John 8
RileyJohn 8:1-11
CHRIST AND THE SINFUL WOMAN John 7:53 to John 8:11. “And every man went unto his own house” (John 7:53). “When Jesus had lifted up Himself, and saw none but the woman, He said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more” (John 8:10-11). our much boasted civilization, the Magdalenes of the earth multiply. The strange woman still infests the streets. Polluted herself, she is the temptress of the individual, the menace of the home, a blot on society and an enemy of the state. And yet she is a woman possessed of human capabilities and endowed with immortal interests, and it is well-nigh insane for society to attempt to ignore her conduct on the one side, or to despise her soul interests on the other. If one would find the solution of any problem, let him hear what Jesus has to say upon the same, for “never man spake as this Man”. If one would discover an ensample of conduct toward the unfortunate or the sinful, let him watch Jesus at His work with the one or both, for never man wrought as He wrought. It is a singular thing that although twenty centuries have passed since Jesus met this Magdalene, heard the charges against her, and disposed of her case, society seems not yet to know what to do with the adulteress.In the hope of making suggestions alike helpful to the sinful woman and to social order, I bring to you the text of this evening and ask you to think of The Woman’s Crime, The Woman’s Critics, and The Woman’s Christ.THE WOMAN’S CRIME “And the scribes and the Pharisees bring a woman taken in adultery” (John 8:3, R. V.). The Scriptures do not seek to cover away her sin, nor do they employ soft terms in the description of the same. Adultery is a word of bad repute. It voices a disregard of God; it despises the most sacred relations between men and women; it ignores domestic interests; it imperils social order; it strikes a blow in the face of God. The charge laid against this woman was not disputed; and Christ, while revealing sympathy for the sinner, in no wise condoned her crime.It was a crime against herself.
Dr. Jowett, one of England’s noble preachers, calls attention to Matthew Arnold’s statement that “sin is not a monster, but an infirmity,” and justly repudiates that definition, saying, “If I take Matthew Arnold’s statement into my own soul, into my own secret consciousness, I know that it is not true.
If it were an infirmity only, there would be no sense of responsibility for it. If my eyes have an infirmity I do not feel guilty, but when I sin I am conscious of more than infirmity. I know that the happening might have been otherwise, and to me was given the choice. When I seek to label my sin as ‘infirmity’ my soul rejects the same in a consuming sense of shame.” And Jowett is right. Sin, as the Apostle put it, is “exceeding sinful”. Primarily it is a self wrong. Mrs. Sims, the society woman who was converted from the polite gambling of bridge-whist and related behavior, says, with reference to her former course, “I not only lost my money but my self-respect.
I felt that my character was going.” What greater loss can one sustain?I have heard of a young woman who attempted to defend her attendance at places of very doubtful amusements by saying, “I think a Christian can go anywhere.” “Certainly she can,” replied her friend, “but I am reminded of a little incident that occurred when, with a party of friends, I was going down into one of the mines. One of the young girls appeared clad in a white dress. When some of the party remonstrated with her for wearing it, she appealed to the old miner who was to conduct the party, asking if she could not wear a white dress into the mine. ‘Yes, Ma’am, there is nothing to keep you from wearing a white frock down, but there will be a good deal to keep you from wearing one back.’ ” And when once white is soiled it is not easy to remove the stain whether it be on a woman’s dress or a woman’s soul; and there is scarce a sin of which a woman is capable, which stains her more deeply than that with which the woman of the text was charged. Some one has written very truthfully: “Not in the clamor of the crowded street, Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, But in ourselves are triumphs or defeat.” It was a crime against society. Society has always been compelled to so regard this sin, and the state that does not both legislate against it, and then execute its laws, is doomed. This was the sin that wrecked Rome; it was the moral gangrene of this sin that made for the death of Greece; and today governments of the world, without exception, are threatened by the social vice as by no other iniquity, the accursed saloon evil not excepted. The intense hatred of this iniquity felt by the Puritans is past. The fallen woman is no longer compelled to walk the streets with a scarlet letter blazing her shame to every onlooker; nor does she take her place on the block and suffer stripes for the same.And yet, common as is the transgression of the seventh commandment, society looks with disfavor upon the known guilty; and, in America at least, and most of the states of Europe, the statutes speak against it in no uncertain terms, and every man who takes the oath of office and is in position of considerable power in village, city or commonwealth, pledges his opposition to this iniquity. And yet how easy some of these same officials forget that oath!What the mayor of a city can do by way of deterring adultery was shown in Philadelphia when Weaver held that office in the Quaker City.
