Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.

The pharisees in this passage are once again trying to set a trap for Jesus. They propose a dilemma where any answer will get Jesus in serious trouble. If He said yes, that “we should stone this woman,” it would put him in direct opposition to the Roman law. The Romans were the only ones in Jersalem that were allowed to carry out capital punishment, and so if Jesus said yes, the Pharisees would then run off to the Romans and tell them that Jesus was ignoring their law, and instigating a rebellion. If He said no, that “we should NOT stone her,” that would put Him in direct opposition to the law of Moses, which would put him in trouble with the temple, and all of the faithful jewish people, because He would then be aborogating the law of moses, and mitigating the seriousness of the sin of Adultery. But Jesus finds a third way. He not only exposes their trap, and reveals the hypocrisy and deceit of His accusers, but He turns the dilemma back on them.

First we must consider how we got to this moment. What must these pharisees must have been doing and/or where they have must been in order to catch this woman in “the very act of adultery.” They were in NO way innocent witnesses to this affair. They were likely laying in wait to find a woman that they could catch so that they could use her to trap Jesus. To best unserstand this moment we must dig into the Jewish law and how it was properly applied to the sin of adultery. The book of Deuteronomy said that an accusation of adultery could only be made by no less than two witnesses (usually men), and if the accusation was ejudicated, and the punishment was decided to be carried out, the Law said that it must be these two witnesses that cast the first stone.

You might ask why the man that was also caught in the act of adultery was not there. Well that is simply the result of a patriarical society that allowed men to get away with things like this, and the cultural customs made it harder to convict a man of a sin than it was to convict a woman. But I think, more importantly, that this points to the duplicity of the pharisees in this reading. They are not looking to carry out justice and enforce the law against the two offenders, but instead, they are looking only to trap Jesus and will use anyone or anything to accomplish this end. My guess is that these Pharisees (most likely the elders and most high ranking of the temple), probably took a trip down into the “red-light” district and found the first jewish prostitute that they could fine, and brought her to Jesus for this moment.

So This woman was in fact the one that was actually trapped in this moment. She had no recourse, no one to defend her, no one to stand up and testify for her. And so that is when Jesus enters the scene. And He turns the tables on the situation. He sheds light on the true facts of the moment, and then lowers the boom on them all. Jesus does not immediately respond to the accusation and dilemma that the pharisees propose, instead he bends down and begins writing in the dirt. There is a lot of speculation about what Jesus wrote on the ground with His finger. Some believe that Jesus was listing out all of the sins of her accusers (like pride, lust, greed, etc.). Others believe that maybe He was shedding light on the situation and revealing the treachery that these men carried out against this woman and against Jesus. And Others say (as John Bergsma writes): “The gesture may recall Jerimiah 17:13, a warning that those who forsake the Lord ‘shall be written in the earth’ because they have rejected the ‘fountain of living water’”.

But in any case Jesus finally rises and gives his response. Taking into account all of the law of Moses (mentioned above), and the revealed treachery of the pharisees, He then lowers the boom on them when He says “he who is without sin, cast the first stone.” The brilliance of this moment is so profound…, Jesus knows the consequences of the dilemma if He agrees to the punishment, and He also knows that he cannot say that adutery is not a sin. So He puts the dilemma back ont the pharisees. Jesus basically says to them, do what the law proscribes, starting first with the witnesses. The witnesses are the lying decietful, and treacherous pharisees that came up with this scheeme. The law proscribes that they should be the ones that cast the first stone. But these men know that they cannot do it, first because their scheme has been totally revealed by Jesus, and second because they are so beholden to the Romans, and the power that the Romans gave them, that they cannot dare go against the Roman law. So instead they walk away defeated, and humiliated. Their scheme was not only revealed by Jesus, but it was confirmed by the pharisees own actions, when they gave up. It is not hard to see why the pharisees hated Jesus so much.

But the most important part of this story is the last part, where Jesus says “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?…” “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.” Jesus is God, and He is the rightful just judge of this woman, and He knows her heart and her conscience perfectly and in that knowledge He discerns to forgive her. But He does not let her of the hook, He tells her to go and sin no more. This is the requirement of forgiveness. If I harm you, and you forgive me, that reconciliation is dependent upon three things. The contrition of the sinner, the reparation of penance paid to restore the relationship, and the firm disposition to not sin again. If I do not complete all three, then the reconciliation did not happen, and the forgiveness is broken.

We must always seek to “sin no more.” It is not easy, and not always possible, but it should be our constant endeavor. If you fall, go back to confession, and start your reconciliation over again. Do it as often as you need, and do it until you finally sin no more. For many of us that will not be until after we die, but do not wait until the last moment. Reconciliation is a habit, and it takes practice, and determination. If you wait to your last moments of life, it will be hard, unfamiliar, and maybe even impossible for you to do. You don’t want to be caught unready when God calls you to judgement. So start today, get to confession, and then…, go and sin no more!

Lord I Am always amazed at your ability to show a 3rd way. We humans always throw dilemmas at you, and you always show us that there is another way, a better way, the right way. Please show me today that better way, so that I can walk that way with peace and dignity.