5th Sunday of Lent - April 3, 2022

Stoners stunned by Christ
    In today’s gospel, the Pharisees and the scribes brought to Jesus an adulterous woman for Him to judge. Adultery, in the Jewish law, was a serious crime punishable with death by stoning. Anyway, the main purpose of the Pharisees and scribes is to trap Jesus and use this against Him. It is not because they wanted to uphold the law. If Jesus would say: “Yes, stone her and kill her’” He would lose His untarnished name with the crowd that He is compassionate and loving with the sinners. He would no longer be seen as the merciful miracle worker. He would lose His popularity and He would lose His appeal to the crowd. There is a tradition, that about the year thirty, the Romans took away from the Sanhedrin the right of capital punishment. Therefore, they could not put Jesus to death. While it is impossible to tell whether this arrangement was in effect when this woman was caught, the most credible reason for involving Jesus in this matter is to assume that the arrangement already existed. So, Jesus would be in trouble with the Romans as well  if he condoned capital punishment. And if He would say: “No, do not kill her,” then He would be accused too because they would be able to condemn Him of being against the law and of being against their traditions.      
       If this woman was caught in the very act of adultery, as her captors say, then there had to have been a man with her when she was caught. Where is he? Why isn’t he here with her? Did the scribes and Pharisees just let him go? The law of Moses prescribes stoning him too. The scribes and Pharisees are hypocritical, then; and Jesus catches them in it. He makes clear that they don’t care enough about the law of Moses to keep it themselves. But Jesus said to them: “Let the one among you who is without sin be the frst to throw a stone at her,” (v. 7). These words of Jesus strike them like a sharp sword thrusting into their hearts, opening up their hearts, and realizing that they too are sinners and not one of them can claim that she/he is good. They melt away when Jesus tells them to let the one without sin be the frst to cast stones.      
    The readings from Isaiah and Paul help us savor more deeply what we witness in this encounter between Jesus, his testers, and the woman. Even though the passage from Second Isaiah was, frst of all, addressed to the refugees in Babylon and speaks of the good news of their freedom to journey home to Judah under the liberation of Cyrus, the words have come to mean much more. First Jews, then Christians, came to read these words, like most of Isaiah 40- 55, as descriptions of the messianic times. The Church applies to the new Exodus of incarnation and redemption in Jesus the words, “See, I am doing something new!” Paul's writing to the Philippians speaks of the illumination of the Law and the Prophets in the person of Christ.              In the gospel of St. Matthew (chapter 7), Jesus said: “Judge not and you will not be judged…take frst the plank out of your eye, then you will see clearly enough to take the speck out of your brothers’ eyes…” So, one of the lessons we can get from this gospel is about judging and condemning others. Nowadays, judging or condemning others becomes our favorite pastime. This becomes institutionalized and commercialized. Our gossip columns and television talks are using this judging or condemning others to make their shows top rated.      
    It is easy for the Christian to take a self-righteous attitude toward the world; it is much more diffcult to take Jesus’ attitude: “Neither do I condemn you: go and do not sin again.” All of us have contributed to the darkness of the world; none of us can cast the frst stone. Jesus the prophet, the one who speaks the will of God for the here-and-now, reminds us—and all zealots of justice —to strive for purity of motive as we pursue our righteous goals.
Fr Tom Kunnel, C.O