I AM: A Free Week Eight - Day Five: A Narrative of the Adulterous Woman

By Central Women

She didn’t intend to end up here. She had so much potential, so much to offer the world. But, as we all are, she was one choice, one decision away from throwing her life away.

He was everything she ever wanted. He had it all, and hopefully, he would share it all with her…someday.

Emotions were spinning, and in one decision, she crossed the line she knew could never uncross.

Suddenly a ruckus began. Dawn had broken, but the room was still dark except for slivers of light, peering in. Enough light to make out bodies. Men. They came barreling in, shouting, pulling at her. She didn’t even have a moment to dress. She felt hands, grasping her arms and legs.

She couldn’t make out what they were saying. Words spat at her, and about her. “Adulterer,” “stones,” “law.”

She was caught. This was the end for her. She was impure, and there is no undoing what she has done. This is how it ends, barely clothed, disheveled, paraded through town for all to see. She couldn’t look up. “Maybe, just maybe, if I keep my head down, my hair will cover my face. Maybe they won’t recognize me.”

What would they say about her? Does it even matter? Nothing about her life mattered anymore. She was a scandal. Was she worth nothing more than this?

And where is he? He was a part of this. It takes two. Slowly she looked up…searching the people around her. Plenty of men, plenty of voices. But not his. Surely, they were dragging him out as well.

Death by stoning is the punishment for adultery. The Law of Moses commanded it. But the law also commanded the man must also appear. Where is he?

Her head still hung low, but she could tell they were now in the temple courts. Men had been sitting, listening to the young rabbi.

He was new in town, and she had heard people speak of miraculous deeds he had performed. A crippled man at the healing pool in Jerusalem, and the mystery of five loaves of bread and two fish that fed over 5000 men.

More hands on her forced her upright. She stood as people gathered around her. “Teacher,” a loud voice cried out. “This woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now, what do you say?”

Tears filled her eyes. She didn’t dare look up, but she could see people bending over to pick up stones. Hands gathering two or three at a time. Some people lingered near the ground, almost as though they were surveying the stones. As if they were thinking, “which stone is best?”

Jesus didn’t answer. A hush came over the crowd. Haunting silence. Holding her breath…waiting for someone to speak.

Again, they pressed Jesus for an answer, but she saw him, bent over, his finger in the sand. “What was He doing? Writing something?”

Jesus straightened and spoke.

“If anyone of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”

He bent again, writing on the ground.

No one spoke. Her body tensed. “Be strong,” she told herself. “It will be over soon.”

She waited, tears streaming. She is a criminal, an adulterer. She committed a sin and was a prisoner to it. “Maybe there is freedom in death,” she wondered.

No stone hit her. She heard a stone hit the ground and a puff of dust release in the air. Then slowly, another stone dropped to the ground, more dust. Again, and again. Not one stone hit her; each stone was dropped.

After a long moment, she lifted her chin slightly. The people's feet and dirty sandals she had seen in the dust before her now were gone.

Where were they?

Jesus straightened. “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

Puzzled and confused she answers, “No one, sir.”

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Still confused, it took her a moment. Tears came harder now. In one moment she prepared to face death, and in the next, freedom.

Jesus pardoned her. Where once there had been the law, justice, condemnation, shame, there was now grace. She was free.

“Never.,” she promised herself. “I will never return to this sin. I was a prisoner to this sin, but Jesus calls me free.”