As I held the door open for a woman carrying a florescent yellow umbrella, I was caught off guard by her question: “Don’t you just love Jesus?” She smiled and waited for my answer. Clearly sensing that this was not a rhetorical question, I responded, “Yes, I love Jesus.” “Everyday?” she said. “Yes, everyday.” I said. Ducking through the door, she confidently said, “Amen! Amen!” When I looked for this “street preacher” in the restaurant once I got settled, she was nowhere to be found. Isn’t it interesting how “angels” come and go in our lives?
The unexpected questions often come in the most unlikely places and push our theological buttons in unimagined ways. Proclaiming that “I love Jesus everyday” to a perfect stranger in a Wendy’s restaurant is, even you would have to admit, a bit unusual. I might ask you the same question, “Do you love Jesus? Everyday?” You don’t have to answer immediately, but the question does demand an answer in your lifetime before you die.
Our gospel reading for this Sunday poses some rather interesting questions. Faced with a dilemma regarding a blatant violation of the Law (the Sixth Commandment, “Thou shall not commit adultery”), Jesus is asked to support the death penalty for a woman who was caught in adultery. Death by stoning was the prescribed punishment. Historically, stoning was well documented in the Jewish tradition via the Torah and the Talmud. While the barbaric practice continues in fifteen countries, the punishment for certain offenses (adultery, murder, blasphemy and apostasy) was condoned as normal in Jesus’ world.
Taking his time in answering the bloodthirsty righteousness of the Pharisees and Scribes who were out to get both Jesus and the woman, Jesus simply bent down and wrote with his finger in the ground. The puzzlement increased among the onlookers. Some scholars theorized that Jesus was simply doodling in the dust while others thought he was writing down the sins of the bystanders. When Jesus stood, he uttered the question, “Is any one of you without sin? If so, be first to cast a rock at her.” Then Jesus bent down and wrote in the dust, perhaps following the old Roman legal procedure of first writing the verdict before announcing it. Despite the reasoning behind the enigmatic behavior of Jesus, the Scribes and Pharisees, beginning with the eldest, began to depart one by one. Standing and turning to the frightened woman, Jesus asked, “Woman, where are they?” Has no one condemned you?” In an act of genuine compassion, Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you. Go on your way, and from now on do not sin again.” I suspect the forgiven woman could easily say to her friends, “Don’t you just love Jesus? Everyday?”
Lent is the time when we explore themes of forgiveness and exoneration. Lent is also a time when a firm purpose of amendment is extracted from sinners who really want to change their lives. No doubt we could all fit the bill of accountability when it comes to sinning, but the real challenge remains when we are invited, as was the woman in the gospel story, “To go on our way, and from now on do not sin again.” Are there any among us who can honestly say that we have achieved this level of perfection? An old story from childhood reflecting this quest for perfection summarizes an edge of cynicism when Jesus asked the question, “If there is anyone among you that is without sin, then cast the first rock.” When a large rock went whizzing by Jesus’ head, he turned around and faced the crowd. Looking over the crowd, Jesus said, “Mother, I told you to go home!”
Remaining sinless, even after being forgiven, is never easy. There were no follow up reports on the woman who was almost stoned to death, so we don’t really know the level of struggle she might have endured in trying to follow Jesus’ admonition to sin no more. A missing component of this story has to do with the man who was also caught in adultery. What happened to him? Why was he absent from the judgment of the Law? What patriarchal hoodwinking was lurking in the shadows of the Scribes and Pharisees’ decision to not drag him out for “just punishment” under the Law?
The inequity of social power differential was well known in Jewish society. Women remained powerless and often became scapegoats for causing sin. Using the lone woman in the story highlighted the drama of the helplessness of women and forged a power alliance with Jesus as an advocate of “sinners.” Unfortunately, many patriarchal societies and religious institutions maintain these delusional and prejudicial perceptions, which end up fostering dichotomous standards of justice. However, we do know that Jesus averted a brutal disaster by offering forgiveness rather than succumbing to the “just punishment” of the Law. Jesus never condoned the breaking of the Law punishable by death, but rather he offered a reprieve with a stern admonition “to not sin again.” Isn’t Jesus wonderful? Everyday?
The gospels are filled with wonderful stories of compassion. People with leprosy were cured, the blind were given sight, the ears of the deaf were opened, the lame walked and big-time sinners were forgiven. Jesus worked hard at making a distinction between sin and physical disabilities. He made sure physical disabilities were not equated with sin. Jesus’ physical miracles of healing were performed out of compassion and the power of forgiveness. The cures were to symbolize the real power of forgiveness and his desire to invite people into “a change of heart” (metanoia). Even the greatest of sinners were given the opportunity to change.
We have now arrived on the Fifth Sunday in Lent and have one more Sunday before beginning Holy Week. Perhaps the need for penance is no longer the real solution in our search for the elusive quest for perfection. Taking Jesus at his word, we who have experienced his compassion can find ways to pass it on to others. Hurting or being hurt by another person does conjure up retaliatory feelings and turning the other cheek is never easy. However, it is imperative that we rise above the insidious and seductive desire for revenge. The old axiom says it all: “the person who seeks revenge must be prepared to dig two graves.”
Jesus absolved the woman from her “just punishment under the Law.” However, he did not release her from living a life of moral integrity. Given a chance to live your life “without ever sinning again,” would you be willing to risk it? Jesus offers the grace, so why not do it?
Some of us might still be a little in love with our sins, but the offer from Jesus still stands. Don’t you just love Jesus? Everyday?