Before we read the text I pointed out that for most of the first millennium of the Church's history (until about 900 CE) this passage does not appear in most manuscripts of John's Gospel and there is almost no commentary on it from Greek commentators. A theory about its exclusion is that Jesus' generosity made leaders in the Early Church, who were committed to very strict discipline, uncomfortable.
I really like for things to be fair.
I like rules.
I am an enneagram 1 – organized,
efficient, and with very high standards – for myself and others.
My high standards far too easily
turn into being overly critical of others and myself, expecting perfection from
all.
I want to be right.
About everything.
Believe it or not, I played football
once upon a time.
I was ten years old and a lineman.
I hated it.
No, I didn’t hate it because I got
hot and sweaty
or had to wear pads
or the time it took up.
I hated it because I felt like I was
then only one who got it.
I would come home from practice and
rant about being yelled at that day.
“You could drive a Mac truck through
these gaps!” the line coach had shouted…as those to my left or right stood too
far apart from me.
“WHY DON’T THEY GET IT!? The play is white, so you go right! It
rhymes!”
While my self-perception is that I’m
striving for excellence, that is easily not others’ – particularly teammates or
younger brothers’.
Self controlled? Yes. Rigid? No.
I like my systems that others or I
have put in place – particularly when or because they work.
If they don’t, I prefer to change
the system the appropriate way rather than ignore it completely.
Systems protect people.
Systems keep people safe.
Systems save time.
If the characters in John’s Gospel
are screens onto which we can project ourselves, I would most likely be a
Pharisee.
They had inherited a tradition that
kept them distinct.
It kept them in touch with God.
It defined who they were, and the
woman in today’s reading broke it.
They come to Jesus as he’s teaching
with her and want his judgment.
These Pharisees have brought a woman
who was caught breaking the law.
These men who want to be right have
come to trick Jesus and test him.
Perhaps this test comes after Jewish
leaders had lost the power to execute.
If Jesus sides with the woman he
ignores the Law.
If he orders her death, the civil
authorities will be thoroughly displeased, to say the least.
Jesus doesn’t answer their
questions, though.
These are people concerned for the
words of the law, but not its intentions.
They aren’t concerned with her
relationships and how her adultery may have broken them.
They don’t question her spiritual
state or even if she’s penitent.
There is some suggestion that rather
than trying to win her love back, her husband found people to witness her sin
to bring her to trial.
As concerned as they were for the
law, they weren’t concerned about her.
They cared more about being right
than showing love, and the Law existed to give guidance on showing love to God
and neighbor.
Jesus, however, loves the woman.
Instead of answering any of the mob
crowd’s questions, he makes a judgment that if any of them is without sin they
should start throwing the rocks.
No one does.
They all leave,
one by one,
starting with the elders, those most steeped in this tradition.
When he finishes writing in the dirt
Jesus looks up at her and asks where everyone is.
A crowd came. Now it’s gone.
“Has no one condemned you?...Neither
do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”
If the character’s in John’s Gospel
are screens onto which we can project ourselves, that means we can find
ourselves in two positions in this text.
We have a crowd of me: Enneagram 1s
who want to follow the laws and enforce the rules.
And we have me, broken, scared, and
just out of danger being told
“Neither do I condemn you,” and
being sent to sin no more
And we have Jesus, whom we all
imitate, challenging the zealots and loving the guilty.
Jesus’ sentence isn’t fair.
She had been caught in adultery, and
that was against the Law.
There were two witnesses other than
her husband, with whom her relationship was broken.
The system protected her husband’s
relationship.
While Jesus is expecting that a
zealous crowd here be totally honest in their motivations, he still spares the
woman.
The Law was very clear in its
letter.
God’s love for us in the intent of
the Law isn’t fair, though.
Rather than being condemned we’re
told to go and sin no more.
No matter how many times we are
caught in unfaithfulness to our promises, messing up, failing to love God and
our neighbors.
Each time we’re told, “Neither do I
condemn you. Go and sin no more.”
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