Category: Uncategorized

***

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.

***

***

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.

***

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. 

***

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.

***

But there’s a third option.

***

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.

***

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.

***

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.”

***

***

Image credits: (1) Eximius Personnel, Shutterstock (2) The Woman Taken in Adultery, Rembrandt (3) God News Utah

***

Gospel: John 7: 1-2, 10, 25-30

Jesus moved about within Galilee;
he did not wish to travel in Judea,
because the Jews were trying to kill him.
But the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near.

But when his brothers had gone up to the feast,
he himself also went up, not openly but as it were in secret.

Some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem said,
“Is he not the one they are trying to kill?
And look, he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him.
Could the authorities have realized that he is the Christ?
But we know where he is from.
When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.”
So Jesus cried out in the temple area as he was teaching and said,
“You know me and also know where I am from.
Yet I did not come on my own,
but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true.
I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”
So they tried to arrest him,
but no one laid a hand upon him,
because his hour had not yet come.

The Gospel of the Lord.

***

***

“No one laid a hand on him because his hour had not come.” 

***

Throughout John’s Gospel, Jesus makes constant reference to his “hour.” 

We first hear him speak about it at the wedding at Cana, when Jesus turns 150 gallons of water into wine at the prompting of Mary.

He references his “hour” again in today’s Gospel. The religious authorities are collapsing in on him, plotting to kill him, but they cannot do so yet because his “hour” has not come.

Everything that Jesus does throughout his ministry, every sermon he preaches, every miracle he performs is somehow inspired by – and related to – this “hour.”

So, what is this “hour” Jesus is so conscious of?

***

The “hour” of his crucifixion, death, and resurrection. As he says the night he’s arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, “for this hour have I come.”

***

In two weeks, you and I will journey with Jesus into the Garden of Gethsemane, through his arrest, trial, and crucifixion, then to the empty tomb on Easter Sunday. 

Jesus prepared his whole life for this hour, just as you and I should be preparing ourselves spiritually this Lent.  

In what ways am I carrying my cross and journeying with Christ? Have I, at any point, put it down? Do I need to pick up the cross of Lenten penance again?

***

On Good Friday, Jesus will embrace his “hour” with incredible courage, trusting his death leads to his resurrection.

Make we every effort to remain by his side. For his resurrection promises our own.

***

***

Image credits: (1) John Murphy International (2) Jesus in Gethsemane, The Word Among Us (3) Adobe Stock

***

Gospel: John 5: 31-47

Jesus said to the Jews:
“If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is not true.
But there is another who testifies on my behalf,
and I know that the testimony he gives on my behalf is true.
You sent emissaries to John, and he testified to the truth.
I do not accept human testimony,
but I say this so that you may be saved.
He was a burning and shining lamp,
and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light.
But I have testimony greater than John’s.
The works that the Father gave me to accomplish,
these works that I perform testify on my behalf
that the Father has sent me.
Moreover, the Father who sent me has testified on my behalf.
But you have never heard his voice nor seen his form,
and you do not have his word remaining in you,
because you do not believe in the one whom he has sent.
You search the Scriptures,
because you think you have eternal life through them;
even they testify on my behalf.
But you do not want to come to me to have life.

“I do not accept human praise;
moreover, I know that you do not have the love of God in you.
I came in the name of my Father,
but you do not accept me;
yet if another comes in his own name,
you will accept him.
How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another
and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God?
Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father:
the one who will accuse you is Moses,
in whom you have placed your hope.
For if you had believed Moses,
you would have believed me,
because he wrote about me.
But if you do not believe his writings,
how will you believe my words?”

The Gospel of the Lord.

***

***

Every morning before I begin praying at my desk, I light a tea candle and place it in a stand. That candle burns bright for over an hour until its little wick runs out, disappearing into a silhouette of smoke.

The candle not only reminds me of the passage of time – and my need to use it well – but also of someone who lived his life in accordance with God’s will: John the Baptist, whom Jesus praises in today’s Gospel.

“John was a burning and shining lamp,” he says, “and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light.”

***

Like a tea candle, John gave off light and warmth, leading people to Christ. 

And like a candle, he slowly burned away the wick of his ego, until Christ alone remained. 

As John himself said, “He must increase, I must decrease.”

***

In what ways are we like John the Baptist? 

Do we draw others to the Lord through our light and warmth? 

Do we honor the time God has given us?

Are we allowing the wick of our ego to slowly burn away until Christ alone remains?

***

In the words of Saint Paul, “May God who has begun this good work within you bring it to fulfillment.”

***

***

Image credits: (1) Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco, Johanssen Krausse (2) 96north (3) Quote Fancy