Jn 8:1-11
Dear Friends, Today’s gospel story pulls us into the depths of our human condition. We are both the accusers and the accused. We need to let the teachings of Jesus help us understand this truth about ourselves. We share the sinful condition of the leaders, the mob and the woman. We carry the burden of religious practice that tends much more to condemn and punish rather than to forgive and call to life.Jesus offers a better way of dealing with sin. Condemnation and punishment offer an emptiness and void. The gross self-righteousness of the leaders and the crowd is only an invitation into death for all concerned. The wonder of God’s mercy offers glorious new opportunity of life for all.
The Jewish leaders had little interest in the law and less in the woman. For them she was mere chattel, devoid of all dignity and rights. For Jesus, she was a sinful but loved and forgiven child of God.
The leaders target was Jesus. They wanted to trap him in the choice of either rejecting the Law of Moses or upholding his constant message of mercy. In the eyes his accusers, Jesus faced nothing but destructive choices. He had to accept the Jewish faith and condemn the woman. This would put him against the Romans and their control of the death penalty. On the other hand, he had to reject the teachings of the law. The leaders saw no way out for Jesus. They felt excited about their victory and his defeat.
Jesus dabbled on the ground to show his disinterest in their supposed dilemma for him. He presented the real issue. It was a woman caught in the senseless blindness of a mob whose ideological rage and sham would not let them see the absolute terror of the situation. This woman faced the the stark and immediate probability of death by stoning.
Jesus cut through the layers of deception. He presented a choice that made the mob recognize that, in the end, they shared the fate of the woman. This was a condition common to all human beings. We are sinners and we need forgiveness. Without forgiveness, all of us must face a hopeless misery. The woman faced this stark reality in the clearest of terms: life or death. In the end, only mercy opens the possibility of life for all of us as it did for the woman.
Jesus said to the woman, “Neither do I.” (Jn 8:11) The miracle of these words for her and for us was that Jesus put no condition on his declaration of mercy. He accepted her and us as we are. The condition is on us. He simply asked that we continue the struggle to sin no more.
We have the opportunity in today’s gospel passage to recognize and accept our sinfulness. We have the rest of Lent to cherish this gift to move out of the darkness and death to the light and life. This is what Lent is all about: “Repent, and believe in the gospel!”
Today’s episode highlights the reality of misery and mercy that the Lenten journey presents to us. In the end, our story is about the mercy of God. The Lenten message is to cast away the stones of our misery and judgmental attitude. These are the stones of our pride and attachments, the stones of our neglect of prayer and sacrifice and service. We need to free our hands and open our hearts to receive the mercy of God in the awesome words: “Neither do I.” (Jn 8:11)
Then we can cast away all deeper inclinations of our heart: the stones of our accusations and all the many grudges and hurts. This Lent is the time to share the mercy and forgiveness of God with all our brothers and sisters, especially the ones we have not loved as we should.
