Coptic Orthodox Answers

In the name the Father and Son, the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.

Welcome to Coptic Orthodox Answers Deep Dive. We have been seeing how Christ was continually making Himself equal to God and He was also healing on the Sabbath, and therefore, the Pharisees wanted to kill Him. They even sent the temple guards to arrest Him, but even them, they acknowledged the truth that He was potentially the Messiah, because they heard His words and His words touched them.

Now, we're about the start chapter 8 of the Gospel of John and chapter 8 continues the narrative in that direction. How St. John, here, the beloved, he's demonstrating the tension between Christ and the Pharisees with another event, which was the event of the adulterous woman. And we will look at this event from a completely different angle. So, I encourage you to stay with us until the end.

In this chapter, Christ makes it a point once more to demonstrate that He is truly the Messiah, but again the Pharisees' reaction is still to reject Him; the temple guards are still unsure, but let us dig into it.

'' 1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them. 3 Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, 4 they said to Him, ''Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. 5 Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?'' '' (John 8:1-5)

Now this was obviously a test for many reasons. The first one: the woman was caught in the very act of adultery. That means so was the man. But where is the man? They didn't bring him. The law condemns both. Here, potentially, the Pharisees agreed with that man to set up this woman, whether she was married or she was a prostitute.

The second point: they were at the end of a feast. It is not time to judge anybody. Ideally, they would put her under guard and bring her for judgement at the appropriate time.

Thirdly, the Pharisees were not a fan of Jesus. Why would they ask Him for guidance or direction? Especially that the Old Testament law is very obvious: she ought to be stoned. So, why are they bringing her to Christ?

And it becomes obvious that this was a test when we realize the situation. First, if Christ says forgive her, then He is breaking the Old Testament law publicly and that's a problem, because people will stop following Him.

And if He says stone her, then He actually asked them to murder her. And they are very well aware, the Pharisees, that, under Roman authority, you are not allowed to kill without their consent. So actually, stoning at that period in history was not something that they were able to do. It was not something in their hands, although the law still commanded this. So, they put Christ between a rock and a hard place and He had to deal with the situation.

Now, we can see in verse 5 how they truly build that tension to set Him up, because they wanna set Him up against Moses, like we've said. So, in verse 5, it says:

'' 5 ''Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?'' '' (John 8:5)

Will you break, you know, the commandment of Moses? Will you say otherwise? So, they're really setting Him up. Obviously, when it comes to stoning, this is a very much... an Old Testament type of punishment. Why... like, I don't wanna discuss this now; it's not the appropriate time: we're having a Bible study. But I do encourage you to go look at the Violence in the Old Testament series that we've done. I think there's about 9 videos on that that explain the concept and the background and the context of the people at the time. And with this in mind, you will understand why stoning was part of what people just simply did at the time.

And Christ was going down or God was going down, you know, and stooping down at the level of humanity, that barbaric humanity at the time. And because God was dealing with them, He was dealing with them in their own way. So, this was not according to God's heart or God's desire on how He would ultimately do things, but it was according to the way humans were at the time.

Verse 6:

'' 6 This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.'' (John 8:6)

Christ is unhappy about the Pharisees' literal approach to the Old Testament laws, this approach that demonstrates no mercy whatsoever. And therefore, in a sign of protest, he stoops down and starts writing. He's demonstrating to them that He's unhappy with this current situation.

Now, many people have tried to guess what is it that Christ wrote. Many have looked at the Old Testament prophets and tried to, you know, link this John 8, verse 6 with the Old Testament prophets and they came up to certain conclusions. I'm not gonna tackle those here, but I'm just telling you that this information is available in case you would like to research it.

But I do wanna share with you a spiritual message. Christ tells us: Do not judge. And with the same measure that we will judge, it will be measured back to us. In other words, He's saying: I am the only sinless being, the one that is able to judge. I am the Creator; you are the creation; you're all sinners. Not that Christ is necessarily accusing us, but this is a fact: we are sinners. Us, as sinners, why do we make it a point to judge each other? And that's why He would tell us: Don't judge.

St. Augustine, here, in discussing this specific verse, he comments and he says the following. He says Christ wanted to give them a message and the message was: You think that I am to condemn sin right now? Sure, if you want me to condemn, if you want me to judge, if that's the reason why you bring this woman to me so I can judge her, judge her sins, I will judge sins, okay, fine! But you know what? I will start with your sins. Oof! That is scary and a half!

Before we judge our brothers and sisters in Christ, or our brothers/sisters even that are not Christians, we ought to remember that we are not any better. A Christian does not perceive himself above others. It's actually quite the opposite: a Christian stoops down and washes others' feet. He understands that he owes them. He owes them the light of the Gospel. He owes them the good news. He ought to love.

I wanna share with you a story of mercy done by saint Pope Kyrillos the 6 th . This man was the 116 th pope of Alexandria who lived at the end of the 20 th century. He was a man of prayer, a man of miracles. He's a person that is very close to my own heart, because of just the man that he was. He is truly an example to every believer that gets to know who he is.

