I wonder what it was like for Jesus to walk through the streets of Jerusalem incognito? He was, after all, her promised King - the one who would rule both Israel and the nations. Jesus understood this truth from the time he was twelve years old, but the influential citizens of Jerusalem failed to recognize the Son of Man in His humility.
The priests and Pharisees could not fail to acknowledge Jesus’ popularity. Nor could they refute the miracles, but they resented Him and His teaching. In an effort to discredit Jesus, they posed Him with a quandary. They asked for His judgment in a case they thought sure to split His followers. It was a test the Father allowed for the King of Kings would someday judge the whole world, setting right all that has been broken. This test, meant as a trap, would serve as a sign of the glory of His coming reign.
Scripture says the adulteress was “caught in the very act,” exposed in her sin and paraded through the streets of Jerusalem to a council of scribes and Pharisees. The council did not care much about the woman’s fate. They were after Jesus and her seemed to serve their purpose. Should the adulteress be stoned according to the law of Moses or not? That was the judgment they demanded from the popular young rabbi.
I imagine some rough garment had been thrown over the woman’s body by the time she reached Jesus, but her soul must have trembled “naked and ashamed” just like Eve’s on the day of the Fall. She was, in fact, standing before God Incarnate. The Judge, in silence, bent low to the ground in the presence of all and began writing in the dust. The Pharisees were annoyed and pressed Jesus for an answer.
Jesus stood and spoke, “Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone.” Then He stooped again and continued His writing.
Scripture does not tell us what Jesus wrote, but the image is evocative. I am reminded of God bending down to earth, forming Adam from clay. Or then there was the time that the finger of God traced the words of Torah on tablets of stone. “You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness.. You shall not covet.” It seems that whatever Jesus wrote in the dirt, the Spirit disturbed the hearts of the woman’s accusers for they dispersed, deflated and rattled.
When the two were alone, Jesus stood and faced the accused. “Woman,” He asked, “where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
Without no fig leaf to hide her shame, the woman answered simply, “No one, sir.”
Then the only man qualified to cast a stone pronounced His judgment. “Neither do I condemn you,” He said. “Go and sin no more.”
Something wonderful and mysterious took place that day. The adulteress stood before the Son of God, guilty like Eve. She had failed to follow God’s word, and in her adultery, she stood as a symbol for all Israel, and in fact for all humanity. But Jesus did not condemn the woman. Instead, He broke the curse upon her. Jesus, the seed of Eve and the Son of God, fulfilled the promise God made to Eve on the day of her sentencing. He crushed the head of the Accuser in the City of Peace! He offered the woman mercy by the authority of His blood. And in that mercy was eternal life, though she did not yet know this.
Jesus knew, however, that He would be put to death in the City of the Great King. The cross would become the tree of life on which His body would be broken. The woman he met in the street that day would take and eat from the fruit of that tree, and she would live forever - free, and clothed in His own righteousness.
I wish I could fully grasp what my sister experienced that day, for its truth does not fully reign in my heart. The Son of Man is not ashamed to be seen with sinners like me, for when we stand naked before Him, acknowledging His judgment, He will clothe us with mercy. His justice will break the curses upon us. His blood will cleanse of all stains. There is no shame for anyone who takes refuge in His Court - though we must enter with fear and trembling.
What would have happened, I wonder, if the scribes and Pharisees had cast aside their fig leaves? If they had stood with the adulteress, confessing their sins as Jesus wrote in the dust? I suspect they would have left that encounter as changed as the woman, eager to “go and sin no more.” But no one who runs from Christ’s judgment can receive the gift of His mercy. The freedom every heart craves is found only in nakedness before God.
Someday there will be no place to run, no way to hide from the Son. The Righteous Judge will open the scrolls of history in the City of Thrones, and King will render His judgment. Every word, every secret intention of the heart will be revealed, and justice will be served. Those who overcome, Jesus tells us, will sit with Him on His throne, along with our sister, the former adulteress, now dressed in dazzling white.