Thread by @BrianBransfield

“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?” (Jn 8).

Even 1st year law students could have told you it was an open & shut case.

The finest trial lawyer in the country couldn’t have gotten her out of this one.

She was caught in flagrante delicto: caught in the act.

The scribes & Pharisees have all they need: a crime, a defendant, witnesses, a law, proof ... and now all they needed was a judge & trial.

They chose as their courtroom the crowded and open temple precincts where Jesus was teaching: an open and shut case.

And so, the proceedings begin.

Something different emerges, however. It seems there is Another, a second Defendant in the background yet to emerge.

As is so often the case, the woman is placed “in the middle.”

The Greek for “middle” is mesō, and can also mean “in the midst of; among.” The tree of life, too, was in the “middle” of the Garden (Gn 2). The fire flamed before Moses out of the “middle” of the burning bush (Ex 3).

The children of Israel walk through the “middle” of the sea (Ex 14). Jesus, will be crucified in the “middle,” between two thieves (Jn 19). The woman is placed “in the middle.”

When we feel the burden of being caught in the middle, it is then that God is preparing to act.

the drama sharpens with those words put to Jesus, “Now what do you say?” (Jn 8: 5).

The scribes seem to have no doubt about what to do next. So why do they go to Jesus?

The woman is placed “in the middle,” but their real target is Jesus...

What would Jesus do? Would He turn from His own teaching on love in order to follow the Law of Moses? Or would Jesus reject the Law of Moses and—so they thought—incriminate Himself?

They want to cast stones not to fulfill the Law of Moses but because they have hearts of stone.

They want “some charge to bring against” Jesus.

What is his crime? Quite simply, He doesn’t fit their categories.

“To bring a charge against” translates the Greek katēgorein. Its root word, katēgoros, means “accuser” and is the name that the rabbis used to describe the devil.

The English word “category” also derives from this Greek root.

Quite simply, they can’t place Jesus in any category, so they attempt to force Him, accuse him, —to neutralize Jesus. He is now on trial, & the woman becomes, yet again, an object.

And Jesus steps into the middle.

In response, “Jesus bent down & wrote with His finger on the ground” (Jn 8).

The Gospels do not tell us what Jesus wrote.

But before we would even consider what He wrote, we see He bends down to the ground not to pick up stone, but ... as in the action of Genesis, to create.

The “finger of God” is a traditional reference to the Holy Spirit.

The very law that the scribes and Pharisees have referred to, the Law of Moses, was given to Moses on Sinai after it was inscribed into the stone tablets by the finger of God (Ex 31:18).

And so, as the scribes look on, God Himself now writes on the ground with His finger.

But the accusers push: “When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, ‘Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her’” (Jn 8).

And so, the sentence is handed down and the penalty decreed.

The first-year law students would find themselves in over their heads. And so do the Pharisees and scribes.

The case is not open and shut at all.

In fact, where others shut, Jesus opens (Rev 3:7).

The woman becomes the witness, the scribes and Pharisees the defendants, and Jesus the judge—who writes mercy into the world.

They see quickly that as they took aim at Jesus they involved something more, they have allowed something different into this makeshift courtroom.

They have admitted new and unheard of evidence ... “When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders” (Jn 8: 9).

They leave one by one. Why?

Because of love.

They must depart.

After they depart, the makeshift courtroom becomes a confessional: “Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.”

“Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” (Jn 8).

Is he referring to the Pharisees and scribes, or to her sins? In either case, they are gone.

At last, she has her opportunity to speak: “No one, sir.”

Saint Augustine tells us that with the words “No one” the woman confesses her sin to Jesus, and with the word sir, translated “Lord” she confesses faith in Him.

Just as the accusers left one by one, so have her sins.