It was illustrated in Denver just a year ago when forty young women, supposed to have good reputations, were pulled out of wine-rooms in one evening and sent weeping to the lockup at the order of chief of police, Delaney. The morals of Minneapolis in this matter are absolutely in the hands of its mayor.
The moment he gives an order to raid the houses of ill-fame, and the institutions that, under the names of hotels, are known to be nothing other than places of assignation, the wine-room saloons, that in plain violation of the law, are producing social havoc, he could gather in one night hundreds of offenders, and fling into thousands of others a scare from which they would not recover in six months. If I had such a power at my command, not for all the money in the banks of Minneapolis would I fail in the execution of it. The wrecked lives, the broken hearts, the destroyed homes—these would haunt me whether asleep or awake if I did not seek to end it.I read a little while ago a letter from one of our ministers, published in a leading magazine, describing a Chinese scene. A great crowd is on the river bank. In the center two men are holding a pole across their shoulders to which a scale is attached, and on it a girl is being weighed. The man at the scale is shouting, “What will you give for her?” And an old woman—a very hag—answers, “6p. per pound.” “What”, says the auctioneer, “only 6p.?
Look; she is plump; she has on good clothes and bracelets thrown in.” “What is the good of bracelets and such trash to me”, replies the old woman. “I want her.” In the end 6 p., 12 penny a pound, is agreed upon, and she is actually sold at 1 £ 10s 3d by weight, to be sent away to Canton to be sold again for 5£. What for?
The end is unmentionable but perfectly understood; and the benign officials of China, who are talking eloquently about forbidding the exporting of cattle for fear of impoverishing the country, are making no mention whatever lest the sale of the souls of girls should doom and damn it forever. And in the average city of America, the men in the places of authority behave but little better than these Chinese politicians. And adultery, society’s most undermining sin—the modern leprosy of the individual life, goes unchecked and almost unrebuked.It was a crime against a Holy God. He who had home interests at heart, and who must maintain His own righteous character, had said, “Thou shalt not commit adultery”. His right had been trampled under foot by this Magdalene; His honor had been forgotten; the suffering of His heart for righteousness’ sake had been despised—and her name is legion.Of course we have people now who tell us that the Ten Commandments are out of date anyhow; but I find that those who have grown so wise as to be clearly convinced that the Word of God is not inspired, and that the decalogue is nothing better than a social code which came about under evolution of human life, and that only the feeble-minded are bound by it, are quite unwilling to put in practice their own theories when personal interests are thereby imperiled. No man whose wife’s honor is involved will talk after that manner; no man, worthy the name of man, whose daughter’s purity is despoiled, will talk after that manner.
I read a little illustration the other day that reveals the fallacy of such folderol. In the East end of London a Vicar, Rev.
Walsh Ditchfield went into a shoemaker’s shop and invited the cobbler to come to church. “No, indeed”, said the man, “I am not going to hear the Ten Commandments and then say, ‘Lord, incline our hearts to keep these laws.’ Those Ten Commandments are all gone now! The critics have clearly shown that the Bible has no authority. All that old belief about an inspired Book is successfully disputed and is past.” “So?” replied the Vicar, “I declare that is good! I badly want a pair of new shoes, and that pair there are just my size,” and instantly picking them up, he walked away. Why not, if God never said “Thou shalt not steal”?Ah, you men who boast that you are hard-headed business men, and that the old system of theology does not appeal to you, let me tell you that you could not be in business for two hours to-morrow morning if it were not for God’s Divine Law. At the store you would be robbed.
