Neither Do I Condemn You

The teachers of law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”

The teacher bent down and, when they continued to question him, said, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first one to throw a stone at her.” At this they began to drop their stones on the ground.

The teacher picked up one of the fallen stones. “We may not be without sin,” he said, “but if we only allow perfect people to enforce the law then the law will soon be dead.” And he lifted the stone over his head and drove it into her skull.



The teachers of law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”

The teacher bent down and whispered to the woman, “The man you were with is a friend of mine. This will all work out.” He then stood up and said, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first one to throw a stone at her.” At this, they began to drop their stones on the ground. The teacher continued, “None of us is perfect and all make mistakes. We cannot expect perfection from one another, but must accept each other the way we are.”



Do you see yourself in either of these stories? “The law must be preserved at all costs!” Crunch. “My friendships must be preserved at all costs!” Shrug. If I’m not careful, I can see both of these stories in myself. One place you won’t see these stories is in the Bible. John's gospel tells a different story.



If you want to get to the heart of Jesus’ mission, John 8:11 isn’t a bad place to start. The heart of the gospel revealed through these words of Jesus –“Neither do I condemn you.”



Imagine the power of these words. To do that, you have to put yourself in this woman’s situation. Put yourself in the position of someone living a life of secret sin and suddenly having that sin exposed.



We have all fallen victim to sin. We have all known the struggle of temptation and the sorrow of giving into it. Many of us have also lived with the fear that this woman was living with –the fear of being found out.



Why is the confidentiality of a priest or a therapist so sacred? Well, there are many reasons, but a main one is simply the fear that if others knew what we thought about or did in our darker moments they wouldn’t want to know us anymore. The Christian band Pedro the Lion has a song that exposes this fear. Its title is “When They Really Get to Know You They Will Run.” This is the fear that many of us live with every day.



That is the fear that the woman in this story is now forced to deal with. Her sin has been exposed for all to see. Look at verse 3 –“They made her stand before the group.” Imagine the humiliation. Imagine her anxiety. Some part of her must have hope that, if they were going to kill her they would do it quickly.



If that is her hope, then these teachers of the law are only too happy to oblige. The law is on their side and says that she must be killed. They ask Jesus, this great teacher, what he thinks they should do. Prepared for the answer that will hasten her death, imagine how surprised she must have been at his response.



“Let the one who is without sin throw the first stone.” It must take a second to register, but she begins to see that the spotlight has suddenly shifted. These teachers are forced to deal with their own sinfulness. Who among them has never sinned? The answer is obvious, and those stones which were meant to destroy her drop to the ground instead. One by one, the men walk away.



But the story doesn’t end there. There is still Jesus. There is still one man she has to answer to. The one man who IS without sin. The only man in a position to cast that first stone. Perhaps in an effort to help her take in what has transpired, perhaps a little tongue in cheek, Jesus turns to her and asks, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she answers.



Now hear these words from Jesus. These marvelous words. Ask yourself if you have ever had a time when you feared you might be found out. Look into your own heart to see if you have been hiding out, putting on a good face, terrified that your own life might be laid bare for all to see. You stand face to face with the perfect son of God, the one man who can still bring about your destruction, the one man who can still despise you for your sin and turn on you because of your worthlessness. Hear the words that he speaks to you in that moment. “Neither do I condemn you.”



“YES!” Your heart cries out. You are going to live. You are going to be OK, more than OK. You have not been condemned. This is the Christ that stands before you, the one who said he did not come to condemn the world, but to save it. The one who came not to destroy, but came so that we might have life and have it more abundantly. “Neither do I condemn you,” he says, and sweeter words were never spoken.



The fact is that we are all looking to be found out by someone who will still love us. Any of us who have ever lived with secret sin or struggle have also experienced the burden that can be. Part of us fears that we will be found out, but our true fear is that those who find us out will no longer love us. My grandfather, who is a policeman, has said of most people who commit crimes “most of the time they want to confess, they want to be found out. I just have to help them.”



Christian author GK Chesterton says something similar:

“[Christ is the only one who] ever attempted by system to pursue and discover crimes, not in order to avenge, but in order to forgive them…[his] specialty…was this merciless mercy; the unrelenting sleuthhound who seeks to save and not to slay”



Most of us who live with sin are sick of living with it. We want to be exposed, but we fear what exposure might mean. So we take part in a cover up, unwilling to have our true selves exposed. But Christ knows all. He has found us out. And the good news is that he does not condemn us.



But that isn’t the end of the good news. While Jesus’ isn’t willing to condemn us for our life of sin, he isn’t willing to condemn us to a life of sin either. His forgiveness isn’t simply a “we all make mistakes” shrug of the shoulders. Christ knows that would only condemn us in a different way. If Jesus’ makes light of our sin and allows us to “be ourselves” then he condemns us to a life lived in sin, a life as destructive as a rock to the head, just a lot slower process. If he were simply to let us go our way, he might as well take a rock to our heads and get it over with.



But Christ has come that we might have abundant life, and life can only be abundant when it is lived according to his will and purpose. So, his last words to this woman are just another way of saying “neither do I condemn you.” His final words are a challenge to her –“Go and sin no more.”



Does he mean that this woman can’t ever make another mistake? Obviously not. None of us could pull that off. But he has called her to repent, to change directions, to start taking a different path. A difficult path, but one that leads to abundant and eternal life.



Christ’s words to us today are as powerful as when they were first spoken to that woman around 2000 years ago. “Neither do I condemn you, now go and sin no more.” They are words meant to reveal to us Jesus’ unconditional love and his desire for us to live with him and like him. They are words of freedom –the truth is exposed, but it has set us free. If you are someone who is tired of hiding, tired of pretending, if you have never lived life abundantly, but would like to begin, if you have never heard Jesus words “Neither do I condemn you” but are willing to accept them today, if you want to turn from old ways and start in a new direction, Christ invites you to do just that.