So, there's a story that happened on Good Friday. And on Good Friday, obviously, the Coptic Church has a ritual where they pray... we pray from about 8 am to 6-7 pm. And the monks and nuns in the monasteries, they pray for even longer, right? And there's was this man that was just starting with Christ and he decided to go pray Good Friday at the monastery. But the prayers were taking so long and he wasn't used to that, so, he started becoming so hungry.

It came to a point that he couldn't tolerate it anymore, so, he decided just to go in the kitchen in the monastery and grab something to eat. And as he was eating, he heard the footsteps of someone coming and this person was the Pope himself. And the Pope, by the way, he was huge physically; he was very big. So, the man, obviously, was freaking out.

First of all, he broke his fast. Second of all, he is in the kitchen where he has no business to be in. You can't just go in the kitchen in the monasteries like that. And third of all, he's taking food that is not his. So, the Pope walks in. The man most probably expects the worst.

And the Pope tells him the following, and this is Good Friday, remember, right? The Pope tells him: My son... look, look at the fatherly love... My son, what brought you here to the monastery? You know that we are monks. Monks, we pray for long; we fast for long hours. You're not ready yet for these things. And then he told him: Here, here's a bowl of fruit. And he brought him an orange and he peeled the orange for him and give it for him to eat.

This mercy that transcends the letter of the law... Even on Good Friday? Even on Good Friday! This is the heart of God that seeks the salvation of everybody. In Luke 12:32, he tells us:

'' 32 '' (...), little flock, [be of good cheer] for it is [the] Father’s (...) pleasure to give you the kingdom.'' '' (Luke 12:32)

This is who God is. Let us imitate God in His mercy, not in judgment!

Moving on to verse 7:

'' 7 So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, ''He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.'' 8 And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.'' (John 8:7-8)

This was a marvellous answer, because on one side, He does not break the law, right? So, He does not contradict Himself who is God, who is the provider of the Old Testament law. But at the same time, they do not get to kill that woman, because they are sinners. So, He puts them in a corner. Now, this is also very important, because here, Christ transitions from the cruelty of the Old Testament law to the merciful New Testament law. And this is one of the ways that He proclaims that He is the Messiah. How is He doing this?

The Old Testament law is exemplified by the Ten Commandments that are written by the finger of God on tablets of stone and given to Moses. Here, as Christ transitions to the New Testament law, He's also writing with His finger, but not on stone anymore; he's writing on the ground. The difference between the ground and the stone is that the stone is dead, but the ground can produce life. We take a seed, we put in the ground, it brings forth life.

So, Christ wanted to tell them: I'm about to give you a law, the New Testament law. This is the real law: the one that gives life; the one that you ought to live by; the one that My heart desired to give you since the beginning; the one that if you live by it and establish it in your societies, right?, in your families, in your churches, right?, in the entire world, you will truly have life in Me and you will live like I live.

This idea could be seen in Ezekiel 36 when he says:

'' 26 ''I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.'' '' (Ezekiel 36:26-27)

In other words, I will remove your hearts of stone; I will give you hearts of flesh; I'll give you My Spirit and a new law to live by, right? That's pretty much what He's saying here. And that's why He says, in verse 27: I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes. These are My statutes, this New Testament law. And you will keep My judgments and you will do them. And afterwards, as Christ says this, He stoops down again knowing that they will be astonished by His answer, and therefore, giving them room to leave slowly.

Verse 9:

'' 9 Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. [Obviously, the older you are, the more you know your sins, the more you leave earlier in this case.] And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.'' (John 8:9)

Notice that the woman was not free yet and that's a very important point, because Christ said: He who is without sin (...), let him throw a stone at her first. And because they were sinners, they couldn't throw a stone, and therefore, they left. But there's one person that remains and this person is Christ. And Christ is sinless, and therefore, Christ could judge her if He wanted to. He has all the right characteristics to be the proper judge and to judge righteously. And now, it's between Him and her, one on one.

Verse 10:

'' 10 When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, ''Woman, where are those accusers of yours? [Woman, here, is synonymous with today's madam. So, madam, where are those accusers of yours?] Has no one condemned you?'' [meaning, is the judgment uttered?] 11 She said, ''No one, Lord.'' [So, nobody uttered a judgment yet.] And Jesus said to her, ''Neither do I condemn you [so, I utter the judgment; I am the one that is sinless that can utter this judgement and I utter it and I say neither do I condemn you. I utter a judgment of mercy. However, he says]; go and sin no more.'' (John 8:10-11)

So, although Christ's judgment was merciful, it was conditional on her not sinning again. Therefore, it's not a free-for-all. There will be a judgment day. God does want order. Without order there is chaos. But let us always look at people in the same way God looks at us: with

His compassionate and merciful lens. Let us not judge others, but judge ourselves, know ourselves, that we may be led to repentance.

Remember: Know your faith, live your faith, and teach your faith. And glory be to God forever and ever. Amen.

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Remember: Know your faith, live your faith, and teach your faith.