Year C - Fifth Sunday of Lent

In the Gospel this Sunday, the scribes and Pharisees try to set a trap for Jesus, using the plight of the woman caught in adultery. We know that it takes two to commit adultery, but in the story as we receive it, it is only the woman who is accused and condemned. Adultery was seen a very serious sin; the penalty is clear and very severe: she is to be stoned to death. Will Jesus condemn her or will he contradict Moses’ Law? If he says, “stone her” he will antagonize the Romans, if he says “no” he contradicts the Law. The accusers are more interested in using the woman as a weapon against Jesus than her as a person. It is a fault of the self-righteous - using others to justify themselves.

The accusers do everything to humiliate the woman, making her stand out in front of everyone. They want to make themselves look good at her expense. In contrast Jesus bends down, so as not to dominate her. He dissociates himself from the humiliation they wish to inflict upon her, and the domination that men often exercise over women. He wishes to restore her dignity. In fact, Jesus inverts the situation. He makes those who would judge others become their own judges. He holds up a mirror to each person, to reflect back their own sins and faults. He reveals the truth about each person - each one is a sinner, as much as the woman is.

Sin can do to each of us the very things that it did to the woman: it isolates us from God, our community and from our very selves. It prevents us becoming our true selves, the person God calls us to be. Sin blocks that; it diminishes all our relationships and leaves us desperately alone and isolated. Jesus remains bending down. He still does not dominate or judge her. No one remains but Jesus, so her humiliation is taken away. Jesus does not condemn her, nor does he say “it is OK, it doesn’t matter”. It does matter - adultery is still a sin, but he says, “You are not condemned, you are forgiven, you are healed. Go and sin no more.”

The way Jesus handles the situation, God does not need to destroy the sinner in order to save the community from the effects of the sin. Jesus’ vision and experience of God is as a healer and a savior. Elsewhere in John’s Gospel it says, “God sent his son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world may be saved”.

People usually sin, I think, because some deep human need within us has not been met, the need for love and the need to be ourselves. God’s longing is to free us from the roots of our sin, to live fully the life to which he calls us. Think of the implications of Jesus treatment of the woman: he not only frees her from condemnation and gives her back her life, he says, “now that you have felt true love, true compassion, a true sense of your own dignity, you will no longer need to seek ways to satisfy your need for love and recognition which are destructive and illusory.”

So at the end of the story, the woman is actually in a better position than her accusers. She is forgiven and healed, they remain in their sinful pride, for all their efforts still not really in touch with God. They portray God in their own image and likeness, who is righteous by condemning others. Their God is essentially an idol. The woman has no claims of righteousness of her own, therefore she can truly know God as God really is.

Lesson Theme Suggestion

We should not condemn others, but leave judgment to God alone. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Do not seek to destroy people who do wrong, but to help them to overcome their problems and come back into the community.