“Let the one among you who is without sin be the very first to throw a stone at her.” John 8: 1-11
About 16 years ago, Jay Cormier, writer of a weekly Sunday Gospel reflection, published a three-volume set of books designed to stimulate reflection and conversation on the Sunday gospel-readings across the three-year liturgical cycle. In his reflection for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year C, he included the following story about an elderly priest who had long wondered about the difference between hell and heaven. One night, he had a dream in which God showed him the difference.
The dream opened with a depiction of hell in which there were no intense flames and no horned devils. However, there were crowds of angry people jostling one another for positions at long dining tables on which were large bowls of food and wooden spoons 10-foot long. By pushing and shoving, some of the crowd succeeded in getting their spoons into the bowl and collecting some food. However, they became totally frustrated when they were unable to turn their spoons around and get the food into their mouths. The arguing and bickering that ensued amounted to sheer hell. The old priest was then given a glimpse of heaven, where, to his amazement, he saw the same kind of wooden tables, the same, huge wooden spoons and the same bowls of food. But there was no jostling, no competing and no dissatisfaction. Instead, peace and harmony reigned. What’s more, the people sitting around the tables were using their spoons to feed one another. (Jay Cormier, Table Talk Year C, 2009)
But what does this story have to do with today’s gospel-reading? I suggest that the key is to be found in today’s first reading from Isaiah who, speaking on behalf of God, said to the people of Israel: “Let go of what’s happened in the past, stop going over old history. Be awake, be present! I’m about to do something new in you. Even now it’s coming to light. Can’t you see it?” (Isaiah 43: 18) The way in which Jesus responded to the group of Pharisees and scribes who had brought to him for judgement the woman they had caught in the act of committing adultery is an object lesson on letting go of rigid application of law and taking on the way of forgiveness and compassion.
While John has made it clear that Jesus had been quick to recognise that the Pharisees and scribes were using the woman they had caught committing adultery to trap him, he showed that Jesus was astute enough to detect their underlying hypocrisy. What John does not say, but implies, in Jesus’ challenging words and actions, is very revealing. By definition, adultery requires two participants. Yet, by not asking for the whereabouts of the man involved with the woman, Jesus revealed the prejudices and double standards of the woman’s accusers. Moreover, through what he wrote in the sand, was Jesus not inferring that those who had apprehended the guilty woman were viewing the adulterous conduct as voyeurs, seeking sexual gratification from what they observed in detail. They then presented what they had watched as evidence to have the woman stoned to death. The fact that the accusers had slunk off gradually, when they saw what Jesus wrote, was clear evidence that they were not as pure as the driven snow.
Jesus, in his turn, demonstrated that the “new thing” of which Isaiah had spoken and which he (Jesus) was ushering in was the way of mercy and compassion which he held out to the woman. He did not pretend that adulterous conduct was a mere peccadillo but, in urging the woman to sin no more, he stressed that he was not going to pursue the legalistic route of condemnation and punishment.
Clearly, those who had brought the offending woman to Jesus did not learn anything from the way of compassion and mercy which Jesus modelled, and their fixation on law showed no sign of relaxing. Towards the end of the chapter in John’s Gospel from which today’s gospel-reading comes and in the following chapter of John, there are two accounts of Jesus’ critics directing their venom on him as they plotted and planned to put him to death by stoning.
Late in this same chapter 8 of John, we are told that Jesus was accused by self-righteous critics of being possessed by a devil. In his own defence, he announced that he was faithful to the role he had been given by God and that Abraham would have been proud of the initiatives that he (Jesus) had been taking. For this, his critics labelled him as worthy of death by stoning. Jesus said to the Jews: “Your Father Abraham rejoiced to think that he would see my Day; he saw it and was glad.” The Jews then said: “You are not yet fifty, and you have seen Abraham?” Jesus replied: “I tell you solemnly, before Abraham ever was, I am”. At this, they picked up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid himself and left the Temple. (John 8: 56-59)
In the very next chapter after Jesus had affirmed his closeness to God, he was again accused of blasphemy and threatened with death by stoning. Jesus said to the Jews: “I have done many good works for you to see, works from my Father; for which of these are you stoning me?” The Jews answered him: “We are not stoning you for doing a good work but for blasphemy: you are only a man, but you claim to be God.” (John 10:31-33)
The inflexibility of the Pharisees, scribes and other Jews and their ongoing efforts to trap Jesus on matters of law and tradition underlined their intent. They were unable to see that the God of Israel is a creative God, ever-willing to infuse them with new life and to lead them in new ways. The words of Isaiah, speaking to them on behalf of God: “No need to keep recalling the past, no need to keep thinking about what was done before. See, I am doing something new in you; even now it is coming to light; can’t you see it?” (Isaiah 43: 18-19) – these words had fallen on deaf ears for centuries and the way of God had become fossilised. Inflexibility of mind and heart is not easily dissolved. Moreover, when it is challenged, it is often protected by fanaticism. When emotion is fired and fuelled by self-righteous leaders, it is often released through uncontrolled violence. Today’s gospel reading and its sequel in John give us some insights into the psychology of crowd violence. Therein lies some food for prayer and reflection and gives us a mirror into which to look.