53, 1-11
This story is commonly called "Woman caught in adultery." However, a more appropriate title is "The woman nearly killed by murderous men." These legal experts don't care one bit about the woman, the adultery, or the sin. They care only about testing Jesus "because they wanted a reason to bring an accusation against him." Of course, there's no man in this story. Where is he? It takes two people to commit adultery.
Jesus puts himself in harm's way. His response to an abusive religious crowd is not only to refuse to hurt the woman, but to make sure no one else can either.
Jesus bends down and writes on the ground with his finger. A stooping God, writing on the ground. Much like YHWH on Mt. Sinai. Or God forming Adam from the dust of the ground. So much visual poetry here.
Jesus also revokes a legal process dependent upon retribution (Melissa Florer-Bixler). We can read this as the end of the death penalty, the end of "rightful" legal consequences that demand blood.
"Go and sin no more." This isn't an angry, chiding Jesus. It's an intentional, loving Jesus saying, "Don't allow yourself to get wooed by men who would leave you for dead."
Is the story canonical? Many modern Bibles include a footnote here explaining that John 7:53-8:11 doesn't appear in the earliest and most reliable Greek manuscripts. Some Bibles even put brackets around it or separate it from the main text. But I lean toward considering it canonical anyway. It does interrupt the flow of John 7 and the rest of chapter 8, so it may not have belonged to John originally. It may actually have been part of Luke (or the "L" source) - some manuscripts even place it in Luke's Gospel instead. The early church refers to it quite a bit, so even if it wasn't originally in John, it was clearly a story that was circulating and considered authentic. (Similar to Paul quoting Jesus saying "It's better to give than to receive," which doesn't show up in the four Gospels. There was plenty of other Jesus material that didn't make it into the Gospels, as the book of John itself suggests at its conclusion.)
Even if it's not canonical or historical, I still want to have such a relationship with Jesus that I would make up stories about him this beautiful.
"This isn't a story included in the Bible to teach sexual morality. Instead, we see Jesus revoke a legal process dependent upon retribution." Melissa Florer-Bixler in How to Have An Enemy