Fifth Sunday of Lent - Year C - 21st March 2010

Last Chance

The scribes and Pharisees behaved very badly in this case. First, they were using religion to try to destroy a good man. Second, and worse, they were using the woman, treating her not as a person but as a thing, a pawn in a deadly game. Finally, they showed how vindictive they were. Their self-righteousness made no allowances for human weaknesses and offered the sinner no second chance.

They want to entrap Jesus and their thinking was - if Jesus said that it was right to stone the woman - then He was lacking in "mercy" and would no longer be seen as a friend of the sinners and outcasts. If He said to let her go, then He would be failing to honour the Law of Moses.

But Jesus turns the challenge back upon his accusers. In effect he said: Go ahead and stone her! But let the man who is without sin be the first to cast a stone. They slowly walk away and Jesus finds himself alone with the woman. He does not condemn her but offers mercy and strongly exhorts her to not sin again.

We must not draw the wrong conclusion. When Jesus tells the woman, "I don't condemn you," he's not saying, "Don't worry, it's all right." He's not saying that sin doesn't matter, that adultery is no big deal.

Jesus doesn't talk that way. He tells the woman, "From now on do not sin anymore." Stop what you've been doing, and change your ways. He doesn't pretend that all is well. He doesn't ignore the disorder in her life. But he sees in her possibilities that others and maybe even she has ignored.

It must have seemed like a dream to her. One minute she was a captive of the Scribes and Pharisees, facing death by stoning, and the next minute she was being offered her freedom by Jesus.

He presents her with a warning and a choice: you can go back to your old ways, or you can make a fresh start. It's up to you.