Trapped
Blog Series #6: How Jesus Treats Women, Part 1a He Sets Her Free John 8:1-11
I am beginning a new series today: ‘How Jesus Treats Women.’
The Woman Trapped in Adultery in John 8:1-11 (most translations favor the verb ‘caught’ but for reasons I will explain, I prefer ‘trapped’) forms an excellent introduction to the themes I plan to cover in this series:
Jesus is always kind to women. He treats them as His equals. Jesus lives out His own command: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself’ with each woman He encounters.
Jesus knows all that each person He encountered has ever done in their past – including aborting fetuses. See John 1:47-49 and 4:29.
In direct opposition to the political evangelicals who claim to be ‘christian’ today, Jesus never once accuses a woman He encounters of … ANY thing.
Not even murder.
Also in stark contrast to the American nationalists (often evangelicals) who claim to be ‘christian’ today, Jesus does not once condemn a woman He encounters of … well … ANY thing.
Not even murder.
Jesus does not consider the topic of abortion to be pertinent enough to bring up in conversation, much less an action worth condemning a woman for.
As I’ve pointed out in this blog on a few occasions, one can spot a political evangelical (whether they be a christian nationalist today or a pharisee/sadducee of Jesus’ day) by their LUST for
a. political Power
b. social Prestige and
c. the accumulation of material Wealth.
In every recorded encounter Jesus has with a woman we see Him turn AWAY from — or even IGNORE — the people who strive relentlessly after Power/Prestige/Wealth in order to focus His full attention on a woman who possesses well … none of those things.
Once you begin to watch for this phenomenon in Bible stories, it is
… breathtaking.
Points 3, 4 and 5 are in line with John’s assertion in chapter 3 of his Gospel, verses 17-18:
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
By the end of this series, I may sound a bit like a broken record as I’ll likely continue repeating (possibly adding to) these seven themes over and over again.
I am kicking off this series with three posts about a story commonly titled in English: The Woman Caught In Adultery. My posts (including this one) will likely be titled:
‘Trapped,’
‘Erased’
‘Set Free.’
I’ll look at this woman trapped by Pharisees in the context of Jesus’ refusal to condemn this woman as the pharisees demand, His mysterious writing in the sand, and His exhortation to ‘go and sin no more.’ The story is found in John 8:1-11 from the New International Version of the Bible:
1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 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. 7 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.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 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?”
11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
No Condemnation:
In verse 10, Jesus asks the woman, “Has no one condemned you?”
Her answer likely surprises even her.
In that moment Jesus had the opportunity to condemn this woman for ANYthing she had ever done, including aborting fetuses. We find in John 4:29 that Jesus had the ability to see the entire life of the Samaritan Woman at the Well: “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”
Therefore, Jesus knew everything about this woman thrown before Him.
It is very likely that, in desperation, just as it is for impoverished women today, powerless women with no resources for survival found they had to give themselves sexually to the men who controlled all the resources in order to receive any shelter and food.
Survival.
When the man does not want to provide shelter and food for one more child, especially out of wedlock, these women must abort fetuses in order to continue having sex so that they can receive shelter and food to sustain their own lives.
It is an exchange of goods for services; a pattern of human behavior as old as time.
Well … as old as patriarchal economic structures anyway.
As long as we live in patriarchal societies where men possess far more of the resources necessary for survival than women do, it will be this way.
Clearly this entrapped woman thrown before Jesus had no social prestige or political power to defend herself against these religious leaders’ accusations. This obvious lack of resources and political power reveals her motivation to use her body sexually to gain the shelter/food she needs, then abort fetuses so that she could continue to survive this way. Her lack of resources, prestige, social influence, or political power also made her easy prey for the pharisees to capture and use as bait for their trap.
And Jesus would have KNOWN all of this.
Contrary to the narrative that political evangelicals would have us believe today, Jesus did NOT seize this opportunity to condemn her as an adulteress nor as a ‘murderer’ for aborting non-viable fetuses (it sounds weird even typing this bizarre modern-day political drivel).
That is what makes our Creator …
… breathtaking.
I'm so glad you wrote on this topic. I have been thinking a LOT about exactly this recently. Thank you.