrated with hypocrites as anybody else is.
And remember, if anyone ever complains the church is full of hypocrites, the best response is, “There’s always room for one more.”
Tonight’s Gospel is labeled as a story about a sinner, the story of “the woman caught in adultery,” but the villains in the story are the hypocritical religious leaders, right? Not the woman.
The religious leaders—the scribes and the Pharisees—have once again laid a trap for Jesus. They drag a woman before Jesus, and listen to what they say: “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”
Basically, we want you to decide – here’s this sinner; should we kill her? The law calls for her death—do you think we should do it?
Here’s the thing: They’re misquoting the law of Moses! We don’t read from Leviticus and Deuteronomy very much, but listen to these two verses: Leviticus 20 verse 10: “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death.”
And Deuteronomy 22:22, “If a man is discovered lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman as well as the woman.”
Do you see what’s missing here? If she was—quote “Caught in the very act of committing adultery”—where’s the guy? Adultery is not a solo activity. Which tells us, this story is not about justice; it’s about using someone else’s sin as a weapon, scoring points, self-righteousness at her expense. Their goal is to trap Jesus; the woman is only a prop to them. Her life isn’t their concern.
And not only that—remember the Roman empire is occupying Israel. And this will come up later when Jesus himself is arrested, but as the occupying power, Rome reserves the right of capital punishment for itself.
So if Jesus agrees this woman should be executed, they could turn around and accuse him of undermining Roman law—sedition. But if he says no, let her go, then they can say he’s rejecting God’s law, he’s “soft on crime,” he loses credibility.
It’s a good trap. But Jesus refuses to take the bait. He’s not there as an attorney to poke holes in their case or defend one side or the other. He’s not willing to debate legal details.
Instead of judging the woman and thereby trapping himself, he points out the hypocrisy of her accusers. What right do they have to judge her? Let the one without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.
They look around at each other, waiting for someone else to go first, and eventually they give up and leave. It’s a great story.
Personally, as I read this passage, I want to use it to condemn hypocrites. And in fact, when I picked the other readings for tonight to go with this Gospel reading, that’s what I was thinking about.
We probably didn’t need two other lessons and a Psalm, but there’s just so many places in the Bible where God condemns hypocrisy, where God demands that words match actions. “Don’t call out the speck in your neighbor’s eye but ignore the log in your own eye.”
Don’t be like religious leaders who make grand statements about avoiding sin but then don’t practice what they preach. Even that great image of “straining out a gnat but swallowing a camel.”
Remember the most important command is to love our neighbors, so don’t miss the point by interpreting God’s commands in ways that cause harm to others. Of all people, Christians should be the last to be self-righteous, hypocritical, and judgmental.
There’s an interesting detail in this story where John describes Jesus writing in the sand. It’s the only place in all the Gospels where we hear about Jesus writing anything down, but John doesn’t tell us what he’s writing! One of my favorite theories is that he’s writing down the sins of the woman’s accusers, driving home their hypocrisy.
But that’s not really the point of this story. Obviously we would all do better if we remembered to not cast the first stone unless we ourselves are without sin, but the more important thing in this story, the good news, is what Jesus says to the woman.
After her accusers have gone, Jesus asks her, “Has no one condemned you?” And then he says, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”
Jesus, of course, is the only one who has the right to condemn her. He is the only one without sin, the only one on the scene who could unhypocritically throw that first stone.
But he refuses. This is a story of forgiveness. This is a story of grace.
In fact, this story is so full of grace that some early Christians were uncomfortable with it. If you look in your Bible, you’ll notice this section has double brackets around it, and a footnote saying something like “The most ancient authorities lack these verses.”
Way back in the 5th century, St. Augustine speculated that perhaps some versions left it out because it was too forgiving and some “‘men of slight faith’ deleted it because they were afraid that their wives might commit adultery after hearing about the woman.” (Quoted in the Wikipedia article on this story.)
Most scholars today think it was added later, after John’s Gospel was first composed, but either way, the church has kept it because it shows Jesus’ character.
Notice that Jesus does not dispute that she’s a sinner. He doesn’t question the evidence against her, even while refusing to agree with her accusers.
We could get into all sorts of debates about the power of women in that patriarchal society, whether she deserved condemnation as an adulterer or was herself a victim, but her adultery is not the point of the story. The point is that given the chance to condemn, Jesus offers mercy.
When a sinner comes before Jesus, he offers grace. He sends her to go on her way, and from now on do not sin again.
I don’t know what happens in her life after that. I don’t know what happens with the other person involved in the adultery, I don’t know what happens in her other relationships, if there’s forgiveness and reconciliation there or not.
But I am quite confident she fails her new assignment to not sin again. And I’m equally confident that when she sins, when we sin, Jesus continues to offer forgiveness, mercy, and grace.
This story brings us back around to where we started six weeks ago on Ash Wednesday: The good news is grace.
The good news is that Jesus is not looking for opportunities to condemn, but inviting us to drop our stones. We have a savior who is willing himself to die for the sake of forgiveness.
Go forth, sin no more. Receive God’s mercy. Amen