“Tell Me Something Good: What a Judge! What a Judgment!”
March 22, 2026
John 8:2-11
Woodland Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Did you catch those opening verses? “The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and, making her stand before all of them, they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery” (vss. 3-4). Caught in the very act? Really? How? By whom? And why is it that she gets paraded out there in the public square for everyone to see and shame but not him? Frederick Dale Bruner, a keen and witty Bible scholar wrote of these verses, “The whole set-up has an unpleasant odor.”[1]
It stinks for sure! And John pinpoints the source of that odor when he tells us, “They said this to test Jesus, so that they might have some charge to bring against him” (vs. 6). Aha! They did this to test him. Trip him up. Trap him. She was just a pawn in their ploy. As Amy-Jill Levine, one of Rev. Christy Jo’s professors, notes[2], “If Jesus said, “Go ahead and stone her,” they could accuse him of violating Scripture because Deuteronomy 19:15 requires two witnesses before any legal process could proceed. What’s more, he’d have broken Roman law since the Temple leaders had no authority to administer the death penalty (Jn 18:31); it had to be done by the Romans. But if he had said, “Have some mercy why don’t you? Don’t kill her,” he could be charged with not obeying God’s Law in Scripture. As they reminded him, “In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women” (v. 5). Yep. It does. Deuteronomy 22:22 (see also Lev 20:10 and Ezek 16:38-40) says, “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.” Bottom line: Jesus was damned if you do and damned if you don’t. “They were testing him,” says John. “The whole set-up has an unpleasant odor,” says Dr. Bruner.
Before we see and hear Jesus’ response, let’s pause and acknowledge what we all know to be sadly true. Some people “throw the book” at other people to hurt them – the book being the Good Book, the Bible. Some people use the Bible as a blunt force object – a stone to cast violently at another. Adultery? Deuteronomy 22:22. Take that! Leviticus 20:10. Take that! You may be all too familiar with the so-called clobber passages of the Bible, stones cast to shame, condemn, and hurt others. Hear me when I say The Good Book in the wrong hands is a bad thing. There is a right and wrong use of Scripture. It’s hard to tell sometimes whether someone is “rightly dividing the word of truth” (Paul’s words in 2 Tim 2:15) or just quoting Scripture out of context. And as someone warned, “Beware: a text without a context is a pretext.” Thankfully, Richard Donovan[3] lists some questions we can ask to help us discern whether someone is quoting Scripture in a right Spirit or a wrong one. Ask yourself, he says:
Does the person quoting the Scripture have a hidden agenda—an ax to grind?
Is the person an encourager or a discourager—a lover or a hater?
Does this person who is trying to teach me about how to manage my life by quoting from the Bible manage his or her own life well?
Does the person quoting Scripture exhibit in their life the fruit of the Spirit? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control?
The Good Book in the wrong hands is a bad thing.
Thank goodness – thank God! – for Jesus. “Now what do you say?” (vs. 5) ask the scribes and Pharisees. To which I say, Good for them! That’s the right question to ask when trying to rightly interpret God’s Word – What does Jesus say? – because Jesus is the Word of God. John’s Gospel begins, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth and we beheld his glory” (John 1:14). I want to know what the Word of God – Jesus – says about the Word of God – Scripture. How does he understand it? How does he live it? A rule of thumb for interpreting the Bible: hold every word of Scripture in the light of what Jesus said and did. He’s the clearest, most complete Word of God. All other words before or since are to be evaluated based on how they compare to him. My colleague, the Rev. Dr. Glen Miles, in Columbus, OH, says it’s like a colander. When you want to keep and eat the good stuff and separate out the rest, you pour it through a colander. Want to discern what to keep and what to set aside in the Bible? – pour it through Jesus. Shine the Christ light on shadowy passages in Scripture and you will be enlightened. When the scribes and Pharisees ask Jesus, “Now what do you say?” I’m all ears.
But I’m all eyes first, because Jesus didn’t say anything at first. Do you remember what he first did in response to their question? “Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground” (vs. 6). What’s that all about? What do you think Jesus is writing in the dirt and why is this detail emphasized? Is he writing the sins of the religious leaders? After all, Jeremiah prophesied God would “write in the dust” those who have forsaken the Lord.[4] Or, since back then the judge first wrote the sentence, then read it aloud, is the Judge writing his opinion? Or is Jesus doodling in the dirt to buy some time to think? Do you have a theory? Your guess is as good as any Bible scholar’s.[5] There is no consensus. I don’t know.
