Neither Do I Condemn You

In one paragraph

The pastor opened John 8:2-11 by tracing the tension Jesus walked into when the scribes and Pharisees dragged a woman caught in adultery before him in the temple courts. The trap was simple: if Jesus agreed with the law, he would look merciless; if he showed mercy, he would look like he was winking at sin. The sermon turned on the question of what it looks like to hold both the truth about sin and...

Read together

1. John 7:53 end of previous week's passage, everyone went to his home
2. John 8:1 Jesus went to the Mount of Olives
3. John 8:2 early in the morning Jesus came again into the temple and began teaching
4. John 8:3-11 scribes and Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery to test Jesus
5. Leviticus 20:10 both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death
6. Deuteronomy 22:22 if a man is found sleeping with a married woman both shall die
7. Exodus 31:18 God gave Moses the two tablets written by the finger of God
8. Romans 8:1-4 no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, law of the spirit sets free from sin and death

Talk about it

1. The pastor used the story of his car's faulty temperature sensor to open the sermon. Where in your own life have you acted on a reading that turned out to be wrong, and what did that cost you?
2. The scribes and Pharisees put Jesus in what the pastor called an impossible political situation: say 'stone her' and look merciless, say 'don't stone her' and look like you're condoning sin. Have you ever felt caught in that same kind of trap? How did you handle it?
3. Jesus said to the woman, 'I do not condemn you either,' even though He was the only one in that courtyard who actually could have. What does it mean to you personally that the one person with the right to condemn chose not to?
4. The pastor read through many translations of 'go and sin no more' and pointed out that for a New Testament believer, God has given us the Holy Spirit so we are not left to walk in holiness on our own. What does leaning on the Spirit rather than willpower look like in practice for you?
5. The pastor mentioned that many older manuscripts do not include this passage, and one reason scholars think it may have been removed early on is that some felt Jesus was being too soft on adultery. What does it tell us about ourselves, as individuals and as a church, when we are more comfortable with a version of Jesus that condemns than with one that shows mercy?