There is a down home story about a small town veterinarian who had invented an instrument with which, he boasted, even a child could administer a capsule to a horse, no matter how unruly or reluctant the horse might be. One summer the vet went to county fair to demonstrate his new invention. They couldn’t find anyone who would permit his horse to be a part of the experiment, but they did find a mule, and soon a crowd had gathered to watch. Undaunted, the veterinarian inserted a long glass tube into the mouth of the mule, inserted a capsule in the other end, took a deep breath and put his mouth to the free end of the tube. But the mule blew first! Now that story reminds us that when we tell others what is good for them, we better be prepared to swallow the same ourselves.

So, our sermon today: “Who will cast the first stone?”

Serious bible students, sooner or later will know that this passage has posed a lot of problems for scholars who seek to interpret John Gospel. This particular portion of the text does not appear in the principal Eastern manuscripts of the book. Nor is it found in tile ancient Coptic manuscripts. That is the reason the Revised Standard Version does not include it in the texts but as a footnote. Some manuscripts place the texts in Luke Gospel following Luke 21:38, and some include it in other places of this gospel of John. It is found in Western manuscripts. Jerome included it in the Latin Vulgate, and it appears in one of the best Fifth Century manuscripts.

I share this bit of information not to pursue scholarly debate, but to make this point. The Bible is a miraculous book. Did you know that there are about 591 translations of the Bible being worked on right now by the two major Bible Societies: The American Bible Society of New York, and the United Bible Society in Stuttgart? Did you know there are 5,600 manuscripts available of the Greek New Testament, no two of them precisely alike, and these are scattered all over the world? Six hundred manuscripts came out of the eleven caves of Qumrum — what we call the “Dead Sea Scrolls,” one of the most amazing discoveries of modern times. We don’t think enough about scholars who work with these ancient manuscripts to provide us the most authentic expressions of God’s Word. We should pray for them. We don’t think enough about and pray for the translators who work diligently to make the Bible available in every language and every dialect.

The Bible is a miraculous book. We should never make an idol out of the written Word, and I get the feeling that some people do but that is not our major problem. Our major problem is that we don’t pay enough attention to it. Here is God’s Word, everything we need for our salvation and the salvation of the world, and it collects dust on our bedside tables.

But back to my main point. This passage we are considering today does pose technical problems for Bible scholars, and we could argue either for its inclusion or exclusion here in the Gospel of John — the evidence really is not conclusive. But I come down at the point of John Calvin. There is nothing here “unworthy of an apostolic spirit”. (Calvin, Commentary on... John, p. 319). Therefore there is no reason why we should refuse to apply this Biblical passage to our life, seeking to appropriate its message even as we would any other message are really few other stories in the New Testament that provide such a complete picture of the human situation, and such a clear revelation of our Lord as does this one. So let’s look at it and learn from it, by looking first at the dilemma of the woman and Jesus, the deposition of the accusers, and the deliverance Jesus provides.

Both the accused woman and Jesus were in a life and death dilemma. According Jewish law, adultery was among the most serious crimes. The Rabbi said, “Every Jew must die before he will commit idolatry, murder or adultery.” So, adultery was one of the three gravest sins. The law was quite clear on the matter. Though there were certain differences in the way the death penalty was to be carried out, yet there was no question — death was the penalty for adultery. The woman knew this. Can you get even a faint hint of the despair, the anguish, the ravaging shame, and hopelessness that gripped this wretch of a creature, this “soiled plaything of men” as they came dragging her into the presence of Jesus.

And where was the man who was her partner in sin? In the Mishnah which was the code of Jewish law, it was stated that the penalty for adultery was strangulation for both man and woman. Even the method of strangulation is laid down. “The man is to be enclosed in dung up to his knees, and a soft towel set within a rough towel to be placed around his neck (in order that no mark may be made, for the punishment is God’s punishment.) Then one man draws in one direction and another in the other direction, until he be dead.” (Barclay, The Daily Bible Study, The Gospel of John, Vol. 2, p. 2).

But no man is here. Can’t you imagine how that must have intensified this accused woman’s anguish, pain and despair? Isn’t it still true to a marked degree — especially where sexual immorality is concerned? How much more intense and cruel the wrath of society against women who are caught — and I use that word caught advisedly how much more intense our wrath and scorn and condemnation against women who are caught in sexual immorality than against men? So, the word of Jesus is always applicable — “ he who is without sin let him cast the first stone.” Can you feel the dilemma of this woman? Being put to public shame and hurled toward her awful death?

But Jesus faced a dilemma too. The truth is the bigots who brought the woman were not interested in her sin as in the punishment she might receive. They were testing Jesus. They had him where they wanted him. He was in a no-win situation, and they gloated as they awaited which destructive response he would make.

