Wait

            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 woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group  and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.  In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. 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 her.” 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 woman still standing there.  Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
               “No one, sir,” she said.
         “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” (John 8:1-11)

          If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death. (Leviticus 20:10)

          As a quick aside, I’ve heard that the Mount of Olives was a hangout for Jesus, but this is the first time I noticed Him going there before the night He was betrayed.
          Now, on to the main event. John says the religious leaders brought the woman caught in adultery to Jesus in order to have a basis for accusing him. I have questions. What was the act of adultery (Was she pulled from her lover’s bed, or just his arms?) How did they know or find her? For how long did they let the relationship continue before they “caught” her? Why were they breaking the law by not bringing both the adulterer and adulteress? What did Jesus write in the dirt? Why did the older leave before the younger? Answers to all of these would be speculation. As fun as speculation can be, there’s something else here that needs to be discussed more.
         This passage is used to judge and condemn Christians for “judging” or “condemning” others. The Pharisees and religious leadership delighted in condemning the woman (they say). Jesus let her go (they say.) That’s not quite what the text says. Jesus does not condemn her, but neither does he condone what she had done. He doesn’t tell her that her adultery is fine with him, acceptable behavior, or not his to judge. He doesn’t dismiss the case. He releases her with a warning. “Go and leave your life of sin.”
         In our society today, we are told that we are not only not permitted to judge, but that we must open our arms to both the sinner and the sin. Accusing or shaming someone is wrong, unless that person is intolerant, or a bigot, or a racist, or they don’t approve of homosexual “marriage” or use the wrong pronoun, or don’t want to reward people for entering this country illegally, or they don’t think the government should be the source of every solution to every problem the nation faces…. And figuratively dragging women (and men, and whatever) “caught in adultery” into the conversation is the method used for trapping those monstrous Pharisees.
         Oh, wait, it was the Pharisees who did the dragging. It was the Pharisees who were trying to trap, to find reason to accuse. And wait, Jesus told her to leave her life of sin. He didn't tell her what she was doing was fine.