NO ONE SIR

NOTE: Again, for this Fifth Sunday of Lent, I would like to suggest that we take some time to pray and reflect on the readings for this Sunday.  Like a mini-retreat, how is the Word speaking to us and leading us to deeper conversation and conversion?  Let us pray for one another.

Have you ever been at the receiving end of a pointing finger? Or an accusatory tone? Or the brunt of the gossip and whispers of others?  I have.  There are times when I deserved it.  Other times when it was as false as a late night infomercial.  Nonetheless, the pain, sorrow, anger, regret, embarrassment is real.  I know what that feels like.  It is as real as the blood pulsing through your veins, and the sensation of the heat rising on your cheeks.

The Gospel today is an awesome display of our hypocrisy in the light of God’s overwhelming authenticity.  Before Jesus is the woman “caught” in the act of adultery.  Makes you think…was she set up?  Were they on the lookout?  Was she the Oswald of Adultery Conspiracy Theories that they could trap Jesus with?  Those that brought this woman before Jesus could care less about her.  They were looking for a fight…they were looking to trap this preacher into a corner from which there was no escape.  “This woman has been caught in the act of adultery. According to the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.  What do you say?”

So how does the Word-Made-Flesh respond to this challenge?  Silence.  Jesus is silent.  He stoops and scribbles on the ground. When He “straightened up” he points their inquiry back at them… “Let the one among you without sin be the first to cast a stone at her.”

Touché Jesus!  Like David to Goliath, the Messiah hit them full force between the eyes with the sling shot rock of his words.  No more voices.  No more fingers.  No more accusations.  They walk away.

FIRST COMMENTARY   Where do you want to live?  Do you want to live ONLY in this world?  What does this world give you?  This world gives you hypocrisy.  We live in a salacious TMZ/CelebrityEdition/Gotcha world.  (Just ask Joe Biden if you are wondering?  And I am no Joe Biden fan).  We live in a culture in which at any given moment, anyone or any group can be slighted and DEMAND an apology….and once they get it, it is either, not good enough, too late, insincere etc.  The truth doesn’t matter, because there is no truth.  What is true for you is yours and what is true for me is mine.  We must accept everything and reject nothing…unless I don’t like it…in that case you are a bigot, racist or Nazi and I can relegate you to a fringe that doesn’t matter and should not be heard or seen…but everyone in this culture should have a voice and matter, right?  Very confusing this world we have invented.

What has made us invent (and I mean Invent) such a world?  Is it perhaps because life is hard?  True, we struggle here. We have a need for each other and at the same time we drift away and choose sides and point fingers.  We know the truth and do everything to cover it if it does not reflect well on us.  Life is hard. No doubt.  Lord knows.

Yes, the Lord does know.  The difference between Jesus and the Scribes and Pharisees is how they embrace reality.  The scribes and the pharisees see sin and the challenges of life as someone else problem…like the adulterous woman.  For Jesus, Emmanuel, God-with-us, He sees sin and the challenges of life is everyone’s problem…even His. 

SECOND COMMENTARYSo now Jesus, God-with-us, is face-to-face with the adulterous woman.  Reality.  Real Drama.

He asks, and she replies.  I sometimes imagine this scene.  Does Jesus whisper his question?  Does he speak softly?  Does he stand up and look at the crowd who just wanted to see a stoning to shout at them?  “Woman, where are they?  Has no one condemn you?”

And how does she reply?  What is the sound of her voice? Is it soft? Relieved? Frightened? Exhausted or embarrassed? “No one sir.”  There it is.  Definitive.  No one.  No one condemns her.  No she is not innocent by any means, but no one is there to condemn her…but her. That is reality.

But Jesus, the redeemer, savior, messiah, He is creator as well.  He creates a new reality.  How?  By His WORD.  “Neither do I condemn you.”  Where her sin condemned her, His Word does not.  It transforms her.  It offers her an entirely new identity.  From outcasts to insider – from sinner to saint – for derided to beloved – from lost to found – from harlot to innocent.  This is the offer.

Jesus’ next words are as much for the scribes and the Pharisees as they are for the woman, as they are for you and me.  “…Go and for now on do not sin anymore.”   This realistic Savior changes us and enjoins us.  We are now His.  Our world and our world view is now new…difference.  No longer are we to look at life through the lens of sin. Now we are to live life through the power of grace.

Where do you want to live?  The scribes and Pharisees made a choice to live in this world.  To live with their eyes fixed on sin.  Those who were very loud when they came to Jesus, walked away in silence. And I dare say, sadness.  The one dragged silently to the feet of Jesus is silent no more; powerless no more; sin-bound no more. 

This is but one of our Lenten invitations. Let us repent of our hypocrisy and embrace our (plural) authenticity in Christ. Let us reflect in this world, the world we really want to live in…and the world to which we are called.