“I’ll meet you at our normal place tonight.” Caleb stood just outside the Beautiful Gate facing Abigail.
“After what just happened!? How can you pretend nothing has changed?”
“What has changed?”
“I’ve changed!”
“What has changed is that you have been pardoned; now you are free.”
“Yes, free from condemnation. But with my freedom I was told to sin no more.”
“That is what this rogue, self-appointed rabbi said.”
“Yes, and your fellow Pharisees authorized Him to judge when they brought me before Him asking Him to decide my fate.”
“That was merely a trap, my dear.”
“A trap that did not work. And why did you not speak up? How could you stand there, you as guilty as I, my partner in adultery, and say nothing?”
“My wife was in the crowd, as you know. How could I bring her to public shame?”
“Your concern was neither her shame nor mine! It was your own false righteousness that you protected! You are spineless and without a shred of decency. I do not know what either your wife or I ever saw in you!”
“Are you saying it is over between us? Abigail, you cannot mean that.”
“I mean it with all my being.”
“Just because a self-proclaiming Messiah told you to stop?”
“That man is the Messiah. Who else could be wise enough to avoid such shrewd entrapment while both upholding the Law and extending mercy to the guilty?”
“All He showed is that He is shrewd at saving His own skin.”
“And what of the Law, which you are obliged to enforce as a Pharisee? Are we to continue breaking the Law, the Law that prohibits a married man sleeping with another woman?”
“We have always said we would ask for God’s mercy.”
“Well, I just received it. And I will do as the Messiah said, go and sin no more.”
“How will you do that, Abigail? You have never had the strength; where will you find it now?”
“I do not know how I will do it, but I believe the man who released me from condemnation is the Son of God, and somehow He will make it possible.”
“If you change your mind, you know where to find me.”
“My mind will not change, Caleb. May God have mercy on you.” Abigail turned and walked away, down the streets of Jerusalem toward her home, praying with every step that she would again see Jesus, her Deliverer and Savior.
“Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The Law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?” “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” “…the accusers…slipped away one at the time…” “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No, Lord,” [the adulteress] said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I Go and sin no more.”