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Gospel: John 8:1-11
Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area,
and all the people started coming to him,
and he sat down and taught them.
Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman
who had been caught in adultery
and made her stand in the middle.
They said to him,
“Teacher, this woman was caught
in the very act of committing adultery.
Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.
So what do you say?”
They said this to test him,
so that they could have some charge to bring against him.
Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.
But when they continued asking him,
he straightened up and said to them,
“Let the one among you who is without sin
be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Again he bent down and wrote on the ground.
And in response, they went away one by one,
beginning with the elders.
So he was left alone with the woman before him.
Then Jesus straightened up and said to her,
“Woman, where are they?
Has no one condemned you?”
She replied, “No one, sir.”
Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.
Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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I remember going to my friends’ birthday parties as a kid. While I’d always bring a present for the “birthday boy,” there would often be party favors for the guests: a whistle, a piece of candy, a plastic toy.
One of my favorite toys was the Chinese finger trap. It was a little tube woven out of bamboo. You had to insert your index fingers into either side, then try to pull them out.
But the harder you pulled, the tighter the tube became. The only way to release your fingers was to push them together, loosening the grip of the trap.
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Today’s Gospel reminds me of a Chinese finger trap.
The religious authorities try ensnaring Jesus in a situation that he cannot win.
If Jesus tells the scribes and Pharisees not to stone this woman, then he’ll be accused of breaking the Law of Moses, discrediting him.
But if Jesus agrees and tells them to stone her, then they’ll report him to the Roman authorities for breaking civil law; no one but government officials could issue a death warrant.
Like a Chinese finger trap, it appeared there was no way out until the Lord outwitted his opponents by pressing them together, lumping everyone into the same category:
Sinners.
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The fact that this woman is laying in the middle of a circle means these men are ready to barrage her with stones. But this begs the question, “Where is the man?”
If this woman were caught “in the very act,” then the man should also be laying beside her on this bed of dirt, because under the Law of Moses, both are guilty.
But instead of engaging in legal technicalities, the Lord kneels down eye level to this broken, embarrassed woman and begins doodling in the dirt. I’m sure many of us have heard two possibilities of what Christ was doing.
He was either buying time, or writing an account of these men’s own sins.
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But there’s a third option.
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Perhaps the Lord was not only writing an account of these men’s own sins, but also the sins of their entire nation, how all of Israel committed adultery against God in their hearts, breaking his covenant time and time again.
In the Old Testament, covenants involved two parties. Like a marriage, both sides promised to be faithful, lest blood be shed. But Israel repeatedly broke their end of the covenant by worshipping false gods and giving in to the desires of their flesh.
As God reprimands them through the prophet Hosea, “She [Israel] is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove her adultery from my face.”
Yet, in spite of his divine anger, God always pursued and forgave his people.
This truth is reinforced as Jesus scribbles his finger in the dirt. As infuriated as he may be, everyone’s sins can be swept away with the stroke of his hand.
If only they repent.
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Realizing they’ve been outwitted, each man slowly drops his stone. I’d imagine the oldest and wisest leave first, while the young “hotheads” hang around for a while longer, bloodthirsty, seething, plotting, waiting.
But eventually, they, too, go home.
“Woman, has no one condemned you?” the Lord questions her. “No one, sir.”
“Neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more.”
This does not mean that she is off the hook; her sentence has merely been deferred. She now must go and amend her life.
As one poet put it:
“How I wish that there was some wonderful place called the Land of Beginning Again, where all our mistakes, and all our heartaches, and all our poor selfish grief could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door, and never put on again.”
For this woman, Christ is, “the Land of Beginning Again.”
So, does she actually, “go and sin no more”?
We don’t know.
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As with the Prodigal Son, this story remains unfinished, leaving it perpetually in the present.
The fact that we’re not given either the woman or the man’s name means they could be any one of us – anyone who’s either botched their Lenten practice, or has sinned somewhere along the way.
But like dust being swept away, the Lord kneels down to us and says, “Neither do I condemn you.”
Now, “Go, and sin no more.”
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Image credits: (1) Eximius Personnel, Shutterstock (2) The Woman Taken in Adultery, Rembrandt (3) God News Utah