The Two Still Standing

 

I’m no bible scholar, but it seems to me the people Jesus called out the most (when he wasn’t otherwise occupied with healing, serving, or teaching) were those who already thought they were holy. Today, I read in John 8 about when the Pharisees and the scribes brought a woman who had been caught in adultery into the temple. They did this because Jesus was teaching there and they wanted to test him, hoping his response would allow them to bring a charge against him. His penchant for grace was a threat to the law they so loved. 

The first thing that struck me about this passage was that the Pharisees dragged the woman into the TEMPLE, into the house of God. Why? To accuse her, to attempt a stoning, and to bring charges against Jesus. It seems so horrible. The house of the Lord should have been a place of healing, grace, humility, repentance. A place to encounter God. Instead we see a sinful, prideful mob looking for blood and to raise their own elevated egos.  

If you read the rest of the scene, the holy folks ask Jesus what should be done to the woman, reminding him that stoning is the law. And Jesus did the most awesome of boss moves: he bent over and wrote in the ground. As they asked again and again he looked up and said “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone.” Then he did some more ground writing  (*some ancient authorities say he wrote the sins of each of them). And low and behold, they went away, one by one, the elders first.  And Jesus addressed the woman: “Woman, where did they all go? Has no one condemned you?’ She said “No one, Lord.” And he said “Neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.”

In churches of my past, ministers and fellow congregants have pointed out that Jesus did command the woman to go and sin no more at the close of the scene.  That actually has been the big takeaway for some, and yet this is not the big takeaway sitting with me as I read and sat with the passage. Also, when I was discussing this with my husband he pointed out that nowhere in the passage do we even hear the woman ask for forgiveness nor express her own repentance.  Not that it didn’t happen, but it is not mentioned. What is clear to see in the passage, is the vast difference between the character of the condemners and the character of Jesus. The Pharisees accuse the woman, who has indeed done wrong. But Christ calls out the accusers. 

This passage also reminded me of church disciplines I have witnessed in the past.  There, the words spoken had a kindly tone, where “truth in love” was the delivery. And desire for hopeful restoration and details of all that had been done to “help bring the person back into repentance.” But ultimately it felt like a public shaming, an instruction to exclude, to only interact with the person insofar as to encourage repentance. A different stoning of sorts. And public shaming is not just an Evangelical weapon of choice, it is EVERYWHERE. I see it daily from the secular to the religious, from left and the right and everyone in between. We accusers are loud and sometimes well intentioned.  But I doubt what good we are doing throwing rocks and hurling accusations. Perhaps our time would be better spent healing, helping or speaking words of life to each other.  And on occasion, bending over and writing in the sand as we contemplate our own hearts and sins, remembering Jesus who sent all the stone throwers away and then set the woman free.