5th Sunday of Lent Year C
Reading I: Isaiah 43:16-21
Reading I: Isaiah 43:16-21
It is like a scene from a nightmare. Yet it turns out well.
Suppose you are the woman in Sunday’s Gospel. You have been “caught in adultery” (or some other sin) by the scribes and Pharisees. They shove you into the middle of a circle of people. They reveal your embarrassing sin to everyone.
Shamed, stressed, perspiring, you hear them judge you according to the law of Moses. “The law is sacred,” they declare. “It says you must be stoned to death for your crime.”You are vaguely aware that someone called the “Teacher” is there too. He had been instructing the crowd, it seems, just before you were dragged in. Now the attention is all on you. The nightmare is here…
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Scribes and Pharisees
There is a saying that goes “hate the sin but not the sinner.” This is what Jesus did in today’s Gospel. He shows God always extends mercy to the sinner that one may turn from his/her sin.
The scribes and Pharisees are exactly the opposite of Jesus, they are typical of powerful people who have no feeling for the weak. They are the strong opponents of Jesus at his time. They are doing everything they can do just to get rid of him. So in this incident, They singled out this poor woman for public condemnation in order used her to score points against Jesus. They deliberately tried to trap Jesus by presenting a difficult problem.
Here is a woman guilty of sexual sin (adultery). At the time of Jesus, adultery was an offense punishable by death. Jewish law treated adultery as a serious crime since it violates God’s sixth commandment and it destroys the stability of marriage and family life. Jesus has been teaching the sanctity of marriage – “What God has united let no one separate.”
They place Jesus in a serious dilemma. Would Jesus condemn her? Would Jesus forgive her in order to save her from death penalty of public stoning? They hoped that he would absolve the woman. If so they would accused him before Sanhedrin, not only of tolerating sin, but also of a sacrilegious attempt against the Law of Moses.
They also hoped that Jesus would condemn this woman and agreed upon death penalty. If this so he would violate Roman law, which did not allow the Jews to administer capital punishment. So whatever the solution he gave would work to his disadvantage. And the scribes and Pharisees couldn’t wait to see the downfall of Jesus’ credibility and reputation for being compassionate even to sinner.
Jesus was trapped. There is no way out. But Jesus dealt with the situation calmly. Look at his action of bending down and writing on the ground. It suggests tremendous inner strength which, in a non-violent way, unmasks the hypocrisy of the accusers.
The tension is resolved by Jesus’ with his world, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Nobody is left to throw stones cleanly. Jesus missions her to live as a loved human person, not just as a “thing” that can be used. The Pharisees use her for their purposes as did the man who used her sexually. Jesus uses her as well as a revelation of God’s gentleness, compassion and forgiveness. He frees her from the captivity of the crowd, the Pharisees and the Law.
However, Jesus does not intend to say that adultery is not a sin or that it is a small thing. Only when the crowd are gone that Jesus directly spoke to the woman, “Woman where are they? Has no one condemned you? The woman replied, “no one sir”. Neither do I condemn you.” There is an explicit, even if delicate, condemnation of adultery in the words addressed to the woman at the end of the scene: "Do not sin anymore."
As disciples of Jesus, we are also aware that humans are weak and are more in need of understanding than of condemnation. Jesus taught us: “Do not judge and you shall not be judged” (Mt 7:1). And so, while condemning adultery, we do not pass judgment on those who commit adultery. Like Jesus, we receive them with compassion and try to love them into goodness. Yes, love them so tenderly that they will be inspired to become the saints they potentially are. In short, as disciples of Jesus we hate the sin but we love the sinner. It is difficult stance to adopt, but it is the only Christ-like stance, the only that stance which promotes life, gentleness and happiness.
Let us pray that we may look at other people with respect and compassion as Jesus look at the woman taken in adultery.
Let us pray that God will send us leaders like Jesus who will stand with the weak and vulnerable against their oppressors not aggressively, but calmly, so that the weak may find the space to created a good life for themselves.
Let us humbly ask the grace of God, that may be freed from our own addiction to sin, “let us go and sin no more.”
source: http://www.liturgy.slu.edu/
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