The Pharisees led the crowd in picking up stones to stone the woman caught in adultery.  They felt justified in their act, holding on to the Law of Moses as grounds for ending her life.   The adulterous woman wasn't the object of their attention, however.  Jesus was.  She was a means to their end, a way to potentially trap Jesus so that they could stone Him. Unfortunately, she was a pawn caught in the middle.  Her humiliation was on no one's mind except Jesus.  He was the only one who looked away, toward the ground.
 
Instead of answering in one of the two ways they anticipated, He knelt down to write in the dust of the ground.  What He wrote is not recorded, but many scholars believe that Jesus began to write down the sins of those who had rocks in their hands. 

Jeremiah 17:13 speaks of those who bear the shame of turning away from God by having their names written in the dust.  Perhaps Jesus sketched the name of another adulterous relationship, or an act of thievery.  Whatever He wrote caused each one in the crowd to drop their stone and walk away.  We can only imagine that it was due to a look in the mirror.    

John Darby, the 18th century theologian says, "It comforts and quiets the depraved heart of man if he can only find a person worse than himself: he thinks the greater sin of another excuses himself; and while accusing and vehemently blaming another, he forgets his own evil. He thus rejoices in iniquity."

I can dance over another's sin because it makes me feel better about myself. When I do, I use them to serve my end just as the Pharisees used the woman that day to serve theirs. Who deserves to be condemned?  Every one except Jesus.  A look in the mirror reminds me.