This week’s Gospel gives us one of Christianity’s most well-known lines: “You who are without sin, cast the first stone.” The incident from which this quote is taken tells us about “the woman caught in adultery.” Contemporary minds might ponder: “What about the man? Where is he when the religious authorities are considering capital punishment?” Before reflecting on how this real-life drama is played out in our lives, let’s first take a look at the historical context.
Recall that we’re reading this story from John’s Gospel. The other 3 are called the “synoptic” Gospels because they, Matthew, Mark, Luke, share a common perspective. John writes in a different fashion and presents a Jesus whom John seems to have recorded at length! Scholars tell us that Matthew and Luke drew upon Mark’s text (the first of the three written) and that they put their theological spin on how the Jesus story unfolded. People often think the 4 Gospel authors were apostles, but none of them were.
There’s some question as to whether or not today’s anecdote was even written by John. The earliest texts of John did not contain it, but eventually, the woman’s experience was reported and subsequent versions of John retained it.
The historical setting is just after the Romans outlawed the Israelite “Sanhedrin” (their legal body) from executing people (as prescribed in the law of Moses). Asking Jesus if they should stone the woman to death is thus putting Jesus in a possible conflict with the civil authorities. If he replies, “Yes, stone her,” he is telling Israelite officials to violate the civil law. If he says, “Do NOT stone her,” he is violating the Mosaic tradition. In short, he’s between a rock (no pun intended) and a hard place.
So we’re told he bends down and starts doodling in the dirt. For us, this might seem peculiar, but in this part of the Mediterranean region, this behavior was typical of peasants who were taking time to reflect when distraught (thus suggesting this scene was historically grounded in its detailed noting of a typical real-life behavior).
How does Jesus get out of this “no win” situation? He did what politicians do today! Instead of answering a tough question, they reply with a question of their own or change the subject (so that they will not be held accountable on some topic). However, politicians “change the subject” so that they do not have to admit one or another of their actions is misguided. Jesus forces the Pharisees and Scribes to look at themselves—and evaluate their living of the faith (which is what we’re supposed to do during Lent).
He has forced this “holier-than-thou” crowd to consider their sinfulness. Were they perhaps “guilty” of disobeying one of the OTHER “sins” that were spelled out in the Book of Leviticus (e.g., Blasphemy, i.e., speaking sacrilegiously about God or sacred things; profane talk, Cursing or disobeying Parents, Adultery, i.e., sexual behavior that contradicts the financial agreement struck between 2 families, Homosexual Acts, Incest—rules that vary from culture to culture, even in the U.S., Human Sacrifice, Witchcraft and Spiritism, i.e., belief and invocation of spirits thought to influence human behavior, Working on the Sabbath). Keep in mind that different cultures place a “taboo” (or cite as illegal or “sinful”), and when doing so, do not read from the same global script. For example, there are cultural behaviors in different parts of the world that are customary in some places but that would send a person to prison for many years here in the U.S.
Today’s Gospel contributes to Church teaching that condemns capital punishment. As Catholics, we say that each life is important to God (both victim and perpetrator). No child of God should be “legally” murdered based on the varieties of cultural traditions or based solely on cathartic revenge. Besides, Jesus was killed “legally” and for the revenge and self-interest of some. How can we, as Christians, unleash this same death-dealing behavior on others?
This is, of course, a provocative issue for many people. The U.S. is one of 50 countries that have the death penalty (i.e., certain states have it) while 150 countries DON’T have it. Countries like China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, andother non-Western nations that have a lame human rights record make up the 44 other capital punishment countries. Since studies have shown that the death penalty is NOT a deterrent to murder, and since authoritarian countries use the death penalty to kill political opponents, vengeance and corruption are further reasons why the Church is against it. As with so many other issues, just ask yourself: “Would you see Jesus endorsing vengeance and authoritarian corruption?” But there’s more to this New Testament drama.
Picture yourself in the crowd, and Jesus looks in your direction saying, “You who are without sin, cast the first stone.” Would you pause and reflect before acting, or would you heave a stone as hard as you could throw in the hope of hitting the woman? And would you unthinkingly continue to find stones and do your best to see that she falls and dies? And would you go to her now-dead body—and just look at the face of death? Or would you, although she’d not hear you, say something like “I sure got you with some good ones.” Picture yourself standing there—with nothing more to do and nothing to say, but just leave and later wonder if she had breakfast yesterday morning after feeding her little dog. Maybe later, you’d go to bed and reflect long enough to ask yourself, “What did throwing those stoned accomplish—other than adding my name to a long list of people who have killed someone?”
Picture, too, yourself as the woman. You’re standing there, not sure of what just took place. Jesus looks up at you and says something like, “You okay?” You nod “yes” and wonder what he’s now going to say or do. Feeling totally powerless since her arrest, she is not sure what this man is going to say. He stands up and smiles at her as he asks if she has a place to stay, and she nods “yes” again. In a tone of voice she finds caring, she hears him say just a few words that encourage her to be the good woman who God calls her to be. As she walks away, she feels the weight of rejection and hate fade away with each step. She smiles with hope and thinks to herself that she wants to be like that man who just spoke to her—and not like the others who condemned her. She felt as if she had risen from the grave and looked forward to helping others have the same experience. And so it is with each of us. We are a person in the crowd, and we are the woman.
We reject people because we don’t like them for some reason. We are also not perfect, and not everyone likes us. We are like the woman. We are not perfect. As you look at your life and think of the “unforgivable” sins or misdeeds that you’ve committed, try to get a sense of Jesus looking at you affectionately and saying something tailored in language you can appreciate—that there are no “unforgivable” sins in your life. There is only now—you and I speaking. Jesus says that you should begin your life now and leave those behaviors of the past behind.