Who Wants To Throw The First Stone?

As noted previously, the Old Testament has a wide variety of crimes that may be punishable by the death penalty. To some modern thinkers many of those laws seem grossly extreme and harsh. Therefore they reject and condemn them as the self-centered and narrow-minded ideas of heartless rulers. For instance, how could a rational person in 21st century America support the idea of the death sentence for a rebellious son who is a glutton and a drunkard (cf. Deut. 21:18-21)? The same thinking applies to that woman caught in adultery in the story found in John 8.

Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women (Lev. 20:10). So what do you say?" - Jhn 8:2-5 ESV

Of course the whole thing was a trap by the scribes and Pharisees. They wanted to discredit this so-called Rabbi-Teacher who talked so much about the love and mercy of God. So what do you say? What does any follower of Jesus say about such laws? No doubt we need to do some sorting. Let's start by reviewing some basic assumptions about God's revelation of Himself and His will in Holy Scripture.

1. All Scripture is either the Law of God or the Gospel, as John's Gospel teaches:"For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."- John 1:17 ESV
2. In the Law God commands all men to obey Him in thought, word and deed. So the first and basic commandment is that you "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." The second great commandment flows from the first: "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Mark 12:28-32; Deut. 6:5, 10:12; Lev. 19:18). 
3. Fallen, sinful men do not and often will not accept these commands of God. Driven by their passions and self-centered desires they do whatever they want rather than submit to the will and plan of God for their lives (1 Tim. 1:8-10). 
4. To curb and control such sinful outbursts God has given us governments and rulers who make and enforce laws. These governments—when they do their work properly—are God's good gift to us all. They protect us from the chaos of sinful men and promote peace and harmony in the land. So we have the duty to support them and obey the laws that they set up (Rom. 13:1-7). 
5. Such rulers "do not bear the sword for nothing" (Rom. 13:4). Ultimately they have the God-given authority to enforce their laws by the punishment of death! 

Back then to the adulterous woman. Note that Jesus does not attempt to discredit the law that condemned adultery. Instead he turned the law back on those who were gathering stones with which to kill her. Note also that nothing is said in that story about the man with whom she had committed her crime, despite the fact that the law said both the adulteress and the adulterer were to die (Lev. 20:10). There were obviously some very self-righteous men standing there with stones in their hands.

This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. - Jhn 8:6-9 ESV

This is a vital lesson we all must learn as we prepare to condemn sinners in our midst, whether they are guilty of adultery or any of a hundred other things.

More next time on Jesus' comments to the woman left alone with him.

Another Look At Capital Punishment

Capital punishment—the very phrase spells controversy. It points to a crime pronounced worthy of death. Civil laws in the various states and by the Federal government allow the death penalty for a wide variety of crimes:

• Murder
• Treason
• Aggravated kidnapping
• Drug trafficking
• Aircraft hijacking
• Placing a bomb near a bus terminal
• Espionage
• Aggravated assault by incarcerated, persistent felons or murderers
• Killing or attempts to kill any officer, juror or witness in cases involving a continuing criminal enterprise
• Sexual battery or attempted battery with injury to a child under 12
• Rape of a child less than 10 (some laws say 12, others 14)
• Second conviction for sexual intercourse without consent accompanied by serious bodily injury

The death penalty in the United States is used almost exclusively for the crime of murder. Although state and federal statutes contain various capital crimes other than those involving the death of the victim, only two people were on death row for a non-murder offense (Patrick Kennedy and Richard Davis in Louisiana) when the U.S. Supreme Court addressed this issue in 2008. No one has been executed for such a crime since the death penalty was re-instated in 1976. In 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court in Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584, held that the death penalty for the rape of an adult was "grossly disproportionate" and an "excessive punishment," and hence was unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment. The Court looked at the relatively few states that allowed the death penalty for rape and the few death sentences that had been handed down.  

Some states passed new laws allowing the death penalty for the rape of a child. In 2007, the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for Patrick Kennedy for the rape of his step-daughter, STATE OF LOUISIANA v. PATRICK KENNEDY (No. 05-KA-1981, May 22, 2007). Kennedy was convicted in 2003. However, Louisiana's law was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 25, 2008. See Kennedy v. Louisiana for more information. This decision also held that the death penalty would be disproportionate for any offense against an individual that did not involve death of the victim.

So far the United States. What about the Bible and Jewish civil laws in the days of the New Testament? We come across the following in John 8.

Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?" - Jhn 8:2-5 ESV

What laws were those? And why? Here's what we read in the Old Testament about crimes deserving the death penalty:

• Whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death. 

• Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death. - Lev 24:16-17 ESV 

• For anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

• If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.  

• If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death; they have committed perversion; their blood is upon them. 

• If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. 

• If a man takes a woman and her mother also, it is depravity; he and they shall be burned with fire, that there may be no depravity among you. 

• If a man lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the animal. 

• If a woman approaches any animal and lies with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. - Lev 20:9-16 ESV

What kind of laws were those? Death for cursing your parents? Death for adultery? Death for homosexuality? Death for perverted sex with an animal? Death for blasphemy? We need to take a serious look at these laws and ask ourselves as Christians how to view them. What, if anything, does the Holy Spirit teach us in our day?

More on this next time.