5 TH SUNDAY OF LENT, YEAR C, 2016
Readings: Isa. 43:16-21; Ps. 126; Phil. 3:8-14; Jn. 8:1-11
Forgiveness: What Jesus Does and Who He Is
Today’s gospel is a dramatic portrayal of the forgiveness that Jesus offers us when we go astray. It tells us of what Jesus does when we fail to live out the love he invites us to. He forgives us. Even more important, it shows us who Jesus is:
Jesus is forgiveness--God’s merciful forgiveness in person.
The gospel invites us to enter into the unfolding of two trials. The first is that of a woman who has committed adultery. The scribes and Pharisees are judging her and want her punished. What humiliation she faces. The adultery is itself a source shame. Worse, the officials shove her into a mob so everyone in town will see her shame. The sin is bad enough, but perhaps the humiliation is worse!
Then they recite the Law of Moses: “you must be stoned to death for your crime.” Since there is little doubt about her guilt they are quite ready to inflict the death penalty. They ask Jesus: What do you say? What would you do?
This is the second trial. The scribe put Jesus on trial. It is a kind of trap that the scribes hope will show who Jesus really is. They see him as a dreamer who always preaches forgiveness and love. All his talk forgiveness is leading many people away from following the law. So they haul the woman before Jesus and ask if he agrees she should be put to death penalty. The Roman government had taken from Israel the right of capital punishment. So the scribes think they have Jesus in
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a no-win situation. If he supports stoning, he is a rebel against the law of the
Empire. If he advocates that she not be stoned, he is rejecting the Law of Moses.
They hope this will turn many of his followers away from him.
But Jesus won’t play their game. He just bends down and writes in the dust.
Then he stands up with a ringing command: Let the one among you who is without sin throw the first stone. The scribes melt away, beginning with the elders. Jesus and the woman stand alone. He asks: “Has no one condemned you?” “No one,
Lord,” she replies. Jesus responds in words that show us who he is: “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on sin no more.”
What Jesus does is forgive. He invites us to recognize that when we have failed or sinned he will do the same for us—he will forgive us too. And he asks us to do this for one another—as he forgives us, we should forgive one another.
Equally important is what the story tells us about who Jesus is. As the story unfolds, Jesus never actually looks at the woman while she is being accused. He bends down and writes in the dust. Only when her accusers have melted away does he look up and speak to her. When they are finally alone Jesus straightens up and says to her “Neither do I condemn you.”
Jesus kneeling bent over in front of this sinful woman is a kind of parable of the kind of person Jesus actually is. St. Augustine captures the picture poignantly: at the end of the scene, Augustine says, “There are only two remain: affliction and
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mercy” (in Latin: relicti sunt duo miseria et Misericordia).
The woman is affliction and shame. Jesus is forgiveness. He himself is forgiveness, he himself is mercy.
Jesus is God’s forgiveness come into our lives. St. Paul tells us that Jesus is without sin, so he is actually the only one who could legitimately stand above this sinful woman to judge her from “on high.” But Jesus doesn’t approach her from above. Rather, he bends down to the ground before her. He is there with her, seeking to restore her dignity and self-esteem through forgiveness. The scene is very much like the later event at the Last Supper, where Jesus kneels down to wash his disciples’ feet--with them, rather than above them. In interpreting this story the biblical scholar John Donahue has called on an image from a beautiful painting of the scene by Lucas Cranach. It portrays the Jesus reaching toward the woman. His left hand is entwined tenderly with her right hand. The hand of mercy gently holds the hand of a woman many others see as disgraced. Mercy stands side by side with guilt and affliction--forgiving, comforting. Jesus is forgiveness, side by side with us when we need forgiveness. Jesus is comfort, by our side when we are afflicted.
Let us thank God that Jesus is that great gift to us. Let us join together with Jesus around the table of the Lord and give thanks to God for this forgiveness and comfort.
David Hollenbach, S.J.
St. Ignatius Church March 13, 2016
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