The Fifth Sunday of Lent, C April 7, 2019
Fr. Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
Has this ever happened to you? You ask a question and the person just pretends not to hear you. They pretend to fiddle with something, they dive into a conversation with someone else, or perhaps they bend down and start writing in the dirt. What do you do then? You ask again, ask louder, and demand an answer. We see the same thing with the pharisees and Jesus. They’ve got a serious question, but Jesus seems to just deflect.
Then again, flip it around. What if you’re the one getting asked a question you don’t want to answer. A personal question, a complicated question, or, worst-of-all, a loaded question designed to get you in trouble. What do you do? You deflect, you stall, you get out of there. Well, the question they’re throwing at Jesus is just that, a loaded question. Either answer gets him in trouble. If he says they shouldn’t stone her, the Pharisees have him on an explicit violation of the Mosaic Law – a problem for a Jewish Rabbi. If he says they should, then he gets in trouble with the Roman Empire since their law did not allow the Jews to execute anyone – it’s the same reasons the Pharisees need Pontius Pilate to crucify Jesus later on. The question is loaded, Jesus can’t answer without getting in trouble.
So, is Jesus just deflecting, buying time by digging in the dirt until he can think of this clever response? No. The digging in the dirt is his answer… or at least, it’s part of the answer. You see, Jesus does a lot of strange things in the Gospel. Cursing fig trees, rubbing mud on people’s eyes, groaning, breathing on people… What’s all that about? When Jesus does some strange unexplained gesture, it usually means it is a prophetic gesture. He is either acting out a prophecy or the fulfillment of a prophecy. Jesus writes on the ground. Interesting that it gives us that detail… writing, not drawing, not playing, but writing. It’s weird that it gives us that much detail, but not the detail of what he’s writing.
Because that content doesn’t matter. What matters is that he is writing on the ground. The prophet Jeremiah, chapter, 17 gives us this prophecy: “O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake thee shall be put to shame; those who turn away from thee shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water.” In the Greek and Hebrew of the Bible, they use the same word for ground, dirt, and earth. So, we could translate this Gospel to say that Jesus is writing on the earth.
Even better, the day before this dramatic scene, Jesus taught everyone that he is the source of living waters. But the pharisees reject this teaching. Jeremiah’s prophecy tells us that the people who are “written in the earth” are those who “forsake the Lord, the fountain of living water.” So, when the pharisees come with this question about the woman caught in adultery, Jesus is not deflecting their question, but answering it by fulfilling a prophecy, writing in the earth, or ground, those who forsake him as the living water. He’s saying, without words, that they are just as guilty of a sin that is just as serious.
Then, to make the challenge explicit, Jesus gives his famous response, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And it works. They leave without throwing a stone. She and Jesus are alone. What’s interesting about this is that it now gives Jesus a way to obey both the law of Moses and the law of the Roman empire. Under the Law of Moses, a person could only be put to death if there are at least two witnesses willing to testify. With all the witnesses gone, there is no legal way to kill her. Jesus, because he is God, does still have the authority to execute her, but he chooses not to, because his mission is mercy, his goal is conversion.
Which is why he says “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.” So, what does this teach us?
First of all, it shows that Jesus Christ takes the law seriously. He doesn’t say “the death penalty is evil, so let her go.” He doesn’t say “I’m the messiah and I choose to erase this law.” He does not say “the law is unnecessary and evil.” He goes out of his way to obey both the religious law, the law of Moses, and the civil law, the law of Rome. What he does is take the law seriously by showing us how to obey the law for the right reason, with love. Legalism is a problem, but so is outright lawlessness.
Secondly, this does not mean that adultery is no big deal. Jesus never denies that it deserves death. In other places, he is clear that adultery is a serious sin. And his command to “sin no more” must not be forgotten.
Third, conviction is a necessary part of repentance and, therefore, of forgiveness. This woman is convicted of her sin by the crowd and she is convicted in her own heart. This conviction – this clear recognition of how terrible her sin is – it is the first step in the mercy she receives. Jesus takes conviction so seriously that he actually stops to convict the pharisees before offering his brilliant answer to them and before he offers this woman mercy. The writing on the ground – the earth – convicts the pharisees. And then the answer itself is a conviction. By walking away, each person admits to their sin.
Fourth and finally, being convicted of our own sin helps us to be merciful to others. Once we recognize how much we need to be forgiven, it is suddenly much easier to forgive another person. Although he never says it, this scene has a lot in common with the prayer, the Our Father. Forgive or you will not be forgiven. Being convicted of your own sin is an important preliminary step.
So, what do we do with this teaching? Be obedient to the laws of the Church and the civil law but do it with love. Take sin seriously, examine your own conscience – be convicted – every night. Forgive others, ask for forgiveness, then go and sin no more.