Stone Tossing
In John 8:2-11, Jesus famously is in the presence of a crowd of people who are about to kill a woman for adultery. It is worth mentioning that even though we feel in our present cultural circumstances that such a punishment is totally inappropriate, this was not the case in the first century (nor for many centuries after, as well). Adultery was considered a threat to stable clan-based and tribal communities. Even the Bible sanctioned death for adulterers in Leviticus 20:10.
Jesus does not allow the execution to take place, however. Not because she is innocent. She is not. Even Jesus admits it. He does not even stop the execution because he feels the Old Testament law is wrong. He does not mention it one way or another. He statement – “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone” – implies that if a person came a long without sin then it might be permissible for them to cast a stone. So, in principal, he is not even abrogating the Law of God.
No, in the end, he seems to be enforcing the principal that servants of God should avoiding hypocrisy in practicing their faith, and most especially when they are doing something in the name of the God they serve. This principal arises several times in scripture (famously in Luke 12:1).
Perhaps it might be right to execute someone for some reason, but we are equally worthy of death for the great crimes we have undertaken. And so, if there is punishment to be met out, it ought to be met out by the One without sin – Jesus Christ alone. Not by me. Not you. Not any government.
In our culture, the death penalty is most often put forward for murderers. I think Jesus would remind us that we are all complicity in killing people or letting them die. Every day we do nothing while the innocent are slaughtered in Darfur; every day we gorge on food while millions starve; every day we buy the product of peoples working in sweat shops working themselves into early graves; every day we fail to pay for and send to those who need them, simple and cheap medicines that kill millions; every day . . . every day. And none of this is beginning touch on the bad that each and everyone of us has done in our own lives- our betrayals and hurts of others.
None of us ought to be condemning others to death. None of us are righteous enough for so awful a task.
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