While Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. 3The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, 4they said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. 5Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’ 6They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, ‘Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’ 8And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground.* 9When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10Jesus straightened up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ 11She said, ‘No one, sir.’* And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.’
OBSERVE:
This confrontation occurs in the Jerusalem temple, where Jesus is teaching people. Religious leaders bring a woman before Jesus. They accuse her of a serious crime, adultery. The scribes and Pharisees are under no obligation to ask Jesus what he thinks about the law. They bring this case to him in order "to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him." Presumably, they thought he would be merciful and, therefore, break the law of Moses that commands the stoning of adulterers. That these religious leaders catch her in the very act of adultery is creepy. How did they do this? Why is there no male counterpart? Who were they protecting? It betrays patriarchy and their misogyny. If this was a sex crime, how likely was it that she was the offender and a man was the victim? Possible, perhaps. But highly unlikely. And so, here is the rub. She could be punished for a sex act, while the man involved is not. Though the law prescribes punishment for both parties. It betrays the sexism among the male religious leaders, doesn't it? Jesus catches them in the act, too. Hypocrites. Self-protecting liars. Condemning a woman for sex is like condemning gay people and ignoring rape victims.
Jesus writes something on the ground. We don't know what he writes or why. But he answers their inquiry by encouraging the one who is without sin to cast the first stone. The elders are the first to leave. They would know better than the youth how hard it is to keep the law. Jesus speaks with her. "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" And then he releases her, frees her, refuses to condemn her. "Go, and sin no more," he says to her. What if he writes his mother Mary's name? A woman who was, perhaps, accused of adultery because she was pregnant outside of marriage. Maybe he writes Joseph's name, the husband and father who ultimately protected them both.
REFLECT:
We cannot follow and obey God's law. The very clothes I'm wearing condemn me. (Cotton/poly blend). The food I eat condemns me (Bacon). There are 613 law in the Torah. We do not get to choose which ones to obey and which ones don't apply to us. We don't get to apply certain laws to condemn certain people, but ignore the ones in which we stand guilty.
It is easy and tempting to cast stones. We do it to protect ourselves, to defect our own guilt. The pointing of fingers is the political strategy employed by many people in public office. We hide our sins behind our accusations of others, our judgments of others' actions and words. How have you cast stones or accused others? We find it too easy to see the bad behaviors in others, while ignoring our own offensive attitude, actions, and words.
The good new is that Jesus did not come to condemn the world, but to free us from sin. Forgiveness and mercy make it possible for this condemned woman to walk away. She was saved by Jesus' teaching--let he who is without sin cast the first stone. In other words, if you are obedient enough to escape the judgment of the law, in its totality, then you are able to judge someone else's sin. Otherwise, you do not. No one is above the law. And under it, all of us fail. But thank God our story is more than our moral failures and sins of omission. Jesus sees her as a woman, not an adulterer. She is not what her accusers said about her. We are not what we do or fail to do. I am a son, a father, a husband, a pastor/teacher. We are different things to different people. And I am these things, even when I fail to meet expectations. To God, we are beloved children more valuable than our failures, faults, and fears. We are not condemned. We are set free! Thank God.
PRAY:
For those who have been found guilty, condemned, and face punishment. For their accusers and for victims of sexual crimes. That your patience and forgiveness might give them peace and set them free. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment