8 Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, ² but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. ³ As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.

⁴ “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵ The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”

⁶ They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. ⁷ They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” ⁸ Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.

⁹ When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. ¹⁰ Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

¹¹ “No, Lord,” she said.

And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

¹² Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”

¹³ The Pharisees replied, “You are making those claims about yourself! Such testimony is not valid.”

¹⁴ Jesus told them, “These claims are valid even though I make them about myself. For I know where I came from and where I am going, but you don’t know this about me. ¹⁵ You judge me by human standards, but I do not judge anyone. ¹⁶ And if I did, my judgment would be correct in every respect because I am not alone. The Father who sent me is with me. ¹⁷ Your own law says that if two people agree about something, their witness is accepted as fact. ¹⁸ I am one witness, and my Father who sent me is the other.”

¹⁹ “Where is your father?” they asked.

Jesus answered, “Since you don’t know who I am, you don’t know who my Father is. If you knew me, you would also know my Father.” ²⁰ Jesus made these statements while he was teaching in the section of the Temple known as the Treasury. But he was not arrested, because his time had not yet come.

John 8:1-20

Dear God, I’m trying to do my best lately to take stories and put them in their context. For example, today’s verse of the day from Bible Gateway was John 8:12:  Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” What we miss is what has the Pharisees to whom he is speaking at the moment upset is that he just made them look like fools over the woman caught in adultery. His last words to the woman are what he said right before he said this. Jesus was bringing light. He wasn’t excusing sin, but he was forgiving it. He wasn’t condoning it, but he was having mercy on it. And then he turns and reminds everyone that they are walking in darkness, but if they follow him they can walk in the light. It’s all part of the same story.

Again, I’ll admit that if I had been there I don’t think I would have even come close to believing that Jesus is the Messiah. And even though I know errant teaching has crept into what I think I know about scripture, I am grateful to at least have this foundation, flawed as it might be, to lean on and build on. Jesus goes on to claim things about himself that I wouldn’t have believed in the moment. It was too fantastic. But now it all makes sense.

Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, as I get ready to head into this day, I am going to have a lot of opportunities to love people and have mercy. I am also going to have opportunities to encourage them to you and to a higher standard. To go and sin no more. But first, let that start with me. I am sorry for my sin. I am sorry for the multiple areas I fail you. I am sorry for my thoughts and my words. For what I have done and what I have failed to do. Help me to carry the humility of that repentance into my day as I then encourage others to let go of their sin, turn from their ways, and embrace your mercy and a relationship with you.

I pray all of this under your authority,

Amen