Monday in the Fifth Week of Lent, March 27, 2023

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. And 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 any more.” 

“Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle.”  The Lord is teaching in the Temple area.  The Greek text simply says he was teaching “in the Temple”, but this probably means outside in one of the courtyards.  The Greek text also gives us a better idea of the numbers people who came to him: “a whole crowd”, or “a crowd of every kind of people”.  The whole Temple complex including the courtyards came to about a thousand feet long by a thousand feet wide, and the Temple itself only takes up a portion of that so even a large crowd would not fill the grounds.  Now, a group of scribes and Pharisees have apparently been summoned to advise on the case of a woman caught in adultery.  Knowing that the Lord is teaching on the Temple grounds and desiring to put him in difficulties, they dragged her through town and then through the grounds until they come before him.  They interrupt his teaching, showing disrespect at the outset, and then put the case before him.  To us, the question seems clear: “Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”  However, the Romans had abolished the power of the Jewish rulers to put anyone to death.  The Sanhedrin itself had mostly given up the death penalty by the time of the Lord’s ministry, as is clear from the Mishnah.  This does not mean the woman’s life was not in jeopardy, for she could have been stoned in a mob action.  But we can see what the scribes and Pharisees were trying to do.  If the Lord meant what he said when he declared that he had not come to do away with the Law but to fulfill (that is, “perfect”) it, then he must rule for the woman to be stoned, which would put him against Roman rule and the interpretation of the Law by the Jews at the time.  It seemed the perfect trap.  

“Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”  The Lord’s answer and the manner in which he answers shows his lack of concern with the public stature of these scribes and Pharisees.  He also evades the narrow answer they expect, whatever it might be, by turning the focus from a question about the Law to a question involving human life: the lives of the people who would stone the woman and repent too late as well as the woman herself.  

The Lord thoroughly disarms the scribes and Pharisees and they slink away before the assembled crowd, their perfect trap shown to be a thing of vapor.  St. John tells us, “He was left alone with the woman before him.”  From this it is not clear if the crowd he had been teaching also left or if they remained, but the area immediately around the Lord was clear except for the woman.  We can try to imagine her devastation and shame.  Perhaps the man with whom she had cavorted had been beaten up by a betrayed husband.  It is hard to see how she could go back to either man now, or whether any of her family would take her in.  She has her life, but very little else.  She stands before the Lord, still awaiting judgment.  He tells her he does not condemn her, that is, to death.  She is free to go, but he warns her before she does, “Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”  After her harrowing experience we might think that she would never sin again, but we know from our own lives how soon we resume sinning when we have made a solemn promise not to.  

We do not know what happened to this woman.  Did she beg forgiveness from her husband? Did he take her back?  Or did she wind up homeless and begging?  Or, did she ask the Lord for help of some kind?  A couple of early writers thought this might be Mary Magdalene and that she was converted afterwards, but there is no evidence for this, as attractive as it idea might be.

We see here how the Lord gives us many chances throughout our lives to convert.  We only bring ourselves greater misery when we put it off.  It is essential to grasp our chance now and repent while we have time.