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Healing of the Soul
53
of the olive groves, where He could be alone with God. But in the
[87]
early morning He returned to the temple; and as the people gathered
about Him, He sat down and taught them.
He was soon interrupted. A group of Pharisees and scribes ap-
proached Him, dragging with them a terror-stricken woman, whom
with hard, eager voices they accused of having violated the seventh
commandment. Pushing her into the presence of Jesus, they said,
with a hypocritical display of respect, “Master, this woman was
taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded
us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest Thou?”
Verses 4, 5
.
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Their pretended reverence veiled a deep-laid plot for His ruin.
Should Jesus acquit the woman, He might be charged with despising
the law of Moses. Should He declare her worthy of death, He could
be accused to the Romans as one who assumed authority belonging
only to them.
Jesus looked upon the scene—the trembling victim in her shame,
the hard-faced dignitaries, devoid of even human pity. His spirit of
stainless purity shrank from the spectacle. Giving no sign that He
had heard the question, He stooped and, fixing His eyes upon the
ground, began to write in the dust.
Impatient at His delay and apparent indifference the accusers
drew nearer, urging the matter upon His attention. But as their eyes,
following those of Jesus, fell upon the pavement at His feet, their
voices were silenced. There, traced before them, were the guilty
secrets of their own lives.
Rising, and fixing His eyes upon the plotting elders, Jesus said,
“He that is without sin among
you,
let him first cast a stone at her.”
Verse 7
. And, stooping down, He continued writing.
He had not set aside the Mosaic law nor infringed upon the au-
thority of Rome. The accusers were defeated. Now, their robes
of pretended holiness torn from them, they stood, guilty and con-
demned, in the presence of infinite purity. Trembling lest the hidden
iniquity of their lives should be laid open to the multitude, with
bowed heads and downcast eyes they stole away, leaving their victim
with the pitying Saviour.
Jesus arose and, looking upon the woman, said, “Where are
those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No