In this passage, the scribes and Pharisees come to Jesus to test him by saying, “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?”

What a brilliant trap! If Jesus says to let her go, he’s disobeying the law; if he says to kill the woman, he’s a merciless murderer.

But instead Jesus challenges the self-righteousness of the Jewish leaders with a proposition that has echoed down through the halls of time: “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”