5th Sunday Lent C / Woman Caught in Adultery
 

Is 43: 16-21/  Ps 126/  Phil. 3:8-14/  Jn. 8:1-11
  Introduction
 

A teacher, holding a little bird in his palm, asked his students: is this bird alive? Others said yes, while others said no, but one student stood up and said, “Sir, if I say “no,” you will open your hand and let it go, if I say “yes” you squeeze it until it dies. Actual, the answer is “in your hands.”

This technique of argument is called “dilemma.” It is an argument that when you chose either side (yes or no) you will still bound to lose. The Scribes and Pharisees used this kind of argument to trap Jesus but they failed.

  
   
  Background
 
  1. Here was an attempt to trap Jesus. Roman law would not allow the Jews to put anyone to death, but Jewish law called adulterers to be stoned. If Jesus called for the stoning, he would risk arrest by the Romans. If he didn’t call for the stoning, he risked losing credibility with the Jews. Jesus knew it was a trap because in the Jewish law, both the man and woman should have been stoned (Leviticus 20:10), but only the woman was dragged before him.  Actually no one cared about her. She was only a pawn to trap Jesus.

  2. You can only overcome “dilemma” with “counter dilemma,” that is: placing your opponent in another dilemma. According to the law, in a case of capital punishment the accusers are to cast the first stone and then others are to follow. When Jesus used this aspect of law against the Scribes and Pharisees, they themselves were place in a center of a dilemma. They knew they were also sinners so they can not throw the fist stone. But if they cast stones their hypocrisy will be too obvious before the people. They felt helpless, and can’t do anything but to turn around silently and leave one by one.

  3. The Greek word for the verb “to write down” is graphein but the word used here is katagraphein, which can “means to write down a record against someone.” It may be that Jesus was confronting those self-confident Jews with the record of their own sins, listing them one by one before the whole crowd. Upon seeing their own sins written on the ground, they became ashamed of themselves and were not able to hold even one stone to cast it to the woman.
  
  Reflection:  
 
  1. In the OT, the covenant and laws were written by “the finger of God,” on the tablets of stone (Ex 31:18/Deut 9:10). The words: “writing with his finger” is a symbol of Divine authority to write and interpret laws. In our passage today, Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground “by his finger.” This is a gesture that shows Jesus’ Divine authority to enact and interpret the laws, equal to the Father. Jesus was actually “re-writing” the laws in the OT. He changed the 10 commandments with only one word, “love.” If he is to use other words, they could be “mercy” and “forgiveness.”

    Since Jesus was the author of the new law, he knew how to interpret and implement the law on adultery, far better than the learned Scribes and Pharisees.
    In the Book of Genesis God created the first man “from the soil,” and “from the ground.” When Jesus wrote “by his finger on the ground,” it means that the laws were written, not to punish nor destroy a sinner, but recreate him into a new person, Thus, giving him a chance to live not anymore as a sinner but a new person in grace. Jesus said to the woman: “neither do I condemn you. Go and from now on do not sin any more.”

  2. We must see this woman as a mirror. Whenever we look at her, may we also see our own sins and weaknesses in his humiliated face. If we want to be forgiven, lets pray that others mistakes will also receive the same mercy from God.

  3. God is a God of second chance. We commit sin but it is not sin that God is after. It is our power to change and to be good next time that they are trying to develop deep within our hearts.
  
  Conclusion  
 

          Oftentimes we placed ourselves in a dilemma whenever we are asked to forgive other people, especially those who the hurt us most. We do not know what to answer (either yes or no), simply because deep in our hurts we are still not ready to forgive. If it is a question of mercy and forgiveness, we can never place God in a dilemma. He will only have one answer – “yes” and it will always be a big… “YES”