John #19: Spiritual Malpractice(John 8:1-11) - a podcast by Rob Woodrum & Others

This Sunday we’ll be reading one of my favorite stories about Jesus. In it, we’ll see the Jesus I’ve put my whole trust in and the grace on which my hope is glued.

The problem is…most scholars don’t believe the verses we’ll be reading are from the original manuscript of John’s gospel. Worse…I believe them.

However, that doesn’t mean I don’t count this story as accurate or true. It’s sort of complicated – but we’ll get into it more on Sunday.

We’ll be reading John 8:1-11 in our study of John, the story of the woman caught in adultery – or, as I prefer to call it, the case of spiritual malpractice.

As you read this story, there are some very poignant questions you want to keep in mind. First and foremost is: Where is the man and accusations against him? According to Deut 22:23-24, both parties in this scenario were to be put to death. We assume she was betrothed since death by stoning is only mentioned for engaged people in the Law. Why might the religious leaders not be interested in the man in this relationship?

If the woman were engaged, she lived in a culture where her husband had been picked for her by her father. Have you ever seen Fiddler on the Roof? Do you remember the daughters who had different ideas about marriage than Tevye? It’s a very reasonable possibility that this woman had a young man in her life that she had fallen in love with and they gave in to their desires. I think it’s really interesting that so many paintings and movies depict the woman of this story dressed in red and displaying the stereotypical attributes of promiscuity. I seriously doubt that was the case.

Why do you think the narrator points out that Jesus stooped to draw or write in the dust, but didn’t provide the details of what he drew or wrote? If what was drawn isn’t important, what significance can you imagine would be conveyed by that action?

Jesus’ answer is possibly one of the most quoted passages in Scripture, next to “judge not”. Usually, both are misapplied when used. If Jesus meant that a person had to be sinless in order to carry out the judgements of the Law, nobody would ever have been held accountable. It’s likely that he’s pointing out Deut 13:8-9 which commands the accuser to strike the first blow. He’s also saying something else – theses accusers need to look at their own hearts to determine if they’re in a position to rightly defend God’s righteousness this way. It’s sort of like: “If we’re gonna’ get this serious about defending God’s righteousness, we may need more stones than just for her.”

By saying this, Jesus brings to light the most heinous sin being committed that day. What were these men doing by leveraging God’s righteousness and the Law of Moses in order to get at Jesus? In what way were they using God’s word and their faith? How can we keep from doing the same thing in our own context? Where do we apply God’s truth, first and foremost?

The graceful words that Jesus wraps around this woman are beautiful to me. His final command, to “go and sin no more” has been puzzled over a lot. He said the same thing to the man he healed at the Pool of Bethesda after he had been busted by the religious leaders for carrying his mat on the Sabbath. In both cases where this phrase was used, the context is one where people are being abused by religious authorities. Since going forward and living a “sinless life” was, and is, completely impossible for humans in a fallen world – perhaps he meant “change the trajectory of your life because these guys are looking for a way to get me through you.” I certainly don’t know if that’s the right way to read it, but it sort of tracks.

Either way…that statement is placed at the very end of this story. How many steps can you discern that happened between Jesus’ first meeting this woman until that statement? Did he lead with a command about sin? When did he express grace and release her from condemnation, before or after this command about sin? What might we learn from that?

I’m really, really stoked about this study – I can’t wait to dig into the scriptures together! Hope to see you Sunday!

Click here for a pdf of the teaching slideshow.

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