Six Angles
John 8: 1-11
March 9, 2025
This is the fifth in a series of messages travelling through the gospel of John. I encourage you to read along at home and ask for God to speak to you through the stories and thoughts presented. We’re now up to chapter eight.
I’ve talked for the past month about how this book was written. A small community of Jews in Ephesus collected some of their favorite stories about Jesus and expanded them with long, rambling sermons. Their focus was not on telling an historical biography about the human Jesus, but instead on talking about the divine Christ they felt living in their hearts.
Our Scripture story today was not something they included in their gospel. Instead, it was added by a scribe over a hundred years later. That means it was written after 200 AD. This story fit in well with the type of love that believers felt that Jesus extended to people…. It is a good story, isn’t it?
I find truth as we look at this familiar story of the woman caught in adultery from six different angles.
The first angle is the angle of legalism.
The setting for this story is the Temple in Jerusalem. It is the teachers of the Law of Moses and people from the Pharisee denomination who challenge Jesus. They want to test Jesus and bring some charges against him. They do this by bringing up specific laws found in their Scriptures.
They say, “The Law of Moses teaches that a woman like this should be stoned to death. What do you say?”
The law they were referring to was found in two places. The first is Leviticus 20:10: “If any of you men have sex with another man’s wife, both you and the woman will be put to death.”
The second is Deuteronomy 22: 22-24: “People of Israel, if a man is caught having sex with someone else’s wife, you must put them both to death. That way, you will get rid of the evil they have done in Israel. If a man is caught in town having sex with an engaged woman who isn’t screaming for help, they both must be put to death. The man is guilty of having sex with a married woman. And the woman is guilty because she didn’t call for help, even though she was inside a town and people were nearby. Take them both to the town gate and stone them to death. You must get rid of the evil they brought into your community.”
These were some laws set down more than a thousand years before the story was written. The teachers of the Law of Moses and some Pharisees wanted Jesus to enforce these specific laws… in spite of their unreasonable and commonly understood excessiveness. I’m pretty sure no one had actually been stoned because of these laws for centuries, maybe ever.
The story points to the legalism and obsession over laws that some people hold on to. These teachers and Pharisees were placing ancient man-made rules as if they were of highest importance.
Should ethical decisions be made solely based on what the outdated Mosaic law says in our Old Testament?
Legalism is the first angle to look at this story.
The second angle is sexism.
As we heard those Scriptures from the Old Testament read, did you notice that it mentioned that both the man and the woman were to be put to death. But who is brought forward? Just the woman. As if it is only the woman who was in that bed.
Anyways, do you think it was the woman who really was the aggressor here? No doubt it was the guy who initiated the relationship. But it was only the woman who was taking the fall for it. What’s the fairness in that?
It’s sexism, pure and simple. It’s the sexism we find throughout our Scripture, the sexism we find throughout history, the sexism we find dominant still in today’s world.
Should women be treated worse than men simply because of their gender?
The third angle is hypocrisy. This is the most common angle we view this story. Jesus says, “If any of you have never sinned, then go ahead and throw the first stone at her.”
The people left one by one, beginning with the oldest. Everyone realized they too were not totally innocent. Who were they to throw a stone? Suggesting that the woman be stoned when each of them had no doubt broken some Mosaic law at some point is the height of hypocrisy.
We see so much hypocrisy in people who claim to be Christian today. They are ready to throw stones when their own lives are far from pure.
We sometimes find ourselves getting judgy and tempted to throw stones when it comes to certain people.
God, help us all refrain from hypocrisy.
The fourth angle to view this story is from the perspective of criticism. These Pharisees and Teachers of the Law were critics. They were so critical of this woman.
This is a place where the story resonates with my life. It seems like I’ve always be hounded by Critics. Or maybe I’m just a sensitive soul.
I think of when I was a child, my mother was often screaming and yelling at me, my sister and especially my younger brothers. I lived in fear of her critique, her anger, her wrath.
Things changed when I entered my youth years. My mom softened and became more sensitive to me. Instead, my dad took on the role of the Critic. He was critical of my decision to be more active in church. He was critical of my decision to go into the ministry instead of being an engineer like himself. He was critical of the length of my hair. It seems from youth years to this very moment he’s always found something to be critical of me about.
In fact, as I wrote these words down a few weeks ago, he called me up. Probably the first time he’s called me in a couple years. He called me up to criticize me and our daughter related to LGBTQ issues. Unfortunately, the beginning stages of dementia will no doubt affect the rest of our relationship. That saddens me.
In addition, it seems like I’ve often been hounded by critics in the ten churches I’ve been a pastor to over the past forty years. Maybe I’m just a sensitive soul. But over and over it seems there have been people criticizing the way I’ve been a pastor. A few have even used their power to force me out of my position at that church. It makes me thankful for this church and its positive spirit.
I’m sure most of us have faced criticism over the years as well. We can all identify with this woman forced to face her critics.
The fifth angle to look at this story is from the perspective of guilt. She probably said and did some things she felt bad about it. There were probably some decisions she made that she regrets having made. There’s guilt.
The sixth angle we can look at this story from is the perspective of shame.
I’ve recently been re-reading Brene Brown’s book: Atlas of the Heart. Here’s how she describes shame: “It’s when we think we are bad. The focus is on self, not behavior. The result is feeling flawed and unworthy of love, belonging and connection.” As a result of shame, deep down we believe these two things about ourselves: I’m unlovable. I don’t belong. We “fear that something we’ve done or failed to do, an ideal that we’ve not lived up to or a goal that we’ve not accomplished makes us unworthy of connection.” I’m unlovable. I don’t belong.
Brene Brown says, “Shame is universal, but we’re afraid to talk about it. Shame thrives on secrecy, silence and judgment…The less we talk about it, the more control it has over us. Shame hates being spoken…Shame needs you to believe that you’re alone,” that you’re the only one who feels so unlovable and disconnected.
I can imagine this woman in our story today is feeling shame.
I can imagine all of us struggling with shame to some degree or another.
These six angles have caught this woman: Legalism, Sexism, Hypocrisy, Criticism, Guilt and Shame. She’s trapped.
But our story features Jesus challenging these six angles.
I can imagine this is what Jesus wrote in the ground:
You are created in the image of God.
You are a treasured child of a loving, heavenly Parent.
You are beloved and loved.
You are free.
I talked with my spiritual director following my conversation with my dad a few weeks ago. She invited me to reflect on how God is responding to me following that critique. She asked me to be silent for a few moments and just ponder and pray. After a bit, I imagined that God was surrounding me, holding me, and expressing care and concern for me. I could picture myself surrounded by a loving God. It was so helpful.
These six angles might have you in their grasp: Legalism, Sexism, Hypocrisy, Criticism, Guilt and Shame. You may feel trapped.
I can imagine this is what the divine Jesus Christ is saying to you right now:
You are created in the image of God.
You are a treasured child of a loving, heavenly Parent.
You are beloved and loved.
You are held in loving arms.
You are free.
Amen.
