This weekend’s Gospel is the story of the adulterous woman who is about to be stoned with the scribes and the Pharisees having Jesus caught between a rock and a hard place (bad pun). We all know how the story ends – but what was Jesus really teaching those gathered in the Temple? Take a second look and you will find the deeper lesson of this Gospel – one that is so often missed…because it just may be hitting too close to home. Check it out…

1. 07 March 2019 5th
Sunday of Lent Princeton, NJ
In this morning’s Gospel we find Jesus back in the temple preaching to the crowds on new way to live and
to love. The antagonists of the story are the Scribes and Pharisees, who were held up as the brightest
people of their time, and thus held an authoritative position of power. They were entrenched in a religious
system that shunned and shamed the unclean and the uneducated. So this Jesus, who was welcoming the
sinners and prostitutes and gaining all the attention, had to be dealt with in what they felt was a well laid
trap.
The bait for this trap is a married woman caught in adultery and the Jewish law dictating that she must be
stoned. But Jesus is well aware of the inequity that sits behind these charges as well as the lack of
compassion and the utter shame being flung onto this woman who is about to lose her life. Nevertheless
Jesus is faced with a dilemma in answering the question of what should be done to this woman. For Roman
Law prohibited the Jews from extracting the death penalty when it was a sentence dictated by Jewish Law.
If he insisted on having her stoned then he would have to answer to the Romans. If he pardoned her he
would be seen as being an accomplice in the eyes of the Jews. It would seem there was no way for Jesus
to answer the question without being found guilty of breaking Roman or Jewish Law.
On the surface, this story which we have heard so often, seems to be straight forward. The trap is laid by
the Jewish authorities, the accused woman is about to be stoned, and we find Jesus is caught in the middle.
But I think we need to pause and give this story our respect – but in the literal sense. ‘Re-spect’ calls for us
to look back again…past our first gaze – where we often measure up someone or something against our
own criteria – and then to look a second time…in a deeper way with more understanding and compassion.
So let’s look at all those wounded in this story – beginning with the easiest one to identify – the accused
woman. There is no mention that she denies the charges which she knows carries a sentence of death. So
you need to ask, what may have motivated her to commit such an act. Keep in mind, during the time of
Jesus, girls were married at the age of 12 or 13 and often to much older extended family members.
Daughters were hidden from society and carried no rights, with no ability for an education and were
considered property. So we have no idea of what was going on in her life – just as we have no idea what
goes on in the lives of all those who we encounter each day. Perhaps she was abused, abandoned,
depressed and hopeless? Perhaps her illicit relationship was with the only person who ever showed her
any true love? It does not excuse her sin – but it allows us to ‘re-spect’ – to take a second, deeper look at
this story – a story, not unlike one of many stories in our own lives that are filled with loss, suffering, pain
and regret – giving each of us some sense of how she must have felt standing there before Jesus filled with
humiliation, terror and shame.
Now let’s take a look at the other group of wounded people – the Jewish authorities. Wait – what? You may
be saying to yourself – “There’re not wounded, there’re just the ‘bad guys’!” But again, let’s take that
second, deeper look. The Scribes were lawyers who wrote, taught and interpreted the law. The Pharisees
were a middle class of people, who spent all of their time and energy living the 643 Judaic laws…to such an
extreme that their hands were likely bleeding from washing them so many times a day just trying to stay
clean – terrified of failing to please their image of an angry and vengeful God.
So just imagine their woundedness and deep anger towards this Rabbi – Jesus – who shows up, doling out
love and grace and forgiveness and is being called the Messiah! Because for them, he is nothing like the
Christ that they have dedicated their entire life to believing in and suffering for!
1 Deacon Jim Knipper

2. So they launch this half-baked plan to trap Jesus by bringing the accused woman forward, asking him what
should be done. But, they of all people, know that their own laws dictate that for this action to take place
both the man and the woman and two witnesses must all be brought forward. Once done, the priest is to
then write on the ground the law that was broken along with the names of the accused. Thus now we have
a deeper understanding of what Jesus was likely doing as he wrote on the ground. For he was
communicating to the accusers, – ‘actually you are the ones who are now breaking the law bringing only
this woman forward and shaming her…’ and in doing so giving them a chance to repent or… to do what
they did - just walk away. With the stones laying on the ground…Jesus is left with the woman. What a
powerful moment this was as this humiliated and petrified woman, who was about to be stoned to death,
faces the compassionate Jesus, who without shaming her, says – “I do not condemn you. Go and sin no
more”. In other words – go take ownership of your life and where necessary – change it!
So this story gives us two wounded parties – one whose deep belief is shattered that there God is an angry,
vengeful God who needs to be placated and the other who knows she has done wrong and experiences the
grace and forgiveness of the Messiah. But notice – at no time does Jesus separate or divide – he does all
that he can to include – the Scribes, the Pharisees and the sinner. And throughout it all, remember Jesus
did not come to start a new religion – rather to remind and reteach his faith the essential function of religion
– religio – that is, to realign and reconnect – to help us see the world and ourselves in wholeness – in Christ
- rather than wasting any time judging who is in and who is out – for every person is a child of God with
infinite dignity and value.
This past week I was in Albuquerque with Franciscan Fr. Richard Rohr for his conference dedicated to
breaking open his latest NYT best seller – The Universal Christ…and in that book he writes: “The Divine
Presence seeks wholeness and connection and communion – not separation or division. We must
concentrate on including – as Jesus clearly did – instead of excluding – which he never did. The only
people that Jesus seemed to exclude were precisely those who refused to know that they were ordinary
sinners like everyone else. The only thing he excluded was exclusion itself. What a difference this can
make when you walk through your day and encounter other people and nothing and no one needs to be
excluded. The proof that you are a mature Christian is when you can see Christ everywhere in every one
and every thing.”
As we near the end of Lent I would encourage us all to take some time to see where each of us may be
excluding an other for whatever reason and in doing so are blinded to the presence of Christ which is
inherent in each of us. The same Christ who desires to be in relationship with us regardless of what we
have done…or what we have failed to do. A relationship where there is no shame – only forgiveness…no
shunning – only acceptance…no stones - only a warm embrace…no admonishment but the call to see our
own imperfections – the call to change our ways, the Lenten call to let go of our past and start each day
anew by re-specting and reconnecting our lives through Christ our Lord…Amen.
2 Deacon Jim Knipper