12. While they were saying this, Jesus stooped down and wrote with His finger on the ground. And as they waited for His answer, He lifted up His head and said, _He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her_. What can be more Divine than this sentence, that he should punish sins who is himself free from sin? For how can we endure one who takes vengeance on guilt in another and excuses it in himself? When a man ♦condemns in another what he commits himself, does he not rather pronounce his own condemnation? Sidenote: S. Matt. vii. 3. 13. Thus He spake, and wrote upon the ground. What then did He write? This, _Thou beholdest the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye_. For lust is like a mote, it is quickly kindled, quickly consumed; the sacrilegious perfidy which led the Jews to deny the Author of their salvation declared the magnitude of their crime. Sidenote: Jer. xvii. 13. Sidenote: S. Luke x. 20. 14. He wrote upon the ground with the finger with which He had written the Law. Sinners’ names are written in the earth, those of the just in heaven, as He said to His disciples, _Rejoice, because your names are written in heaven_. And He wrote a second time, that you may know that the Jews were condemned by both Testaments. 15. When they heard these words they went out one after another, beginning at the eldest, and sat down thinking upon themselves. _And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst._ It is well said that they went out who chose not to be with Christ. Without is the letter, within are the mysteries. For in the Divine lessons they sought, as it were, after the leaves of trees, and not after the fruit; they lived in the shadow of the Law, and could not discern the Sun of Righteousness. Sidenote: S. John xvi. 32. Sidenote: Ib. i. 29. 16. Finally, when they departed Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. Jesus about to remit sin remains alone, as He says Himself, _Behold the hour cometh, yea is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone_; for it was no messenger, no herald, but the Lord Himself Who saved His people. He remains alone, because in the remission of sins no man can participate with Christ. This is the gift of Christ alone, Who _took away the sins of the world_. The woman too was counted worthy to be absolved, seeing that, on the departure of the Jews, she remained alone with Jesus. Sidenote: Ib. viii. 10. 17. Then Jesus lifted up His head, and said to the woman, _Where are those thine accusers, hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee, go, and sin no more._ See, O reader, these Divine mysteries, and the mercy of Christ. When the woman is accused, Christ stoops His head, but when the accusers retire He lifts it up again; thus we see that He would have no man condemned, but all absolved.