THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING MAN - by Revd Gilbert Wong

Texts: John 8:1-11

Ash Wednesday  21 February 2007

The missing man

Whichever way you look at it, the story of the woman caught committing adultery is a very beautiful one, and also a very strange one.  One strange thing is that we do not know where in the Bible it belongs.  The footnote to the New Revised Standard Version says: ‘The most ancient authorities lack 7:53-8:11; other authorities add the passage here or after 7:36 or after 21:25 or after Luke 21:38, with variations of the text; some mark the passage as doubtful.’ 

What that all means is that this story is probably not from the pen of whoever wrote the rest of the Fourth Gospel.  Yet nobody seems to be in doubt that it is so characteristic of Jesus to have behaved and spoken in this way, that it must be a genuine recollection of an event that really occurred.  Like many others, however, it got left out of the first draft of the Gospels.  But there is something else which is even more strange, and that is ‘The Mystery of the Missing Man’.  To state the blindingly obvious, it takes two to commit adultery.

Deuteronomy chapter 22, verse 22, lays down the law that ‘if a man is caught lying with his wife of another man, both of them shall die.’  Both of them.  But the man who committed adultery with this woman appears nowhere in the story; he seems to have vanished without a trace.  So the crucial evidence is missing in the charge against the woman who was brought before Jesus.

A set-up

It all sounds very phoney.  Could it be that an innocent woman was seduced or trapped into a situation where she couldn’t defend herself, in order to bring a test case before Jesus?  A real set-up?  The purpose of the arrest was not to trap the woman, it was a trap Jesus.  The Gospel itself says of the Pharisees’ question, ‘They said this to test him…’

Jesus knew that if he declared the woman to be innocent, he was going against the Law of Moses, or at least, against the Pharisees’ interpretation of it.  Yet if he declared her guilty, he’d appear so uncaring that he’d lose his popular support from the people.  It was to place Jesus in this dilemma that the poor woman had been dragged before him without any proper evidence; her accusers weren’t really interested in what happened to her; after all, they thought, she was only a woman.

The escape clause

So Jesus used one of the Pharisees’ own traditions to avoid having to condemn the woman.  It was his escape clause.  They said that only a man who was completely innocent himself was allowed to carry out the death sentence.  The woman’s accusers probably know of Jesus’ declaration that somebody ho plans to commit adultery, even if he is prevented from carrying out his plans, is as guilty as the one who actually commits the offence.  To commit adultery in your head is as sinful as committing it in bed.  So Jesus said, ‘Let anyone among you who is without sin be he first to throw a stone at her.’  Was anyone prepared to stand up in public and claim that they’d never had a sinful thought in their lives?  Of course not.  So they slunk away, hoist with their own petard.

How to deal with a sinner

Jesus was left alone with the woman, and he said to her, “Woman, where are they?  Has no one condemned you?”  She said, “No one, sir.”  And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.  Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”’  Jesus knew that for many people, to keep to the strict letter of the Law was impossible.  The Pharisees wrote these people off scornfully as ‘sinners’; Jesus treated them with compassion.  He wasn’t going to fall into the other trap, of saying that adultery isn’t a sin.  But like every other sin, it can be forgiven if we’re truly penitent, and resolve to avoid temptation in the future.  Jesus says the same to each one of us: ‘Neither do I condemn you.  Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.’

Church of the Ascension, 13 Francis Thomas Drive, Singapore 359339
Mailing Address: Toa Payoh Central Post-Office P.O. Box 162 Singapore 913106 
Tel (65) 6283 3988 Fax (65) 6283 3220 Email: [Church Office][Website Editor]
All Rights Reserved
[Home] **