Caught

One night, Jesus was teaching in the town square, when a group of men came dragging a woman. She'd been beaten and and looked torn.

"This woman has killed her unborn child. She is a murderess, and we'd like to hang her at a tree as a warning to others, what do you say, Jesus?"

The gathered crowd looked back and forth between the men holding the woman, and Jesus. They waited to see what he would do or say. Instead, he bent down to pick something up. It was a can of spray paint someone had left behind. He began to idly draw something on the sidewalk. I couldn't see what it was from where I was standing.

After several silent and tense minutes went by, where the only sound that could be heard was the woman sobbing, of the the men finally shouted, "WELL?!"

Jesus calmly looked up, like he'd been waiting for them, and said, "Whichever one of you have never sinned, you can be the first one to hang the rope."

A stunned silence came over the scene, even the woman sat silently. One by one, the group of men dropped away, starting with the oldest. Finally, the man who had shouted at Jesus, and was still holding the woman by the hair, looked around, realized he was alone, and stormed away, spitting as he did.

Jesus walked over to the woman, took her by the hand, and helped her up. He looked her in the eye with this expression that I don't think I could ever describe properly. It was something of love and sadness, but so deep it almost made me weep. He said to her, "My daughter, who still accuses you?"

She looked around, almost confused, she scanned the audience, and no one would meet her eye. She looked back to Jesus, and she looked like she was trying to speak, but then started to cry again, shaking her head no. Jesus took her by the shoulders, looked at her until her eyes met his, and he said, "No go and sin no more."