In your own home wife and daughters would be despoiled. Abroad men would lie to you until you should not know what to depend upon; or, coveting your portion, strike you down and leave you to die in your own blood while they rifled your pockets.
Remember that when one commits a crime against God’s Law he involves himself in destruction and disorganizes society and destroys the state. Such was this woman’s sin!In the next place I call your attention to THE WOMAN’S CRITICS “And the scribes and the Pharisees bring a woman taken in adultery; and having set her in the midst, they say unto Him, Teacher, this woman hath been taken in adultery, in the very act. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such: what then sayest Thou of her” (John 8:3-5, R.V.)? They criticised in unsparing speech. They use the darkest word known to their tongue with which to tell the Lord of her iniquity. They waited until Jesus was in the Temple and was thronged on every side and had sat down to teach, and then they dragged this unwilling subject before His righteous eyes and into the midst of the multitude. It may be bad enough for a sinner to fall into the hands of an angry God; it seems to be worse for one to fall into the hands of fellow-men. The Bible enjoins upon us to confess our faults one to another; we seem to have the custom of translating it into, “Confess the faults of one another.” The story goes that a gentleman, thinking to discover the particular denomination of a little girl’s church without the direct question, asked her, “What do they do in your church, my dear?” “Please, sir,” she replied, “they confess one another’s faults”—an answer which left him at sea as to the particular denomination to which she belonged; and I want to tell you that outside of the church the speech of critics is more unsparing still.I have no doubt that the scribes and the Pharisees were about as well behaved as any people of their time, but they took particular pleasure in parading the iniquities of others, under the impression, doubtless, that they were thereby proving their own righteousness. It is a false impression.
A gentleman, riding on top of a jaunting car in Dublin some years ago, says he looked and saw on a building the words, “Post no ills.” Doubtless at one time it had read, “Post no bills”, but some mischievous boy had rubbed out the “b” and made it read now, “Post no ills”. The boy had improved it.
There are all too many people that are engaged in the business of posting the “ills” of others. As this writer says, “One would sometimes almost think that the Master’s command to “Love one another”! was now to be translated “Label one another!”They criticised in unsympathetic spirit. “This woman hath been taken in adultery, in the very act”. There was not a suggestion of sympathy in the direful indictment. God forbid that I should say one word that condones sin; but on the other hand, let me remind you that God has reserved the right of pronouncing final sentence upon the same. And the man who goes into God’s temple and thanks God that he is not a sinner, and looks with contempt upon some offending publican whose vices are not denied, is not justified. His hard spirit and his Pharisaical statements are as offensive in God’s sight as is violation of the moral law.
There is a legend of two saints in the Greek church—Cassianus, a type of monastic asceticism, and St. Nicholas, the type of a genial, unselfish Christianity.
When St. Cassianus enters heaven and Christ says to him, “What hast thou seen on earth, Cassianus?” he replies, “I saw a peasant floundering with his wagon in a marsh.” “Didst thou help him?” “No.” “Why not”, asks the Master. “I was coming before Thee,” said Cassianus, “and I was afraid of soiling my white robes.” Then St. Nicholas enters heaven all covered with mud and mire. “Why so stained and soiled, St. Nicholas?” asks the Master. “I saw a peasant floundering in a marsh, and I put my shoulder to the wheel and helped him out,” he makes answer. “Blessed art thou! Thou didst well! Thou didst better than Cassianus!” says the Lord.
It is only the parable of the Good Samaritan repeated in another form, and it is well for us to remember that that parable originally passed the lips of Christ. Frederick W.
Faber once wrote: “Time was when I believed that wrong In others to detect, Was part of genius, and a gift To cherish, not reject.
“Now better taught by Thee, O Lord, Make me all light within, Self-hating and compassionate, And blind to others’ sin!” They demanded the severest penalty—death. “Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such: what then sayest Thou of her? And this they said, trying Him, that they might have whereof to accuse Him” (John 8:5-6, R. V.). It is a good thing that the interests of sinners are with God rather than with their fellow offenders. Not that God ever condones sin. As Campbell Morgan once said, “The severity of the Law of God is the necessary sequence of His infinite love.” To condone sin in any way or excuse it would be to make impossible the realization of God’s own purpose, namely, the perfection of every human being.
