[3] And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,
[4] They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.
[5] Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?
[6] This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.
[7] So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
[8] And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
[9] And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
[10] When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?
[11] She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
Sure, this was a lesson in forgiveness, on compassion and on being judgemental of others in the light of your own sins. But what if the story was slightly modified for a different crime? Would the outcome have been the same? Would the lesson still have been taught?
If the law of Moses was that a woman guilty of adultery should be stoned, was Jesus defying that law? This is a relative issue; the woman and her lover had no problem with it, only the woman's husband and the people who did not want to establish a precedent where promiscuity was accepted. Most sex laws are that way even now, based on jealousy rather than on doing any actual harm. If sex could be viewed as a normal healthy human interaction, there would be no need for a law against it any more than there are laws against having a barbecue in your back yard.
However, replace the adultery with murder or child molesting and you get a different set of emotional responses. What if they had brought a child-molester to Jesus? Would he have passed the same comment? Is it really that no-one really cares what someone else's wife does with a consenting lover as long as it is not your own wife or husband involved and yet? Yet the abuse of anyone's child results in feelings of intense revulsion and anger that are not as easily put aside by reason.
I think that if they had brought a child-molester or mass-murderer to Jesus, the outcome would not have been the same. What is it about the law of Moses forbidding adultery that was ok for Jesus to ignore?
