John 8:1-11
The Woman Caught in Adultery
8 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Jesus calmly dispels the angry accusers by cleverly reminding them of their own sinfulness and with great love and compassion sets the unnamed woman on the path to a new life. That unnamed woman could be any one of us who stand in need of forgiveness. Lent is the time to look carefully at our thoughts as well as our behaviors. What secret sins do we harbor in our heads and hearts in addition to those we commit in the open? Is it time to clean the inside of the cup as well as the outside? Are we ready to hear Jesus say, "Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more." (Jn 8: 11) let us ponder and act so that we might truly rise with Christ on Easter.
Bro. Rene
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