5th Sunday of Lent year C
✠ A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John 8:1-11
Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. But early in the morning, he arrived again in the temple area, and all the people started coming to him, and he sat down and taught them.
Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle.
They said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now, in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.
So what do you say?”
They said this to test him so that they could have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.
But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Again, he bent down and wrote on the ground. In response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders. So he was left alone with the woman before him. Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
She replied, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on, do not sin anymore.”
1. The readings for this Sunday unanimously communicate a single message: that God is more interested in the effort we are making to be better than in our past sins. He is more interested in our future than in holding down with our past. Today’s first reading from the second part of the prophetic book of Isaiah (chapter 43) presents God as one who liberates his people from bondage. It proclaims a second exodus, which is a reference to the liberation from the Babylonian exile. This liberation is accomplished by God, not because the people repented from their sins but because of the holy name of God that they were profaning among the pagans. God, in his goodness, decided to forgive them with the hope that his forgiveness would provoke repentance in them. (cfEz36;16-36). In doing this, God shows himself as a forgiving God.
2. The attribute of God as one who forgives with ease is further showcased in the gospel. The Scribes and Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery before Jesus and asked him for his opinion about the law of Moses that ordered that such a person should be stoned to death. Of course, they knew what the law says, but they wanted to have some charges against Jesus as a lawbreaker. Jesus ignored them, but when they persisted, he requested that the person without sin among them should be the first to cast a stone on the woman. In other words, the law must be executed but not by those who are also guilty of breaking the law. At this, they all left, leaving the woman alone with the only person who has the right to throw a stone, since he alone is without sin. But Jesus did not cast a stone on her. He did not even condemn or reproach her. He merely encouraged her to stop sinning.
3. In this encounter, we see two ways of dealing with sinners: Pharisaic way and godly way. The Pharisaic way humiliates the sinner: they arrested the woman, brought her before Jesus, set her in the middle, and demanded for her condemnation and death. The godly way restores the sinner to his/her dignity: Jesus felt unconcerned about the accusation. When they pressed him to react, he reacted in a way that convicted all of them and made the accused person understand that her accusers were not better than her. In this way, she regained her dignity.
4. But in restoring the sinful woman to her lost dignity, Jesus does not encourage her sin but rather provokes her to become better:” I do not condemn, go and sin no more.” Jesus abhors sin because it harms the sinner. But he sees the latent goodness in a sinner, which must be encouraged. His gentle approach disarms the sinner and gives him/her no room for an empty argument. Like St. Paul, in today’s second reading (Phil 3:8-14), Jesus invites the sinner to forget the past and move on to a better future since God is more interested in the present and the future.
5. From today’s encounter between Jesus and the Pharisees, you must have realized that a sinner has no right to condemn or punish other sinners. Like Jesus, you must learn to show less interest in the sins of others or the participation in criticising sinners. His first attitude was silence. You, too, can adopt such when people want you to be involved in discussing the weaknesses of others. If you are pressured to comment on the failings of others, do it in a way that your listeners easily realize that they, too, are sinners in need of God’s mercy. If you must speak to a manifest sinner, make him/her realize that you only want him/her to be better and not that you are a saint. The fact that you are not guilty of a great sin today does not mean that you are free from other sins. Learn to drop your stone and walk away to battle with your own faults. Remember that God will ask you about your own sins and not about mine. Focus, therefore, on yourself.
©VitalisAnaehobi, 06/04/25.