What I do know is that as Jesus scribbled, John says “they kept on questioning him” (vs. 7). Relentless rascals. Wouldn’t let up. Kept attacking. I’ll never forget the question Franciscan friar and author Richard Rohr raised at a conference I attended a few summers ago in Chautauqua, NY. A gentle man, he asked the question so innocently it cut through my defenses and has stayed with me. Haunted me. He asked, “Why are there so many mean Christians?” – people who may wear a cross on their lapel or as an ornament on a necklace – but whose words wound, whose demeanor darkens a room, whose actions harm others. They questioned Jesus to test him and they “kept on” questioning him. Why are there so many mean Christians? But I digress.
Back to the story. Jesus straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (vs. 7). Meaning what? Judge not? That comes to mind, but on second thought, Jesus can’t mean nobody has a right to make a judgement. Think about it. Must every judge, every magistrate, everyone in our justice system be sinless in order to administer justice? Does everyone who is in a jury pool need to be sinless in order to be empaneled? What judge or jury is sinless? You and I make judgements all the time. We hear or observe someone’s words or actions, weigh them against respected values/the law/the Constitution/the Bible as we understand them and then render a judgement as to whether what was said or done is right or wrong. Should we never discuss, debate, evaluate, adjudicate anything unless we’re without sin? I don’t think Jesus’ message is “Judge not.” Never. Nobody. Nothing. I think there’s more here.
So let’s ask again, “Now what do you say, Jesus?” And John tells us, “Once again he bent down and wrote on the ground…and they went away, one by one” (v. 8) Now what’s he doing doodling in the dirt? One commentator (Frederick Dale Bruner) conjectured that by his kneeling down a second time after saying, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” Jesus is taking attention away from the accusers as they peel off and walk away. He could have said to them, Nobody’s throwing a stone, huh? Admitting to be sinners yourself, huh? How ‘bout if I announce your sins right now in broad daylight in front of everybody? He could have rubbed their noses in their offenses and humiliated them just as they were doing to her, but Jesus’ way is mercy to all. In his kneeling down, he diverted attention from them to himself and let them walk away without fanfare. By so doing, he showed mercy to the woman as well as to her accusers.[6]
After they slipped away, “Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again” (vss. 10, 11). Note that Jesus isn’t “nonjudgemental” in the sense that he renders no judgement about her behavior. He calls what she did a sin. He says, “Do not sin again.” He doesn’t condone what she did but neither does he condemn her. Rather, his judgement and his justice is restorative, not retributive. He wants to restore her – urging repentance and living life in right relationship. He doesn’t want retribution – urging shame and punishment to the point of death. I mentioned at Wednesday’s Bible study that in the 1700s the Quakers – pacifist Christians – tried to reform the violently retributive criminal justice system in this country into something more restorative. They wanted to model Jesus’ justice as they understood it by trying to rehabilitate offenders rather than exacting retribution that would break them even more. As such, they proposed what they called “penitentiaries.” The religious leaders tried to trap Jesus and terrorize the woman caught in adultery but Jesus the Judge neither condemned nor condoned what either did. Rather, he tried to convert them both, tried to evoke penitence from the accused as well as the accusers. What a judge! What a judgment!
I guess this story has been working on me because I had a middle-of-the-night wake-up call a few nights ago. I was thinking of this story and I dreamily imagined Jesus standing in front of a table. There were a lot of people gathered around it. All sorts of people, including the people in this story – scribes and Pharisees, and the woman. And I was there. You could have heard a pin drop. It was silent. Everybody watched as he scribbled with his finger on that table. After he finished, he looked at everybody and without saying another word, he walked away. And I in my dream walked over to see what he had written on the table. I saw it. He wrote on the table: This is for the forgiveness of sin. Do this in remembrance of me. Tell me something good? The one who will judge us is the one who lived and died for us.
[1] Frederick Dale Bruner, The Gospel of John: A Commentary, p. 505.
[2] Jesus for Everyone: Not Just Christians, Amy-Jill Levine, (New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2024). 245.
[3] http://www.lectionary.org/EXEG_Engl_WEB/NT/01-Matt-WEB/Matt%2004.01-11.htm
[4] The Jewish Annotated New Testament suggests this could be an allusion to Jeremiah 17:13 (pg. 193).
[5] Raymond Brown discusses several theories in his Anchor Bible commentary, pp. 333, 334
[6] Matthew Henry: “In this he attended to the great work which he came into the world about, and that was to bring sinners to repentance; not to destroy, but to save. He aimed to bring, not only the prisoner to repentance, by showing her his mercy, but the prosecutors too, by showing them their sins. They sought to ensnare him; he sought to convince and convert them.”
