A Crowd Free of Condemnation

Last Sunday the sermon looked at John, chapter 8, where some legal experts and Pharisees bring a woman allegedly caught in a sinful act before Jesus for him to judge her fate. It’s a well-known story, where Jesus stands up in that crowded scene in the Temple and tells the men who ask whether they should stone the woman to death according to Mosaic Law, “Whoever hasn’t ever sinned should throw the first stone.” One by one, the men drop their stones and disperse, starting with the elders, until, “finally,” the Scripture reads, “only Jesus and the woman were left in the middle of the crowd.” That’s when Jesus stands up again and says to the accused woman, “Where are they? Is there no one to condemn you?” She replies, “No one, sir.” And Jesus assures her saying, “Neither do I condemn you.”

I always read that as an intimate scene between Jesus and the exonerated woman. Everyone who had condemned her—all those men that Jesus exposed as hypocrites—left the Temple and perhaps took their condemnation with them elsewhere. I assumed that meant that the Temple had been entirely cleared out, and now the woman, who was publicly accused of adultery and humiliated in the eyes of her community, was left standing there alone with Jesus. But that’s not what the text says. “Finally, only Jesus and the woman were left in the middle of the crowd.”

There is tender intimacy between the woman and Jesus, but a crowd is still present. So, when Jesus asks where her condemners are, and she replies that they are all gone, the woman is not referring to the people that are still there. Those who pointed a finger at her—the ones who were out to get her—are gone, but those who mean no harm, those who do not condemn are still standing there. A crowd of advocates still surrounds the woman and the Savior who stands alongside her. She is not alone.

I take hope from this new angle. When antagonistic accusations dissipate, when presumptuous condemnation disperses, when toxic trolling goes somewhere else to cast its chest-thumping judgments, you are not alone in your vindication. There are others, lots of others.

With so many powerful voices hurling accusations every single day about who is to blame for what is wrong with the world, and with you getting up every single day and doing your best to wade through that accusatory chaos by clinging to what Jesus teaches you about loving your neighbor as you love yourself, what an empowering assurance it is to know that you are not alone—that you are not out of your mind to believe that the poor deserve mercy; and that undocumented immigrants are made in God’s image and no human being is illegal; and that children are not collateral damage in our warring madness; and that education, healthcare, and bodily autonomy are human rights; and that every child of God is worthy of dignity and respect, for God so loved the world and didn’t send Jesus into it to condemn it. What a blessing it is to know in our heart of hearts that when condemnation clears out, we are not isolated outliers in our clinging to love. A crowd is still there with us. A cloud of witnesses who stand by the truth that “God is love” is with us, as are the saints in glory who lived their lives in accordance with that truth, and as is the communion of the Holy Spirit, which, Jesus assures us, will never leave us orphaned.

So, keep doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with the God who loves us all, and keep loving and serving your neighbor as yourself; for you are not alone. You are covered and encouraged and accompanied by a crowd free of condemnation.