But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a child weeping frantically who had been caught being stubborn and rebellious against his parents. They made the sobbing boy stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this boy was caught being stubborn and rebellious against his parents. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such a child. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at the boy.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the young boy still standing there, shaking with tear-stained cheeks. Jesus straightened up and asked the terified boy, “My son, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one, sir,” the boy said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared, as he embraced the boy with a warm hug. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
***
If anybody asks you “What’s your view of the Old Testament law?” just tell them, “I’m with Jesus.”
