Fifth Sunday of Lent

Fifth Sunday of Lent - Year C

This Sunday we are presented with the story of the woman caught in adultery. But as John's account of the story sets the scene there is very little reference to the woman.

The Pharisees brought her. They made her stand before the group. They said to Jesus... From their point of view, this story is not really about the woman at all. It is an opportunity for the Pharisees to yet again put Jesus to the test. To trap him as someone that will break from the Torah or contradict himself. The woman is only a means to an end.

But Jesus shifts the focus to the Pharisees and the gathering crowd. 'Let any one of you who is without sin throw the first stone at her.' Then he bends down and, with his finger, begins to write in the dust on the ground.

Many years ago, I heard an entirely apocryphal but plausible explanation of what happens next. A reason why, one by one, and beginning with the elders, they dropped their stones and walked away.

In the Book of Jeremiah it says that the names of those that turn away from God will be written in the dust. Suggesting that their names will be blown away by the breeze, forgotten by God. As opposed to those faithful whose name will be carved in God's hand.

If we suppose that what Jesus has written in the dust, or what each man has seen, is his own name, and alongside it his own sins, it is no wonder they walked away.

In the first reading the prophet Isaiah tells us that there is no need to recall the past, to think about what has been done before. That God is forging a new path for us, taming the wilderness and leading us towards the life that God has promised.

And this is what Jesus does. He shifts the focus once again, gazes at the woman with love - she who the Pharisees had glared at with condemnation - and says, 'I do not condemn you.' He sees her not as a means to an end, but a human person with dignity. And he exhorts her to go, to live out that dignity, and to walk the new path that has been set before her. The path away from sin and towards a right relationship with God.

Jesus does not condemn the men who brought the woman to him either. He challenges them to let go of the urge to condemn. To leave behind righteous indignation and focus on becoming righteous themselves.

As we enter into the final weeks of lent the question that the Gospel asks me is whether I am looking upon people with love, or glaring at them in condemnation? And will my name be written in the dust as a result, or carved upon God's hand?

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