The first possibility was that Jesus would simply agree to their literal reading of the law. If he did that, he would be in real danger, because we have historical evidence that about 30 A.D., the Romans denied to the Jewish religious courts the right of capital punishment. If Jesus had capital punishment, he would be breaking the law of Rome and the punishment of Rome would be upon him.

Now the second possibility was that he would not uphold the condemnation and would disagree with the law of Moses. If he did that, how could he sustain his claim to truth? So he was on the double-horns of a dilemma. If he acquitted the woman, they would accuse him of violating the Law of Moses. If he condemned her, they would accuse him of political usurpation — for the power to condemn to death was invested entirely in Roman authority.

II. DISPOSITION

That was the dilemma of Jesus and the woman. Let’s now look at the disposition of the accusers. Here we must begin to search deeply our own souls.

Who were the accusers of this adulteress? Scripture labels them “scribes and Pharisees.” Though not in John, in the other gospels, this is the frequent designation of the opponents of our Lord. It was these “Scribes and Pharisees” who were often the brunt of Jesus’ fiery condemnation. These are not official representatives of the Pharisees or the Sanhedrin, they are a group of bigots seeking to make capital for their antagonism of Jesus.

Think for a moment. Isn’t it true that often the vilest sinners are the greatest accusers? We see it so graphically at the international level in our day. Russia condemns the United States for crimes against the people while thousands of persons waste away in the prisons of the Soviet Union. Our government is quick to denounce the violation of human rights on the part of Russia and other such countries, while we support a regime that fosters death squads in Central America. It’s often true that those who are involved in sin are quick to accuse the sins of others.

That’s a dramatic expression of it; let’s bring it down to where we live - at levels that are not so dramatic, and not so explicit.

Let’s probe our complex nature as human beings and try to find the reason why we do some of the things we do — why we continue to cast stones even though we are not without sin.

First, consider what is most obvious in the disposition of these accusers — they took the hard-line On the surface, they were not willing to compromise with evil. Death by stoning was the penalty for this crime according to the law, so get on with it. Put in the context of that day, this fits in with the longing of the people. They were looking for a prophet like Elijah, a prophet who would interpret the law rigidly and would make no compromise with evil. Do you recall how Elijah ordered the death of 400 false prophets following his vindication in the great contest with BaaI? (I Kings 18: We all know that a hard-line against proven criminals is far more popular with people than a soft-line. This is not just a contemporary phenomenon, it was true if in ancient days as well. If Jesus had only in mind winning the attention and the response of the people, this was his opportunity. He could prove his prophetic bravery by challenging the Roman restraint against capital punishment. He could show himself in a strict line of prophetic obedience to the law along with Elijah, and that would win approval as well. Not to do so - to go against the law and set justice aside in favor of mercy, would minister to the woman, but it would not win friends for Jesus.

What does this say about human nature? What is the lesson from that for our day? We’ve not made the transition from an Elijah mentality to a Jesus-style. The conflict in those styles was put clearly by Jesus – “You have heard it said ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you love your enemies – do good for those who despitefully use you….” But we still follow Elijah. At no place is this more dramatically illustrated than in our prison system. I don’t know anyone who would argue that our prisons are working to serve the cause of justice; and I certainly do not know anyone who would argue that they are serving the common good.

Frustrated by the rising tide of crime that rips and tears at the fabric of our society, we react in fear and anger. We scream for a hard-line. We try to restore the death penalty and make more severe the punishments for all the crimes.

We need to at least stop as Jesus did and try to put the whole matter in perspective. There are some questions we can ask even in relation to our justice-system and the terrible failure of prisons. Questions like these:

1. Are we more interested in judgment than mercy?

2. Are we more committed to punishment than redemption?

3. What are we doing to alleviate conditions in our community that we know leads to crime?

4. What ministries are we providing for prisoners and the families of prisoners that would break the oppressive, destructive cycle of continuous crime which is the big problem of our day?

If you think that these questions are either naive or idealistic, I ask you to stay prayerfully in the presence of Jesus for a while as he kneels in silence for the accusers to boil in their self-righteous anger, and as he writes that mystery — word in the sand. I would ask you to live prayerfully with his word: “He that is without sin, let him cast the first stone.”

We’re all tempted to take the hard-line. The prophetic condemnation of Elijah appeals to our sinful nature far more than the kingly silence of Jesus and his willingness to let the vicious nature of the mob be shifted from the woman to him.

But let’s bring it even closer home and probe deeper our own disposition. Why is it that we find it so easy to judge and condemn, so difficult to love and forgive when we know that that is the only way of redemption? I’m not talking about criminals and prisons now. I’m talking about how we live from week to week.

Look at the events of your life during the past two or three week. Look at your relationships.

Have you been aware of some jealousy which prevented you from celebrating the success of someone you know, maybe even a loved one?

