LENTEN READINGS AND REFLECTIONS

DAY 17

Reading: 8:12-11:46

This morning's reading from John skips over one of the most well-known stories in the New Testament: John 8:1-11, the woman caught in adultery. If you have a study bible with text notes then you probably know why. The most ancient and reliable manuscripts do not contain John 8:1-11.

What are manuscripts?

Well the bible that you are reading today is an English translation of Greek and Hebrew manuscripts. There are literally thousands of different manuscripts or hand-written copies of each New Testament and Old Testament book dating back thousands of years. The amazing thing is that when these copies are compared to one another they are almost entirely consistent. There are only very minor discrepancies, mostly grammatical in nature. That means that the English translation of the bible you hold in your hands is without a doubt a reliable representation of the original writings of the apostles and prophets.

John 8:1-11 is one of the exceptions. It is contained in many manuscripts but not the oldest ones.

Does that mean that it did not happen; that Jesus never rescued a woman caught in adultery? Not at all. It could be that the older manuscripts were created by copyists who themselves had access to an incomplete text and that the later manuscripts were based on more complete texts.

I think John 8:1-11 is original to the text. In other words, I think John wrote it.

The reason I think this is because the story of the woman caught in adultery fits perfectly with the theme or emphasis that John is building in this middle section of his gospel.

One of the things John, inspired by the Holy Spirit, remembered most about Jesus is that he was unwilling to accept popular verdicts.

Mary and Martha and the crowd of fellow mourners determine that Jesus is too late; that Lazarus has died; that nothing can be done.

But Jesus rejects this verdict. Lazarus has died, but death is not the final word. Jesus' verdict, Jesus' word is the only one that counts.

John brings the very same message home in his account of the woman caught in adultery.

She does not deny her guilt. The Pharisees did, in fact, catch her in the act. But their verdict is not the final verdict. The woman may indeed be spiritually dead in her sins and may, by law, be subject to death, but again, Jesus' verdict, Jesus word is the only one that counts.

After he shames the woman's accusers and sends them away, he turns to the woman and reverses the crowd's judgment:

"Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

 "No one, sir," she said.
     

 "Then neither do I condemn you,"

Then, just as he frees Lazarus from his tomb, he tells the woman, freed from her accusers, to be freed from her sin also, “Go and sin no more.”

There is a great deal of comfort in the fact that the last word belongs to Jesus. No matter what people may think of you. Regardless of what you may have done to earn the disrespect, disdain or disregard of others, in Christ these words, these verdicts, are never final.

In fact, Jesus has already proclaimed his decision:

  1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:1-2)

And

“God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.” (Romans 4:17)

If you are in Christ, then you will forever be called by his name. And in him there is no death and no condemnation.

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