There have always been penalties in place for law-breakers. And there should be. Rules and consequences for breaking them are necessary for a civil society. In Jesus’ time, adultery was against the law; the penalty: death by stoning. I would consider the threat of that consequence a pretty good deterrent! However, people apparently continued to engage in intimacy outside of marriage, as proved by a woman who’d been caught “in the act.” Even though this woman had done wrong, my heart goes out to her. Surrounded by angry, bent-on-revenge, holier-than-thou men, her fear and shame must have been intense. None of us like to have our sins laid bare for all to see. The Pharisees and teachers of the law (the ones who gloried in holding the law over everyone else’s heads) hoped to trick Jesus by engaging Him in their act of judgment. But Jesus… Jesus had a heart of compassion that allowed Him to look beyond the sin to the sinner, and His response would make a greater impact than the loudest roar of condemnation could have made. We’ll look at His response tomorrow.