Reading 28
Neither do I condemn you
The reading
John 8:1-11
But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Now very early in the morning, he came again into the temple, and all the people came to him. He sat down, and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman taken in adultery. Having set her in the middle, they told him, “Teacher, we found this woman in adultery, in the very act. Now in our law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. What then do you say about her?” They said this testing him, that they might have something to accuse him of.
But Jesus stooped down, and wrote on the ground with his finger. But when they continued asking him, he looked up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone at her.” Again he stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground. They, when they heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning from the oldest, even to the last. Jesus was left alone with the woman where she was, in the middle.
Jesus, standing up, saw her and said, “Woman, where are your accusers? Did no one condemn you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way. From now on, sin no more.”
The companions
Psalm 103:8-14
The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness. He will not always accuse; neither will he stay angry forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor repaid us for our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his loving kindness toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Like a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him. For he knows how we are made. He remembers that we are dust.
Ezekiel 33:11
Tell them, ‘As I live, says the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why will you die, house of Israel?’
The note
A pile-on runs on speed. Everyone is watching everyone else, nobody wants to be the one who stayed out, and the whole thing holds together only while it keeps moving.
Jesus slows it down. He bends and writes in the dirt. Nobody knows what he wrote. The point is the pause.
Then one sentence: let the one among you who is without sin throw the first stone. It turns each accuser’s attention back onto himself, alone, which is the one condition a crowd cannot survive. They leave one by one, beginning with the oldest.
Notice what she was to them before that. Evidence. They set her in the middle to win an argument with somebody else, and the argument was never about her. Jesus is the first person in the story to speak to her rather than about her.
This week
Watch one pile-on without adding to it. Something will reach your screen already condemned, verdict attached, crowd assembled. Do not repost it. Do not add the line you thought of.
Wait a day, then find out what actually happened and see whether the story held. Often it does not. The cost of waiting is that you were late to something worthless.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (public domain). The divine name is rendered “the LORD” and “the Lord GOD” in the companions. (This passage, John 7:53-8:11, is bracketed in some manuscripts; it is retained here as part of the received Gospel text.)
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