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Note: This homily was written for our children’s Mass.

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I was up the hill teaching at our parish school recently and I asked some students between kindergarten and third grade about a time when they had to be brave.

One young girl said, “Well, um, one time I was brave when I jumped into the deep end of the pool.”

Another, “I used to be afraid of the slide outside at the playground. But that was back in first grade. Now I go down it all the time!”

Then a young boy piped up, “Once I spilled the milk. My mom asked if it was me. I was nervous, but I said, ‘yes’.”

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Even the youngest among us know what it means to be brave – to tell the truth, to take risks, to jump into the deep.

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Today Jesus begins the most important week of his life – a week in which he must be brave.

He’s jumping into the deep, trusting he’ll rise again.

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As we heard in the Gospel, he enters Jerusalem on a Sunday, surrounded by crowds laying palm branches at his feet like he’s their king.

But by Friday afternoon he’ll be nailed to a cross.

Sadly, Jesus dies almost entirely alone – only Mary, John, and a few other friends stay with him. The rest run away.

We can imagine how Jesus felt – it’s that feeling you get when you’re alone on the playground, when you’re being bullied, or when you’re sitting at lunch without any friends.

It’s like a sinking stomach. Being alone hurts.

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To all of our children gathered here this morning, I ask of you: Will you run away from Jesus? Or will you be brave and follow him?

If you’re ready to be brave, please stand, hold up your palms, and repeat after me: “I will be brave. I will follow Jesus.”

 

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Throughout this week, the Gospels will paint a picture of Jesus in very tense discussions with the religious leaders of Israel.

Though he claims to be the Son of God, or the “light of the world” as he says in yesterday’s Gospel, the scribes and Pharisees are convinced that he’s a heretic – a crazy imposter who needs to be put to death.

He’s made blasphemous claims.

This tension between Jesus and the religious leaders of his day takes a dramatic turn on Sunday when he enters Jerusalem for a final time, clashing with the very men who will put him to death.

Interestingly enough, Jesus knows what will happen. He knows his claims of being God’s Son will lead to his death.

How does he do it? How does he not retreat in fear or change his mind?

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He knows that he will rise again.

In the meantime, he finds the strength he needs by praying to his Father, who alone can comfort him in these incredibly tense moments.

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How many of us have felt like Jesus – afraid, overwhelmed, saddened, or insecure – as if the world is closing in around us?

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It’s in these moments that he invites us to turn to him for comfort. He’s been there. He’ll always give us the strength we need to move forward in our lives.

As he says, “Come to me, all you who are heavy burdened and I will give you rest. For my yoke is easy and my burden light.”

 

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On March 20, 2015, a young woman named Farkhunda was accused of burning a copy of the Quran outside of a popular mosque in Kabul, Afghanistan.

It was an offense punishable by death.

Word of the accusation spread quickly as an angry mob started beating her with sticks and stones.

Eventually they threw her bruised body over a bridge into a river below.

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What makes this story more sickening is the fact that these men thought their actions were pleasing to God.

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Isn’t this what we’ve just heard in the Gospel?

A woman is caught in the act of adultery, an offense punishable by death.

Enraged, the scribes and Pharisees drag her before Jesus, ready to stone her. But before they do, they put him to the test. They want Jesus to consent to her death.

But he’ll have nothing of it.

Jesus kneels down and begins twirling his finger in the sand, instead.

Some say he was actually writing down an account of the scribes and Pharisees’ sins, reminding them that they, too, are guilty.

Perhaps even more guilty than the woman caught in adultery.

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Imagine this brood of vipers staring at the ground in amazement, seeing a list of their own sins made public by the twirl of Christ’s finger.

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Maybe they, too, had committed adultery.

According to Jesus, any man who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

And so Jesus looks them intently, saying, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Furious and frustrated, they walk away for a time. But they’ll back.

They’re out for blood.

In less than two weeks on Good Friday, they’ll be dragging Jesus before Pontius Pilate, demanding that he – like the woman caught in adultery – be put to death.

Only his offense is claiming to be God.

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Let’s return for a moment to the story of Farkhunda, the woman from Afghanistan accused of burning the Quran.

As it turns out, she was innocent.

She stumbled upon men selling drugs outside her local mosque and rebuked them for it. Fearing for their own safety, they turned on her, accusing her of a worse offense.

Like a swarm of bees, they attacked her, taking the life of an innocent person simply to protect the lives of the guilty.

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I can’t help but see something of Christ’s own story in that.

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Jesus was innocent.

But he freely gave his life in exchange for ours, the innocent for the guilty. He died to ransom each of us.

As Saint Paul says, “There is no condemnation now for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Our sins are forgiven!

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But the other side of the coin is this: We must work to forgive each other.

We must drop our stones.

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As a country, have we not developed a culture of stone throwing, rejoicing in the sins of others?

For example, we throw stones of judgment at people who illegally get their kids into elite colleges…We throw stones at Jessie Smollett for whatever he has or has not done…We throw stones at politicians who never seem to get the message right.

Though I’m making no excuse for evil, for cheating, or for wrongdoing, what I am suggesting is that we’re living in a stone throwing society, a society, which too often looks for the next victim.

Yet we’re all guilty of something.

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Where have I picked up stones to throw at others?

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Like the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus challenges us to drop these stones, because he came to bring peace.

As his disciples, we must work to make his vision a reality.

Deliver us, Lord, from a stone throwing culture. Make us, instead, your instruments of forgiveness and peace.