Journey's Weekly Homilies

March 28, 2004
Fifth Sunday of Lent
Homily:  Jim Selig   

John 8:1-11
Isaiah 43:6-21 
Phillippians 3:8-14                

The story today is about a woman and a group of men who forgot what they were about, if in fact they ever knew--and about One who searches these shipwrecks in the sea of life and sets them right. There is something of all of them in us.

The woman's story has so much to tell us. . .   she was apprehended in the act of adultery. At some point she had been a young bride with dreams about her married life, a shared look.  On that day she stepped too far, and thereafter she began to cross others lines until she found herself in a full-blown affair. Then this night comes. Jesus had just come down from the Mount of Olives; all is peaceful, and then a terrible intrusion and into temple area when this woman is dragged in by her rude captors--at least that is the way Rembrandt paints the scene. The captors are actually soldiers in armour is the way he portrays them. 

We should note here that the man with whom she was committing adultery is NOT dragged before the crowd.  The culture being what it was, SHE was the only one to be punished!

These men are more than willing to humiliate her. In fact, they treat her as something not human, as a object of contempt to be used against Jesus, if they can bring it off. These men are more than willing to humiliate the woman because it is Jesus they are after. She is to be used, no, she is to be exploited.  Given the sin of the
woman and the life she has led, her dignity as a person is destroyed. 

But as she looks up she sees the face of a Man; it is  Jesus, who is her salvation.

There are many people standing around watching this spectacle; this scene is like one of the lynching scenes of the old South.

Not one of them speaks up, not one breaks into this action.  They passively watch the drama unfolding in front of them.  No one argues that she shouldn't be punished; no one . . 

Now what I've just been describing is a tiny speck in the human condition. But that speck has larger implications in our lives.  If everyone around us is suffering from cowardice, we are faced with an extraordinary challenge.  Will WE speak up for the oppressed in OUR days?  It's very hard to decide, to know when and where to overcome our fears and speak up. What do we do about this?

We call on the ONE who arbitrates THIS contest we hear about today. The men keep urging Him, go ahead an answer "What do you say about her?"

They are all the more furious because Jesus will not answer; instead, ignoring them he does an unusual thing:  he bends and writes in the ground.  This act of writing bothers the stone throwers.  He doesn't seem to be paying attention.  So the teachers of the law keep pressing him:  "You're the rabbi, so make the call.   What do you say?"

Jesus looks up and says quietly "Let the one who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." 

In that moment every person gathered there was stunned. Suddenly their worlds were upside down and each of them is on the witness stand.  They are forced to an examination of conscience.

Then a remarkable thing happens. Somebody lets drops his stone, and it falls to the ground by his feet.   Then someone else, then a third person. Maybe their hearts melt a little and they become a little more human. Maybe they remember what it is like to stand in need of forgiveness. None of the stones get thrown in anger. 

The woman having escaped this humiliation, quietly returns home with now the hope, at least, the hope of beginning her life in a way that makes sense.

The woman disappears, goes back to her life, better able to see her own situation now.  The encounter with Jesus has brought her a new lease on life, just as such an encounter can work for us.  We know, now, that forgiveness is always available, and that ultimately God's love is offered to us as it was to her.

The men have learned a profound lesson in dealing with the questions of judgment in our world. They learn that silence may be the appropriate answer. The adulteress, the connivers, the standers-by, and especially us, gathered here at Journey, all benefit from Jesus' presence:  Not one of us goes away alone; all are healed (or can be healed) in  this simple primitive liturgy.