And yet the God who is just is also compassionate. That is the ground of the sinner’s hope. A. J. Gordon once said, “I have long ceased to pray, ‘Jesus have compassion on a lost world.’ I remember the day and the hour when I seemed to hear the Lord rebuking me for making such a prayer. He seemed to say to me, ‘I have had compassion on a lost world and now it is time for you to have compassion.
I have given My heart; now give your heart’.”Listen to the reply of Jesus and get a vision ofTHE WOMAN’S CHRIST His reply is not all in words. It is partly in deeds. What Jesus did was as great as what Jesus said.He shielded her from unnecessary shame. “Jesus stooped down, and with His finger wrote on the ground”. His holy eyes could have pierced her soul through; that is why He turned them away. The sight of a sinful woman is the revelation of the character of the onlooker. The wicked stare at her, particularly if her iniquity has been exposed. The righteous turn their faces away, seeking to save her from further humility and shame. Herein the righteous are like their Christ.
Augustine once wrote, “When a man uncovers his sin, then God covers it.” The unrighteous are eager to know the particulars of her iniquity. The righteous are so absorbed with compassion that they despise the prurient questions as to when, with whom, and where this sin was committed. We are told that when Elizabeth Fry visited Newgate Prison in London, where the women were packed in one room like cattle, without any attention to sanitation, she was much interested in a girl who had committed a terrible crime. When a woman asked her what crime the girl had committed, Elizabeth Fry declared, “I do not know; I never asked.” All that she wanted to know was that this poor, unfortunate girl had made a mistake, and that she needed love to heal the wound and help her to reform. I do not know of any touch in the Scriptures that makes me love Christ more than this that makes Him turn away His eyes from this woman, engaging Himself by writing in the sand, instead of humiliating her by fixing His gaze upon her. Oh, sinner, Christ is doing His utmost to shield you from unnecessary shame!Mark again, Christ suggests equal codes for the sexes. “But when they continued asking Him, He lifted up Himself and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her” (John 8:7, R.
V.). Up to that time men had not supposed that they were to answer for their conduct as surely as a woman; did not imagine that their sin was just as shameful as hers.
When they told Judah that Tamar had sinned and was with child, he got the stake ready for her at once; but when she showed him his rings and bracelets, given in exchange for her virtue, while he consented to let her off, he never said a word in self-condemnation. I know men to-day who spend a part of their time with harlots, but who, when they appear in the social circles, would spurn a sister who was known to have taken a single misstep. They actually believe that adultery on the part of a man is to be condoned, but when committed by a woman is to be condemned even to the point of her social death. With such views Christ had no part. He rose superior to the prejudices of His times, and pronounced righteousness for all centuries; He put the sexes on a common level. And I say tonight to the man who in the past has transgressed the seventh commandment, that you have no more moral right to offer your hand in marriage to a pure woman, than the harlot of yonder streets has the right to expect to be courted and married by the wholesome man. “In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female”, and “God is no respector of persons”.But one thing more—He pronounced absolution for her sin.
There is a remarkable touch in this Scripture. After having looked upon her accusers, it is said, “And again He stooped down, and with His finger wrote on the ground”.
I think He was so compassionate as to also pity men. He knew that every scribe and Pharisee before Him was a sinner. Having brought His indictment to that effect, He could have burned it in by having looked them through with eyes that were as flames of fire. But even these He would not unnecessarily embarrass, and so He bowed Himself toward the earth and let them deal directly with God in the secret chamber of the soul. And in this chamber, they were condemned and“They, when they heard it, went out one by one, beginning from the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the midst. And Jesus lifted up Himself, and said unto her, Woman, where are they? did no man condemn thee? * * And she said, No man, Lord.
