Him

She knew she had committed an unforgivable act, even as she lay upon the bed next to the man she had spent the night with. A man she was with more than her own husband. ‘Unforgivable’. She felt a chill run through her body. The sun had begun its assent but she only felt certain emptiness in her soul. This was not the first time she had committed this very act, but dread never felt as real as it did to her now. She started as she heard loud and harsh banging on the door.

The men shouted to be let in. Beside her, he stirred and his eyes opened as the shouting ensued. “They’re here, the Pharisees, they’re here” he began rambling frantically, at that moment and the Pharisees and scribes barged into the room, their eyes fell upon the pair on the bed.

The men looked at her with such judgment and malice, but she hardly felt any shame.

They spat insult upon insult at her as they dragged her through the streets, barely clothed except for the linen on her bed which she successfully grabbed and wrapped around her body before they had seized her like a criminal. “She will die today” she heard one of the men say to another, “it was just a matter of time before she was caught in this despicable act”.

She welcomed the thought of death though it frightened her. She deserved it; she deserved the stones that would be hurled at her.

They brought her to the temple and she saw a man, in the midst of thousands – that the Pharisees and scribes were now dragging her to. They set her in the midst of the crowd and she felt the heat from the eyes of the people who saw her – some of whom she knew and some of who she didn’t. She held the cloth closer to her body, she realized that death by stoning by these thousands of people would indeed be the punishment that she would face – and die from, she didn’t want to imagine what it would feel like – she had seen it being done before and the blood and piercing of stones into flesh was ingrained into her mind.

“Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do you say?”

She did not dare to look at the man they Pharisees spoke to; He had a presence about him that caused her to feel so saddened by her own indiscretions that her eyes remained on the temple floor. She had long forgotten what shame felt like till now.

The crowds looked at Him expectedly, awaiting his approval.

He remained silent.

He had now stooped down on the ground. She could barely see what he was doing but he acted as if he did not hear the men who were now getting more and more impatient with his silence. The crowds were now slowly turning into an angry mob, thirsty for her death. Caught. In. The. Act. She was unforgivable.

She expected the man to spit at her like the others, or look at her with distain, but when she lifted her eyes a fraction she saw something in His that would remain with her till the day she died.

When the Pharisees and scribes 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.”

His words resonated in the air with power and authority; He had stooped down and was writing on the ground again. The temple fell as silent as a tomb, the words seemingly having frozen everyone in their place.

She felt a stir inside of her, she knew what she saw in the man’s eyes – it was pure love, he was the only person in the room who did not see her as an adulterer, a cheater, a liar, a sinner – but he saw…he saw her. It was a feeling so overpowering she wanted to kneel down and cry. He saw her. Who was this man that He felt for her, even when she was utterly unworthy of any love, any form of compassion?

She braced herself for the first stones that would be hurled at her.

Then, she noticed movement – the men, they Pharisees, the scribes, the angry mob, they had all begun to leave one by one– soon, they had all gone from the temple.

He raised Himself up and saw no one but her.

“Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” He asked, there wasn’t an ounce of sarcasm, anger, or judgment, in His voice.

“No one, Lord” she managed to choke out, feeling the well of tears that would explode from her at any moment now. ‘Forgiven’, she was forgiven.

“Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” It was at that very moment that she knew who He was and it was that moment that changed her forever.

(Taken and adapted from John 8:1-11, NKJV)