John 8 contains the story of the woman caught in adultery. The legalists of Jesus’ day (the Pharisees) bring this woman to Jesus, point out that the law of Moses commanded that she be stoned to death, and asked Jesus what he had to say about the matter.
All of this was a test. They were looking for a way to trap Jesus. Nevertheless, what Jesus says to her has lived on as one of the guiding stories for the Christian Church.
Jesus says to them, “Let him among you is without sin cast the first stone.”
We are sometimes so preoccupied with the sins of others that we fail to acknowledge the sin in our own lives. We suffer from the mistaken notion that we will look better in God’s eyes, when our eyes are set upon that which is lacking in the life of another. We suffer from the illusion that our guilty conscience will go away if we find reasons why others ought to be “guiltier.”
Confession is the act by which sin is forgiven. We cannot confess the sins of a sister or brother, our talk of their sin can only accuse. The crowd who brought the woman to Jesus was eager to deal with her sin, but not their own. Jesus reminds them that God’s children are those who use their tongues to confess, not to condemn.
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