Fifth Sunday Of Lent
JOHN 8:1-11
Luke furnishes most of the gospel readings of Cycle C, but on this Sunday the liturgy takes a detour into the Gospel of John. The liturgies of Lent often emphasize repentance and forgiveness. We experienced these themes last Sunday in the parable of the prodigal son. The Fifth Sunday of Lent continues these themes in the story of Jesus forgiving the woman accused of adultery. He was teaching in the temple area. Religious watchmen brought this woman to him for an opinion. According to Leviticus 20:10, both perpetrators were to be executed. Deuteronomy 22:24 imposes the penalty - stoning to death. According to John 18:31, the Roman occupation authorities removed from the Judeans the right to impose the death penalty.
John notes that this incident was an attempt to trap Jesus. Will Jesus ignore Jewish law, or will he ignore Roman law? Either way, he was in trouble. Jesus says nothing. He was still sitting in his teaching position. He bent over and wrote something on the ground with his finger. The accusers of the woman press for an answer. Jesus replies, "Let him who is without sin among you cast the first stone at her." He bent down again and continued to write on the ground with his finger. The accusers left the scene one by one beginning with the oldest. Behind the formation of John's story there lies a story in Daniel 13.
Two elders had been appointed judges for that year by the people. Both lusted after a beautiful married woman named Susanna. They hid in her private garden where she went daily to bathe. After she dismissed her two maids, the lusty old men ran out to proposition her. She refused. They threatened her. If she did not give in, they would accuse her of adultery. Who would question the word of two judges? She was trapped. If she refused, she would be unjustly put to death. If she gave in, she would be guilty in the eyes of the Lord. She chose to remain innocent and suffer the penalty of their false accusation. She was condemned to die. The Lord put a holy spirit in a young man named Daniel. He accused the two lechers of falsely accusing Susanna and proved it. According to Deuteronomy 19:16-21, false accusers were sentenced to the same penalty they intend to inflict on the wrongly accused. Accordingly they were put to death.
What did Jesus write on the ground? Was it the names and the sins of the accusers beginning with the oldest? Was John proclaiming Jesus as God by echoing Exodus 31:18 and Deuteronomy 9:10, where we read that the commandments of God are written “with the finger of God?" Thus John says of Jesus, "He wrote with his finger.,,." Another instance of God writing "with the fingers" is Daniel 5:5, where God writes judgment on the wall. If Jesus wrote the sins of the accusers, it would be in reference to Jeremiah 17:13, "0 Lord,.. .those who turn away from you shall be written in the dust...." Jesus was asked to judge the woman. In John 8:26 Jesus says, "I have much to say about you and much to judge,” and John 5:30, "As I hear, 1judge, and my judgment is just."
There is a story of a young offender in a juvenile facility in San Diego. He attended Bible class when our story was discussed. Here is his insight, "Jesus probably wrote the names of the group's leaders and then began listing their sins under their names. That was why the old guys left first." St. Jerome proposed this solution in the fifth century. Another juvenile in the same class remarked about Jesus bending down, "He ducked in case some jerk started throwing stones." We cannot solve the mystery of what Jesus wrote, but the story definitely is concerned with divine forgiveness. We read in Isaiah 43:25, "I, I AM, the One who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins." Jesus, who in the Gospel of John bears the same title, I AM, as God does in the Old Testament, freely and mercifully forgives. How true the adage: "To err is human: to forgive is divine."
ISAIAH 43:16-21
To remind the Israelites in exile in Babylon of the power of the Lord, the prophet depicts God as a warrior who obliterates enemies like extinguishing the flame on a candlewick. Therefore what God says through the prophet must come to pass. "Behold, I am doing a new thing.... I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.. .to give drink to my chosen people." Their exile is over. They will be going home. The choice of this reading to accompany today's gospel of divine forgiveness is in the words, "Behold, I am doing a new thing, now it springs forth. Don't you understand it?" It is an invitation to be as forgiving as God is.
PHILIPPTANS 3:8-14
Paul was a young, rising star in the Jerusalem Torah interpretation school. Through his conversion all advancement to power was left behind, "because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." The theme of leaving behind the past runs through all three readings. Paul writes, "For Christ's sake I have accepted the loss of all things, and I consider them as so much dung in order that I might gain Christ." Paul was not averse to using the coarse language of the workaday world when needed.
