She was a spoiled girl.
He father was richer than most of the men in town, and he doted over her. He took her side when her mother scolded, and she learned how to manipulate him. She had no true friends. Convinced of her own superiority over everyone else, she was easily condescending to her peers. When they would abandon her, her mother would say they were just "jealous". Her father would throw a party in her honor, and fill the house with playmates for her. They would sing her praises until they went home, and she would be there alone.
The loneliness was ever-present. It's a sad thing to watch someone create the narrative of their own destruction, where you can see how every decision is making them more isolated, more ridiculed, and more alone. But she never saw it, not once. She saw the others as beneath her station, envious of her big house and her servants.
When she became of marriageable age, she did not lack for suitors. Though quite unattractive on the inside, she was stunningly beautiful on the outside... and she was quite adept at leveraging her looks to control weak-minded men. Because her family had wealth and influence, several men hoped to improve their own station by marrying her.
But her father and she decided that she needed to marry someone who could keep her up in the manner in which she'd become accustomed. Her father settled on a wealthy blacksmith, almost three decades older than she. They had nothing in common, and she was repulsed by him inwardly, but he was very, very wealthy.
And he adored her. Delighted by his good fortune, he showered her daily with compliments and gifts. But he bored her, and within a few months of their wedding, she began to cheat on him.
She was not discreet. It became a scandal of sorts in their small community. Everyone talked about it. "Oh, that poor man." Her associates, of which there were few, began to keep more distance from her. His friends, of which there were many, told him to divorce her. But he wouldn't. Instead, he built her a bigger house. They had two sons together. He would brag on her to whoever would listen.
She still ran around on him.
One day, a preacher came to town. The elders of the town seized the opportunity provided by this very influential man to do away with this woman. They interrupted one of her liaisons, and dragged her half-dressed to the town square. "In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. What do you say?"
There is a story about a woman caught in adultery in John 8. Jesus lets her off the hook. When I have read the story, I always let her off the hook too... but I do it before Jesus gets a chance to do so. I assume she probably was a good person who'd just made a bad decision. When Jesus shows her grace, I reason, it's because he could see her potential. She probably immediately turned her life around.
But the Bible doesn't say that. We have no idea what made the woman act as she did, and we don't know if she ever repents. We only know Jesus lets her off the hook.
I've thought a lot about this story the last couple of days. There are people in this world who have made so many bad decisions that they have very little potential left. I can be too quick to give up on Jesus breaking through. He has grace for the broken.
"Earth has no sorrow that heaven can't heal" - David Crowder
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