John 8:10, commentary and pictures

Left alone with the woman after her accusers slipped away one by one, Jesus rose from stooping and turned to her with tender pity, asking where they had gone and whether no one was left to condemn her. She had been dragged to Him as a trap to force Him to take judgment into His own hands, but He knew the guilt and hypocrisy of the rabbis and rulers who pressed Him and traced the record of their own sins on the ground until conviction drove them away speechless. When she answered that no one had condemned her, He told her that He did not condemn her either and sent her away to leave her sin behind and sin no more. His mercy meets shame with compassion and opens a new beginning of purity, peace and life devoted to God, yet it never excuses or minimizes sin but calls the sinner to change and leads away from it. The scene rebukes those who are quick to accuse and bring others to justice while guiltier themselves, setting His pardoning compassion against a merciless spirit and teaching His followers to show mercy rather than condemn.

Setting and Question

The woman was brought to Jesus not out of zeal for the law but as part of a deliberate plot to trap Him, a net laid with her case to find occasion to condemn Him by getting Him to pronounce judgment and take judgment into His own hands. Those who arranged it were rabbis, rulers, Pharisees and Sadducees, men guilty of many secret sins and themselves worthy of condemnation and punishment, yet arrogant in their purpose and hypocrisy. Jesus beheld the whole plot and knew their lives, their purpose, their character and every phase of their hypocrisy.

While they pressed Him and came near, He was in no hurry to pronounce judgment but was busy writing and tracing the record of their own sins on the ground in the sand. That writing gave proof of divine knowledge and divine character, meeting the designs of His enemies by pressing conviction home upon the guilty consciences of the very men seeking to destroy Him. When they saw there the record of their own sins and that He knew their lives and their guilt, curiosity gave way to conviction.

Convicted and confounded, conscious of their own guilt, they departed speechless one by one in hasty guilty consternation, casting not a stone. They went out having failed to bring about the condemnation of Christ.

Left alone with the woman, Jesus rose from stooping and turned to her. He looked upon her not with contempt and scorn but with tender pity as the pitying, sinless Saviour, though He knew all about the character of her sin. She stood before Him trembling with shame and stricken in conscience, cowering and astonished at deliverance from expected doom. Then He asked where her accusers had gone and whether no one remained to condemn her, marking that none who had accused her remained.

Forgiveness and New Life

When she answered that no one had condemned her, he told her that he did not condemn her and sent her to leave sin behind and sin no more. After her accusers, conscious of their own guilt, had left, he turned to her alone and asked where they were and whether anyone remained to condemn her. Their departure followed their recognition of their own guilt, and he did not join their condemnation.

His mercy meets shame with comfort and compassion rather than condemnation, offering the penitent and repentant sinner a new beginning and a new life of purity and peace devoted to God and to service to God. He is the pitying Saviour who leads the repentant sinner into peace and security and toward eternal life. His forgiveness does not excuse or minimize sin, but calls the sinner to change and leads away from sin.

His words of hope opened to her astonished deliverance from expected doom and melted her heart to grateful love, bitter tears, and confession of sins at his feet. That beginning of a new life of purity and peace devoted to God made her a steadfast, self-sacrificing follower showing gratitude for forgiving mercy. This curing of the spiritual malady unto death everlasting is a greater miracle than healing physical disease.

Warning Against Condemning Others

The question to the woman exposes that those who are forward to accuse others, quick to detect wrong and zealous to bring them to justice, are often guiltier in their own lives than those they accuse. Though she was guilty of sin, the rabbis, rulers, Pharisees and Sadducees who brought her had laid a net with her case to find occasion for condemning Christ, and they were far more guilty than she. He knew all about the character of her sin and all the hidden secrets of their lives, their guilt, hypocrisy and plot, and with divine wisdom and knowledge He pressed conviction home upon their guilty consciences by tracing their own sins upon the ground. Curiosity gave way to conviction as they saw He knew their guilt, and one by one in hasty guilty consternation they left His presence, confounded and speechless. They were spiritually blind professors who cherished maxims and traditions and counted obedience to God's requirements as nothing, and He pronounced sentence upon them for hypocrisy and rejection of light, looking upon them with anger grieved at hardness of heart, detecting every phase of their hypocrisy with scathing rebuke, in contrast to His tenderest compassion for the woman.

The moment sets the pardoning compassion of Jesus against the unrelenting, merciless spirit of the Pharisees to whom mercy was a stranger. Where they would condemn without pity, He stands as the pitying Saviour who leads the repentant sinner into peace and security.

It teaches those who follow Jesus not to accuse and condemn others but to practice the love He commands and show mercy toward those who have sinned. Their departure after recognition of their own guilt becomes His occasion to turn to the woman left alone with Him and address her with compassion, asking whether no one remains to condemn her, and He does not join their condemnation but tells her to leave sin behind. In this He challenges harsh condemnation and harsh judgment by people whose own lives are guilty.