“Who are you,” they asked in a less than gracious tone.
Jesus had been in the temple area since early morning teaching a large gathering of people who had come to hear His words.
A group of religious leaders brought an adulterous woman into the middle of the crowd, right before him and said, “The Law of Moses says stone her.
What do you say?”
They were not seeking counsel but an opportunity to impugn His character and His teaching.
Jesus turned the tables on his accusers. “You, who are without sin, cast the first stone.”
Indignant and offended by His tone, convicted in their own heart, the men who had brought the woman slithered away one by one.
The woman remained before Him; no doubt humiliated, maybe very angry at the men and at the crowd around her.
Jesus looked at her with eyes of love, mercy and grace. “Where are those who accuse you? Is someone condemning you,” Jesus asked? “No one,” she answered. “Neither do I condemn you,” He answered, “Go and sin no more.”
Jesus continued teaching the crowd that had been with Him all morning.
Among them were some Pharisees who had watched this whole seen with great interest. They began to question the Lord. “Where is your father? Who are you?”
Ah, there you have the great question that Lucifer has used for millennia to gain an entrance and establish a foothold in a person’s life.
He used that strategy on Jesus when was in the wilderness forty days fasting and praying.
The Lord was preparing Himself spiritually for the next three years of public ministry.
Satan came on the last day seeking opportunity to stop the advance of God’s Kingdom. “If you are the Son of God,” he challenged the one born in Bethlehem’s stable.
When Jesus parried His attacker with “It is written…”
The Devil resumed the offense with, “If you are the Son of God…”
Jesus again parried His attacker with, “It is also written…”
Satan made a counter move with a more subtle attack on Jesus true identity, “All these things I will give You if You fall down and worship me.”
