“But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.
In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, ‘Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ ‘No one, sir,’ she said.’Then neither do I condemn you,”’Jesus declared. ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’ -John 8:1-11
John 8:1-11 teaches us a lesson about compassion. Jesus was teaching to a crowd of people and the religious scholars brought a woman before him that was caught committing adultery. The punishment for that crime was a public stoning, so the scholars questioned Jesus about whether or not to stone her in order to follow the law. Now, they were not asking Jesus his perspective because they cared so much for this woman, or even because they thought that the consequence was too harsh. They only asked Jesus in order to try to trap him into not abiding by the law of Moses. Wow! Talk about lack of empathy.
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