Sound of Stones Dropping

The whole incident was a set up.  She had been caught, no trapped, in the very act of adultery.  In bringing only her to Jesus, the Jewish leaders were breaking the law.  Where was the man she had been caught with?  He should be stoned too.  Perhaps it had been one of them.  How else would they have known the exact time and place of the act?  

Each of the accusers carried a stone in his hand.  They were ready for the punishment to be meted out.  

Jesus didn’t believe in adultery.  They were counting on that.  Wonder what they thought when he stooped down and used His finger to write something in the dirt.  What did He write?  The name of the guilty man?  A list of the accuser’s sins?  

 

They badgered Him until He stood up and agreed, “Ok, go ahead and stone her.  But to qualify to throw that stone, you must be sinless.”  Then He bent down and began to write some more. 

“Thud.”

“Thud, thud.”  

In the silence, all that could be heard was the sound of stones dropping to the ground.  One by one, the accusers began to slip away.  

Do you have a stone in your hand?  Have you caught someone in the act of doing something you consider wrong?  Are you ready to mete out the punishment?  

Are you sinless?  Am I?  I think not.   

Before we throw that stone, we need to take a review of our own lives.  The next sound we hear will be the stone falling from our hands to the ground.  

“The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery.  They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.  In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women.  Now what do you say?”  John 8:3-5 (NIV)