The Woman Taken In Adultery
2022년 4월 3일The Woman Taken In Adultery
< Fifth Sunday of Lent >
The enemies of Jesus were getting desperate to silence him. They hatched what they thought was the perfect plot to ensnare him. Sinners were coming to Jesus in droves and, instead of condemning them, Jesus was dining with them. The Law of Moses was clear: a woman guilty of adultery must be put to death. And so the scribes and Pharisees set was they thought was the perfect trap. They would catch a woman in the act of adultery and then ask Jesus what to do with her. If he said, “Let her go” the Pharisees would denounce him as a fake rabbi who wasn’t following the Commandments. If he said, “Let her be stoned to death,” all the other sinners would realize Jesus is just like the other rabbis: judgmental and condemning.
But Jesus is wiser than they. Without contradicting the Law of Moses, Jesus instead invites whoever is sinless to throw the first stone. One by one they dropped their stones and left, “beginning with the eldest” since these had many more sins. But notice something else. If the woman was caught in the act of committing adultery, where is the man with whom she committed this sin? It is physically impossible to commit adultery by yourself. In this way, Jesus exposes the men’s hypocrisy. In all probability, the man was among her accusers. All of us have sinned. All of us stand in need of the mercy of God. We are in no position and have no right to judge and condemn others just because they sin differently than we do.