Men drag a woman before Jesus.
She is a pawn in a religious dispute.
The men claim it is God’s will,
as shown in scripture,
that the woman should be barbarously executed.
They want to catch Jesus out in contradicting God’s will,
as they understand it.
These men
are right about what scripture says:
look at the book of Deuteronomy (chapter 22, verses 22 and 23).
Though, following those rulings,
both man and woman would be being dragged away,
which has to make you wonder about what really happened.
It is important to stress that,
though the scripture does say this,
we should be confident in asserting that
this punishment was not God’s will.
Jesus ministry reveals that God is not like that.
A true insight into God’s will, His call to fidelity in marriage,
was distorted by human regulation and then turned into scripture.
Going back to the scene.
The woman doesn’t want to be there,
and she is surely scared out of her wits.
The mob has her, and is toying with her.
Her situation feels hopeless.
Although we know what she is accused of by this mob,
we do not know what happened,
what she really did or didn’t do.
The men are there for deeply unworthy motives.
It is clear they already know what Jesus thinks.
They are not genuine ‘enquirers’.
They just want to catch Jesus out,
and are willing to use the woman bait.
Now, with the scene in mind, we should focus on Jesus.
We feel the authority of his words, of his presence, of his person.
We detect the Holy Spirit at work through him,
touching, transforming, people.
The woman, who hasn’t sought out Jesus,
is saved by him,
saved from brutal execution,
saved from condemnation.
We do not know how culpable she was.
That is matter between her and God.
We do know that her salvation through Jesus
comes with a call to turn away from sin.
Then there are the men.....
If there is one of you without sin.....
And the conscience,
the Holy Spirit guiding the heart,
of every one of these men
moves their attention
from tripping up Jesus using the woman
to themselves
and who they really are, as they stand before God.
I hear this as a moment of conversion.
These men have come face to face
with how they look before God
and they know something is wrong.
They went away,
thereby admitting they were in the wrong,
beginning with the eldest
So, for us today, in this church,
this gospel is an experience of being before Jesus.
However we come to be here,
whatever our motives,
we are to recognise Jesus’ power
to save us from the effects of sin:
speaking to save the woman in this week’s gospel,
dying to save each one of us in next week’s.
Jesus calls us to look into our hearts,
as we come before Him,
to recognise our own sins,
and accept the mercy of God.
No one can do this for us.
When we neglect to look into our hearts,
we slacken our consciences,
and our appreciation of God’s mercy diminishes.
the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus
which Paul spoke of to the Philippians,
becomes obscured for us.
There is a special celebration
of the mercy of God that Jesus personifies.
In it, we look carefully into our hearts,
we acknowledge our failings,
and bring what we find to God.
We personally acknowledge
our need for the salvation Jesus brings,
and so grow in love of Him.
That celebration has several names:
confession, reconciliation, penance.
Our parish penitential service is on Thursday evening,
and other opportunities for reconciliation,
here and at the Cathedral, are in the newsletter.
We need to admit to ourselves, before God,
that we really do sin, with real examples,
to be drawn into the love for God
revealed in Jesus’ dying on the Cross,
We are all sinners, we are a church of sinners,
We must admit this to ourselves:
perhaps, following the scripture,
beginning with the eldest.