Dirt, Stones, and Outstretched Hands: A Study on the Promiscuous Girl in John 8
“1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
2 At dawn he went to the temple again, and all the people were coming to him. He sat down and began to teach them.
3 Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, making her stand in the center. 4 “Teacher,” they said to him, “this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery. 5 In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 They asked this to trap him, in order that they might have evidence to accuse him.
Jesus stooped down and started writing on the ground with his finger. 7 When they persisted in questioning him, he stood up and said to them, “The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Then he stooped down again and continued writing on the ground. 9 When they heard this, they left one by one, starting with the older men. Only he was left, with the woman in the center. 10 When Jesus stood up, he said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11 “No one, Lord,” she answered.
“Neither do I condemn you,” said Jesus. “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.”
It was just another normal day.
Jesus walked to the temple, again drawing a huge crowd who desired, craved, needed to hear His teachings. To be seen, heard, healed, taught, and loved.
And then, in the middle of His sermon, the scribes and Pharisees—the literal-minded religious leaders of the time with a huge superiority complex—drag a woman into the middle of the crowd and throw her down.
And I’m not talking about the “go dance in the center of the party circle” type of way. I’m talking about “hey everybody, look at this traitorous and disgusting woman” type of way.
Because while it was another normal day for everyone else, it was not for this woman.
It was the day that she was caught.
Now, the Bible doesn’t tell us who caught her in the act of cheating on her husband. The Bible also doesn’t tell us how she ended up in the hands of the scribes and Pharisees, nor if her adultery was a one-night stand or a years-long affair.
All it tells us is that the scribes and Pharisees threw this adulteress down into the middle of a crowd and declared to everyone in the vicinity that she had committed adultery.
They probably didn’t care as much about her sins and her due punishment as they did about testing Jesus’s authority as a religious teacher Himself. They asked Him, “In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do You say?” (John 8:5).
They didn’t care that this woman probably woke up that morning in the arms of her lover . . .
. . . and thought she would die in the middle of a crowd.
But death never came.
For where many of us would watch and do nothing as those Pharisees dragged this ragtag woman into the middle of the crowd, Jesus took a few seconds to kneel in the ground, write something that the Bible doesn’t tell us, and then stand up to say: “The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7).
One by one, every person in that crowd left.
Including the Pharisees.
And when the quiet accusation of the moment transformed into the quiet awkwardness of Jesus standing over this woman thrown into the dirt because of her sins, He looked at her (with what I imagine to be a loving and grace-filled expression) and asked, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” (John 8:10).
She stared up at him (with what I imagine to be an expression of awe, shock, and disbelief) and responds, “No one, Lord” (John 8:11).
I can imagine Jesus nodding and smiling at her before saying, “Neither do I condemn you.” Then I imagine Him holding out a calloused hand and helping her up. And then He says, “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore” (John 8:11).
I used to read this passage of Scripture and think nothing of it, really. Maybe I thought that I couldn’t relate to that woman thrown into the dirt and into the middle of a crowd that had gathered to see Jesus, not a woman accused and stoned.
I couldn’t relate to her shame, fear, guilt, and self-esteem. I couldn’t relate to the feeling of being thrown into the dirt in front of strangers, readying myself to breathe my last and see my last ray of sunshine.
All that changed for me a few weeks ago.
After one or two weeks of falling into a rut and into decisions that I knew weren’t the best for me, God felt so far from me. I knew what I was doing: hiding from Him. Idolizing things other than Him. Convincing myself to enjoy my detrimental decisions for just a little while longer before I would relent and run back to God. But then I would feel guilty for thinking that God would accept a broken and faithless sinner like me, so I just sank deeper into my decisions—and deeper into my rut.
Then one day, while standing in my bathroom and drying my hair, I felt Jesus’s presence stand right beside me. As clear as He used to be when God and I spent time every day together, talking and listening and reading and resting.
I can’t really describe this moment, for it is still fuzzy in my mind (a mind still addled by decisions I continue to make and the rut I still remain in). But I heard Him speak of the promiscuous woman in John 8.
He gave me a glimpse into His relationship with that woman in the dirt, thrown there by the Pharisees. He saw that woman and felt no shame or disgust toward her. He only felt love, adoration, and a desire for her to return to Him and be faithful.
And then He directed those same feelings toward me. He assured me He felt no shame or disgust, but only true love, adoration, and desire. I started tearing up in my bathroom, eyes wet but hair mostly dry now.
There’s so many instances of unfaithfulness in the Bible. Honestly, I could go into a whole study about the prophet Hosea and the prostitute Gomer; Rahab the prostitute; King David and Uriah’s wife Bathsheba (who, fun fact, was actually one of the only 5 woman mentioned in Jesus’s genealogy in the gospel of Matthew); the Israelites themselves and their hearts that swayed between loyalty to God and loyalty to idols.
But I won’t do any of that today.
Instead, I will allow God to speak to the woman like me right now.
The woman who is making decisions she knows she shouldn’t,
the woman who is letting herself get distracted,
the woman who is idolizing people and things above her God,
the woman who is sleeping with people she knows she shouldn’t,
the woman who is ashamed and disgusted with herself,
the woman who is not sure how to turn back to God her Father,
and the woman who is not sure if God her Father will take her back.
I’m here today, standing proof and continual proof that
God wants you back, daughter of God.
It doesn’t matter how promiscuous you’ve been (anybody else singing “Promiscuous Girl” by Nelly Furtado right now?),
how far you’ve run from God,
how long you’ve been hiding from Him,
or whatever other excuse or belief you utter to yourself in the middle of the night to try to console yourself.
God. Wants. You. Back.
You are His daughter. There is nothing you could do to change that. Nothing you could do make Him want you or love you less.
Turn your face back to Him, daughter of God.
Leave your hiding place.
Take that first step forward.
Run.
And jump into the arms of a God who loves you beyond any definition of love you will ever know.
God isn’t judging you.
God isn’t ashamed of you.
God isn’t sentencing you to death.
God isn’t throwing stones.
God isn’t falling out of love with you.
Whether you’re faithful or promiscuous,
God stands with His hand held out for you to take
so He can lift you up from your spot in the dirt.
