WHAT'S THE REAL SIN HERE?

In case you aren’t aware, it takes at least two people for the sin of adultery to come about – that is a little detail about which any scholar would have complete knowledge of, anyone aware of the law. They would also have been aware, according to the Law of Moses, that all parties to the sin of adultery were subject to being stoned when disclosed – another detail that is curiously absent. The scribes and the Pharisees in their report to Jesus remind him that the law commands the stoning of women.  Well, yes, but also the men.  So, if the purpose of the law here was the preserving of holiness in the community, and if it’s not just the personal punishment of those involved, then it is like getting rid of the bugs in your living room but not in the kitchen.  Not much point in that really.  Oh, and another thing! The law says that the first stone should be thrown by the people who witnessed the offense, and there had to be at least two of those, both men, who identified themselves.  Here there are no such people present – or at least none willing to identify themselves (which could have raised all sorts of other questions among the crowd.)  And they wouldn’t have needed Jesus’s permission to do any of that stuff in the first place.  Jesus held no temple authority that was greater than theirs. These were either very poor lawyers or their real concern wasn’t about the woman at all – perhaps both.  And when Jesus finally did respond, he didn’t exactly quote Moses and demand that the witnesses step forward with the first stone.  No, he said that anybody present who was a sinner should be the one to begin the stoning, the bloodletting.  But nobody challenged him about that.  They just began walking away until there was nobody left but the woman – who, by the way, is never identified as Mary, let alone Mary Magdalene.  Those associations would come much later by other self-proclaimed “scholars” of the law as they re-told this story over the years. Perhaps the greater sin here is sexism and self-righteousness.

We never do learn about what if anything this woman is guilty.  She does not deny being a sinner of some sort; in fact, she is never given an opportunity to speak for herself at all, even at the hour of what could have been her death, except to affirm Jesus’s observation that everybody else slunk away.  She is, of course, extended compassion and mercy by the Lord – just as any of us sinners always are, but that’s not who this story is addressed to.  This is intended to open the eyes of all the rest of us, to those who make it our business to find fault with easy targets and then to distort the teaching of the gospel or the law in order to make it look like it really is our business to be judge and jury and executioner. 

None of that is true. It’s far simpler to redirect the attention to somebody else, and then smearing a nice veneer of religious self-righteousness on top of it all sort of sweetens the deal.  The Pharisees and the scribes that day wanted to ratify their story on appeal to Moses, but they only reported half of it – the part in which they tried to make themselves look like the good guys, like the pious and the powerful ones. 
This is a Lenten Gospel that is addressed to any one of us anywhere who is tempted to install our self as the final and first interpreter of the law.  The change that we seek for the transformation of the world will not come about by getting rid of everybody who doesn’t seem to measure up to the law. The transformation will begin by a softening of our own hearts for the sake of being faithful to a Jesus who is full of mercy, full of justice, and commands us to be the same.  It is difficult, but with God’s grace, it is possible.  Let us allow this un-named, but very honest woman to be our teacher, alongside Jesus.  There is still time.  There is always time until the end of our days.  Lent is a perfect time – even late in Lent – for conversion of heart and the welcoming of new ways of being with one another.