Have you refused the word of another as truth because you still harbor the memory of a lie he told you?

Have you participated in keeping alive a morsel of destructive gossip? Could it be that keeping alive that destructive word is an effort on your part to pay back that person for something they did to you? Or unrecognized desire to hurt someone else because you have been hurt?

Have you secretly delighted in the misfortune of another? Maybe delighted is too strong a word – Have you had that smiling feeling – while he or she got what they deserved?

Are you still bearing a grudge against someone who did you wrong, though that one has sought to make amends?

Is there still just a small fire of resentment burning inside you because you’ve not forgiven that one who stole some happiness from you or caused you some pain?

Why do I ask these questions? I ask them because Jesus would ask them. I ask them because Jesus said, “He that is without sin, let him cast the first stone.” I ask them because I believe that the whole of the past — good and evil — is involved in our present situation. There is a world of the spirit that we ignore to our detriment.

We’re getting into deep water now, but this is crucial. Unless we begin to deal with this, we’re not going to break the cycle of evil and pain and darkness and sin in our life and in the life of the world.

Listen — we never know whose love and prayers, whose fidelity to faithfulness and righteousness is giving us the guidance and the strength we need in the present moment, is sustaining us in our loneliness and despair. I don’t know how it is with you, but I frequently feel myself buoyed up by feelings and forces I can’t explain. I am sustained in a struggle or guided in a decision in a way that is beyond my understanding. I feel a power of spiritual forces around me. Likewise, we never know what evil forces have been released by wrong choices, relished hatreds and indulged selfishness. I know that as well…and so do you. Remember Paul said: “The good that I would do, I do not.”

Do you hear what I m saying? There is a spirit-world of good and evil, a spirit-network of love and mercy, hope and righteousness as well as a similar system of aggressive hatred, fear, resentments, and hostility.

What does this mean? It means that our past — our community, our family, our relationships – our responses to all of that from infancy until now, along with our present needs, our desires, our goals, combined with the world of the spirit, good and evil, to shape how we act in the present moment.

Lurking within and without is the power of goodness and mercy as well as the destructive power of sin. Too often, sin prevails and we are ready to cast stones, to take the hard-line, to condemn and punish, to continue to the endless cycle of evil.

III. DELIVERANCE

That leads to my final point: The deliverance of Jesus. That deliverance broke the cycle of evil, and it is only that kind of action that will break the cycle of sin and evil in my life, in your life and in the life of the world.

Two things stand out in Jesus’ response to the woman and her accusers. One, the privilege of judgment belongs to God, not to us. Jesus was forthright in his command, “Judge not, lest you be judged.” (Matthew 7:1) He compared a per judging another to a man with a two-by-four in his own j to take a grain of sawdust out of another’s eye (Matthew 7:3—5). The reason judgment must be left to God is that none of us are without sin, so how can we prescribe stones to be cast at other sinners.

The second thing that stands out in this story is that according to Jesus, our first emotional response to a person who has made a mistake and/or sinned is concern - pity in the best sense of the word. If we are to break the negative cycle of sin and evil our first effort in relation to the sinner is merciful action for redemption, not punishment for retaliation.

Now, let me make my biggest point and lay the issue on your heart. The only answer to sin and the pervasive power of evil is radical love and forgiveness. We may argue, even righteously so, that wrongs done in the past cannot be laid at our door — that is not our responsibility. But remember the point I made earlier. The spirit world of sin and evil is shaped and fed by wrong choices, relished hatreds, indulged selfishness, aggressive hostility, and resentment. That releases poison in ourselves and through us to others.

Retrospectively, life’s sin and evil may not be our responsibility. But prospectively, from now on, how we respond to wrongness, and sin and pain and suffering is our responsibility. How we respond will either feed and shape and energize the spirit world of evil, or will break that destructive cycle and release love and mercy and hope.

Those who break that chain resentment, retaliation, violence, and hostility are people who take away the sins of the world.

(Neville Ward, Friday Afternoon T.U.R. 1984, inspired my thinking at this point in a marvelous essay on “Forgiving”, pp. 2-17).

That’s what Jesus did when he forgave the woman taken in adultery. That’s what he did when he forgave the thief on the cross.

That’s what he was doing when he was hanging beside that thief on the cross. The cross was the shout of God cry love you and I forgive you.” Love and forgiveness were personified and pronounced for all history in that lonely, bleeding figure on the cross.

Jesus could have retaliated. He could have called down legions of angels to rescue him from the horror. But he didn’t, for God so loved us that He sent his son to save us.

Will you believe it? Will you order your life according to the truth of it? Love and forgiveness is the only power that can break the cycle of sin and evil. It’s the only power that can save us and our society. That’s what Jesus was calling us to when he said, “He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone.”

I dare you, I dare you to begin to live in that fashion and participate with Jesus in taking away the sin of the world.