“Teacher, this woman was caught
in the very act of committing adultery.
Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.
So what do you say?”
If Jesus said that the woman was to be stoned he would be violating Roman law that Jews could not administer capital punishment. If Jesus said that the woman should not be stoned he would be speaking against the Law of Moses which said that adultery was a capital crime. The Pharisees thought they had Jesus either way. It is rather disgusting to consider how they didn't care anything about justice but rather used this woman's situation as a weapon against Jesus.
They said this to test him,
so that they could have some charge to bring against him.
The Pharisees probably imagined themselves to be sufficiently without sin to administer justice and were likely frustrated by the Roman law that usurped from them that prerogative. They hated the message of Jesus which sometimes appeared to take a deeper and more internal stance on the meaning of the law and at other times seemed lax to the point of disregarding it. They wanted him to commit to a position so that they could trap him in it. If he insisted on being more strict than them they had a way to expose him for that. If he insisted on the laxity of mercy they had a way to expose him for that. Or so they thought.
“Let the one among you who is without sin
be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Although the Pharisees thought they ought to be able to stone her Roman law forbade them to do so. And so now the trap was reversed. If they did stone her then it would be they themselves and not Jesus who was guilty of violating Roman law since the implication was that Jesus did not consider them to be sinless. And if they, as happened in this case, did not stone her, then they would appear in the eyes of the crowd to be exposed as sinners who were unworthy to execute judgment.
“Woman, where are they?
Has no one condemned you?”
She replied, “No one, sir.”
Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.
Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”
The Pharisees claimed to be representing the intentions of the law but in fact perverted those intentions for their own use. Jesus himself was the only truly sinless one qualified to execute judgment. And yet it was he himself who preferred to forgive the woman and show her mercy. It was not that Jesus disrespected the law but rather that he came to offer the mercy of God that they law could not give but which it could only foreshadow.
Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
And I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
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