The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, United States Grow Pray Study Guide for Friday, 11 May 2018 "Jesus protected an entrapped woman" John 8:2-11
Today's Scripture: John 8:2 At daybreak, he appeared again in the Temple Court, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The Torah-teachers and the P’rushim brought in a woman who had been caught committing adultery and made her stand in the center of the group. 4 Then they said to him, “Rabbi, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. 5 Now in our Torah, Moshe commanded that such a woman be stoned to death. What do you say about it?” 6 They said this to trap him, so that they might have ground for bringing charges against him; but Yeshua bent down and began writing in the dust with his finger. 7 When they kept questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “The one of you who is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Then he bent down and wrote in the dust again. 9 On hearing this, they began to leave, one by one, the older ones first, until he was left alone, with the woman still there. 10 Standing up, Yeshua said to her, “Where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, sir.” Yeshua said, “Neither do I condemn you. Now go, and don’t sin any more.” (Complete Jewish Bible)
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In verse 6, John made it clear that this ugly scene didn’t happen by chance. The woman seems to have been a prop, exploited by Jesus’ enemies to put him on the spot. The circle of male “prosecutors” demanded punishment only for the woman. Her missing partner (she couldn’t commit adultery alone) was probably working with the accusers. The woman was likely a prostitute they hired, which made it easier to catch her in the act.
• Scholar Jaime Clark-Soles wrote, “Jesus skewers the ‘good old boys’ network where ‘Boys will be boys’ while women must remain pure….[he] raises the woman to equality with the judgmental religious authorities and invites all of them to leave their various sins (one being no better or worse than another) and embrace abundant life.” * What helps you to accept Jesus' idea that none of our sins are better or worse? Jesus invites you to embrace abundant life. Do you, or will you?
➢ Jesus told the circle of self-righteous men, in effect, “To condemn others, you need to be sinless.
If that’s you, cast the first stone.” (Jesus was the only sinless person in the scene. But, because he was sinless, he hadn’t come to throw stones—cf. John 3:17.) By Jesus’ standard, do you qualify to “throw stones” at anyone else? Does anyone? What steps can you take in your home, your office, your school, or your church to make stone-throwing a thing of the past?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me remember clearly how much it hurts when someone else throws stones at me. Help me learn from Jesus’ merciful example, and every day grow more like him. Amen.
* Jaime Clark-Soles, “Portrait” note on “Woman Caught in Adultery” in The CEB Women’s Bible. Nashville: Common
English Bible, 2016, p. 1349.
Ginger RothhaasGinger is a graduate of Saint Paul School of Theology. She and her husband Rob have a son, a daughter, and a high energy dog. She loves writing, conversations over coffee, and teaching spiritual classes.
This is between you and your screen right now, but I invite you to be honest with yourself. When a new sexual assault accusation story breaks in the news, do you look at the woman’s picture and measure her credibility by the way she looks?
I have caught myself doing that. And then I consider the power role of the man and make a judgment too. Many of us do this without even realizing it. Judging others is often our first response. It takes intentional effort to release judgment and see people through a completely neutral lens.
Each time we look at an accuser with a lens of judgment, we throw a stone. The hair that is too blonde, the shorts that are too short, the top that is too little, the shoes that are too high…all stones. And for men, the current environment is one of fear of misunderstood gestures and misinterpreted conversations. We stone each other every day. These little snap judgments turn into a habit of judging, which turns into a society of judging.
In our country we say innocent until proven guilty, and yet as we watch the news, we often assume the person is guilty and then go about proving it. Men and women are both experiencing a highly sensitive time in our working relationships as behaviors are carefully evaluated and interpreted. A higher consciousness movement is underway to increase our awareness of prevalent abuse and slow the rate of occurrence. But watch the coverage of these stories a little closer and you will see that often there is an air of judging the victim. Today, a report was released in an ongoing investigation--it assessed the women as credible or not credible. I did not see a section assessing the man’s credibility. That just appears to be a given.
So what do we do about it?
We put down our stones.
That seems like it might be too passive for this big problem. But it is what Jesus is teaching the Pharisees, the accused woman, and us today. We must begin by awareness of our judgments and re-train our brains. When we see someone walk by and begin to judge them, we will send them a ray of love instead. When we judge appearance, we will say a prayer for that person to feel beautiful and loved. When we question credibility, we will pray for the truth to be known. When we think a victim did something to deserve this, we will consider how we would want to be treated and remember that everyone deserves to be seen, heard, respected, valued, and loved. When we pick up a stone, we will recognize our own mistakes and offer grace as we put the stone back down.
Jesus was working to teach unconditional love and re-program humanity. It is our calling to continue this work. Let’s replace stones with grace and see what happens!
The United Methodist Church of the resurrection
3720 Roe Avenue
Leawood, Kansas 66224, United States
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