Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons: 6 April 2025

Jarnefelt: Jesus and the woman taken in adultery: Wiki Image

Fifth Sunday of Lent
Lectionary Year C

Holy craftiness!

We move soon to the commemoration of those last days in the life of Jesus, John's gospel story of the adulterous woman brought before Jesus, might at first glance seem slightly incongruous within this framework of dramatic events, but that is not a good viewpoint, for in its setting, context and activity, this story reveals a number of key elements of spiritual and practical teaching we have hopefully been collecting from Jesus, on our Lenten journey. We cannot isolate this tale from what John has written before it in chapter 7; the overarching framework, which we must consider, is that Jesus has proven divisive.

The chapter sets Jesus in the feast of Tabernacles, which he tells his brothers he is not going to attend, but then goes secretly, and in that atmosphere John tells us what people were saying about him: ' Some said "he is a good man", while others said, " No, on the contrary he misleads the crowd' (Jn 7:12). There is an atmosphere of rejection and disbelief in him by some, cautious acceptance by others. Halfway through the feast he teaches in the Temple, that is not surprising as he was a Rabbi, well versed in the Law and the Prophets.

It is here that he points out what he teaches comes not from himself but from God but also condemns those who do not keep the Law of Moses, and goes on to give examples of this kind of sinful tendency. It is at this point that he is nearly arrested, but escapes and in so doing confounds people who do not understand his sayings. It is then on the greatest day of the feast, that he proclaims himself as the source of living water, the water of the Spirit who will flow from the hearts and lives of those who will believe in Him. (Jn 7:38-39) What follows is a division, some seeing him as a prophet, others as the Messiah, but the legal group contend no prophet arises from Galilee. We are left with an enigmatic statement from Nicodemus that links to our tale of the woman in Chapter 8, when he says to the crowd: " Does our law condemn a person before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?" (Jn 7:51)

All this matters when we consider just what Jesus is up to, for back in the temple area, the dramatic event of the woman forms part of his larger teaching about who he is-and by extension, what we too must do if we choose to follow Him. And yet no matter how solemn this moment of judgment might seem, there is also humour and craftiness in Jesus, skills we might do well to learn, for they serve him well in deflecting the wrath, anger, cruelty and vindictiveness of a self-righteous group so that it does not get out of hand.

Adultery as a wider context

There is no whitewashing of this sin by John, quite simply the woman was caught in the act of adultery and the Pharisees and Scribes wish Jesus to make a judgment about the legitimate penalty of death by stoning. But Jesus clearly knows the rabbinic teachings of the great lawyers and teachers, and here in an act of deflection he writes on the ground, a clever move that serves to both distract from the penalty hanging over the woman and confuse those who want an answer by hinting that it is far from being a cut and fried judgment, rather as Nicodemus hinted in chapter 7, Jesus is opening up a silence that needs to be filled with facts before any condemnation can take place.

In this act we are also given a task, to live by our belief that the truth is important. We are being challenged, especially when we make judgments, or throw out claims about a person or situation or accept lies and peddle them further. And the first answer of Jesus should hit home and make its mark on the consciences of every single one of us: "Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at (her)" (Jn 8:7)

Yes, adultery is a serious sin, for it is a breakdown of trust, commitment and love, but the sexual adultery portrayed here does not give us the whole story. Who are accusers and how did they manage to see her 'in the act', what are the facts? Jesus is being crafty on behalf the woman and her accusers, if they are found to have done something underhand then the same penalty might apply to them as to her. He does not condemn, and in this space before he writes again on the ground, we can see that there are other forms of 'adultery', such as the unfaithfulness of our commitment to the Covenant with God. The breaking of our baptismal vows, the deliberate targeting of others to cover up out own actions, an insidious technique of deflecting away from our mess to gas light others.

I don't need to labour the point, at this stage in Lent we should be very aware and open to our need for forgiveness and throw in our lot with the woman. None of us can stand back, all of us are bound together in guilt, but because we acknowledge that we hear the words of Jesus telling us to believe in Him, to let the living waters of baptism, that is the Spirit well up in us again and again we have hope. So, make his words our own as we journey on, in the sense that we no longer condemn others, let the facts be made clear before any judgement, but above all, allow ourselves to be open to our sins being washed clean:'"Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more ": (Jn 8:11)

Lectio

Two excepts from Augustine's Homily on John 8:1-11

1. O answer of Wisdom! How He sent them unto themselves! For without they stood to accuse and censure, themselves they examined not inwardly: they saw the adulteress, they looked not into themselves. Transgressors of the law, they wished the law to be fulfilled, and this by heedlessly accusing; not really fulfilling it, as if condemning adulteries by chastity.

You have heard, O Jews, you have heard, O Pharisees, you have heard, O teachers of the law, the guardian of the law, but have not yet understood Him as the Lawgiver. What else does He signify to you when He writes with His finger on the ground? (Jn 8:6b) For the law was written with the finger of God; but written on stone because of the hard-hearted.

The Lord now wrote on the ground, (Jn 8:8) because He was seeking fruit.

You have heard then, 'Let the law be fulfilled, let the adulteress be stoned.' But is it by punishing her that the law is to be fulfilled by those that ought to be punished? Let each of you consider himself, let him enter into himself, ascend the judgment-seat of his own mind, place himself at the bar of his own conscience, (Jn 8:9a) oblige himself to confess. For he knows what he is: for

"no man knoweth the things of a man, but the spirit of man which is in him."

Each looking carefully into himself, finds himself a sinner. Yes, indeed. Hence, either let this woman go, or together with her receive ye the penalty of the law. Had He said, Let not the adulteress be stoned, He would be proved unjust: had He said, Let her be stoned, He would not appear gentle: let Him say what it became Him to say, both the gentle and the just, "Whoso is without sin of you, let him first cast a stone at her."(Jn 8:7b)

This is the voice of Justice: Let her, the sinner, be punished, but not by sinners: let the law be fulfilled, but not by the transgressors of the law. This certainly is the voice of justice: by which justice, those men pierced through as if by a dart, looking into themselves and finding themselves guilty, "one after another all withdrew." (Jn 8:9a)

2. The Lord is gentle, the Lord is long-suffering, the Lord is pitiful; but the Lord is also just, the Lord is also true. He bestows on thee space for correction; but thou lovest the delay of judgment more than the amendment of thy ways. Hast thou been a bad man yesterday? Today be a good man. Hast thou gone on in thy wickedness today? At any rate change tomorrow. Thou art always expecting, and from the mercy of God makest exceeding great promises to thyself.

As if He, who has promised thee pardon through repentance, promised thee also a longer life. How knowest thou what to-morrow may bring forth? Rightly thou sayest in thy heart: When I shall have corrected my ways, God will put all my sins away. We cannot deny that God has promised pardon to those that have amended their ways and are converted. For in what prophet thou readest to me that God has promised pardon to him that amends, thou dost not read to me that God has promised thee a long life.