And Jesus said, Neither do I condemn thee: go thy way; from henceforth sin no more” (John 8:9-11, R. V.). Oh, what a wonderful Saviour! It was His Law she had transgressed; He had a right to condemn. It was against His holiness she had offended; He had a right to be grieved. “Judgment belongeth unto Him”; He had a right to pronounce it. The sentence of death is with Him, and with Him alone; He might have spoken it! But doubtless, back of the burning cheeks, He knew there was a penitent heart; ’neath the shame with which she was clothed, He understood there was a great sense of sin, and no penitent sinner ever yet came to Christ to be either put away or to receive the sentence of death. Compassion, rather, is His common conduct.
Absolution from sin is the speech in which He most delights. The helpless condition of humanity is the surest appeal to the heart of the Son of God.We have read the story of that Russian officer who could not make his accounts come right.
There was a heavy balance against him. In the rigid court of the Empire he feared the consequences; could he not somehow make it up? Poring over the figures until midnight, weary and despondent, he finally began to scribble and wrote on the paper before him, “Who will make up this difference?” And then, exhausted, he fell asleep. The Czar, passing through the room and wondering what the officer was doing, came and looked over his shoulder. Reading the words, he picked up the paper and wrote, “I, even I, Alexander.” Ah, for the bankrupt soul it is our only hope that the Emperor himself, even Christ, will meet the debt. Paul faced it in the seventh chapter of Romans, and after having finished the catalogue of sins, breaks into the piteous appeal, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death” (Romans 7:24, R.
V.)? to answer it in a few seconds by faith, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord”. That was his one and his only hope.To be saved from sin is a great work.
To be enjoined to “sin no more”, shows the expectation of Christ. And yet He, knowing our weakness, promises assistance. Men say to me, “We are afraid to begin lest we cannot hold out,” but Christ answers, “My grace is sufficient for thee”. Men say, “But the old sins have so weakened and scarred us that we cannot hope to recover.” Remember the words of Peter, “Ӕ ?neas, Jesus Christ hath made thee whole”. He is able! Aye, He is willing! Aye, His work is a scientific demonstration of His power to remove from sin and to recover from scars!Some of you know the story of Burke, the ex-burglar. When he gave himself to Christ, his pastor recorded that so bad was he that for months he was without employment, suffering shame and sorrow.
But he kept bravely on until by and by somebody sympathized with and lent him assistance.Mr. Moody, telling the story, says, “His sin-blurred features were against him, and he one day cried out in prayer, ‘Oh, make me a better looking man that I may get a job!’ ” Moody says, “You may smile at the prayer, but I bless God that he made it, for after a time that very man Burke was as fine a looking fellow as could be seen in Chicago, and I cannot help thinking”, said the great evangelist, “that it was the Lord Himself who did, in answer to the childlike faith of the man, answer his petition.” It was during those days of hardship that Burke kept steadily on his way, suffering much and oft discouraged, but never turning back to his sin. He had gone from Chicago to New York, and from New York to St. Louis, when one day there came a message from the sheriff that he wanted to see him at the court-house. Burke, with a heavy heart, started, saying as he went, “Some old case they’ve got against me. But if I’m guilty, I’ll tell them so.
I’m done lying.” The sheriff greeted him kindly and asked, “Where have you been Burke? What have you been doing in those cities?
Have you kept a good grip on the religion you told me about?” “Yes”, answered Burke, looking him steadily in the eye. “I’ve had a hard time, sheriff, but I haven’t lost my religion.” “Burke”, said the sheriff, “I have had you shadowed every day you were in New York. I suspected that your religion was a fraud, but I want to say to you that I know you’ve lived an honest, Christian life, and I have sent for you to offer you a deputyship under me. And you can begin at once.” He began! He set his face like a flint! Steadily this old burglar went on until honorable business men by and by tipped their hats to him as they passed, talking about him as they sat at their tables. One day Moody called on him and found Burke in the sheriff’s office.
He had a sack of gems in his lap worth $60,000.00. “Moody”, said he, “see what the grace of God can do for a burglar. Look at this!
These diamonds had been stolen and the sheriff recovered them, and he has put me to guard them.” And he cried like a child as he held up the stones for Moody to see.Yes, He can absolve from sin! And He can keep men so that they can obey His Word and sin no more!