“Caught; in the very act”!

In life, it is interesting how one is addressed by the seemingly unpalatable situations, or problems in life he or she may be experiencing or going through at the time; how other people tend to use the situation or problem to refer the person.

This is the story about a woman, who was caught in adultery; we do not know her given name. She is referred to as the “Woman caught in adultery”. She was literarily caught in the very act. Obviously, for it to be termed adultery and not fornication, means she was a married woman, and not just a random prostitute as some may presume; and she probably had kids. Her name is not known, neither is the name of her husband mentioned nor his family. Even the man she was committing the adultery with, is not mentioned. She wouldn’t have been committing adultery with herself or with a ghost, would she? One would ask, why then was she the only one caught? Maybe her partner was fast enough to escape; but not this woman. Unfortunately for her, the era she was in, was the period and times when adultery was so grievous a sin that the penalty according to the law, was stoning the culprit to death.

The men that caught her in the very act of adultery, were not ordinary men, they were men of high repute in the society and in the religious community. I wonder how they knew something like the act of adultery was going on at the time, for them to have been able to catch her in the very act; were they watching out for her? Was she a well-known adulteress in the town? Or was it just a random coincidence, that they were all around the house the adultery was being committed? Nevertheless, there was no way of escape for this woman, nor was she given the option to defend herself. These teachers of the law and their associates, were ready to mete out the full weight of the law on this woman.

They looked around for someone they could take her to, that would help them justify their mission. (Maybe it was because, they didn’t really want the woman’s blood to be on their hands; maybe they were even guilty of the same offence, or just wanted to get rid of her as she may have become a nuisance to the society; or maybe the man she had committed the sin with; was even a man of high repute himself; so, with the woman dead, his secret would be safe). The list of possibilities could go on and on. After they must have probably beaten her and disgraced her publicly, they dragged her to the place of her final judgement, to a Man without sin, whom they knew for sure, she would not be able to escape from. They brought her to JESUS.

“And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, they say unto him, 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”?

This was a big case for Jesus, because their motive was not pure. The mission of this group of people was to pass judgment at all cost on this woman who was caught in sin: They wanted to get rid of the woman; they wanted her dead. They also wanted to trap Jesus; because they knew He could not go against the Law.

“…This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not…”

…So, 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…

… And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. …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.

Jesus is Humanity’s only saving grace from the judgement of sin – which is death. If you don’t have Jesus, you cannot receive mercy, because, mercy always triumphs over judgement, no matter the gravity of the offense or crime. Thank God this woman, somehow through divine orchestration, had Jesus in her corner.

Do you have Jesus in your corner?