The Fifth Sunday of Lent – March 21, 2010
John 8:1 – 11
Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" 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. 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." Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
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. Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
"No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."
Each of us have our unique ways of making people in our life-world pay for their sins. We may give them the cold shoulder. We may deal with them out of our learned passive-aggressive tendencies. We may broadcast their failings not-too-subtly to others. We may withhold the fruit of our friendship.
The teachers of the Law and Pharisees in John 8 made this adulterous woman stand in their midst. They simply stood her up and looked at her with the glare of condemnation. They were glad to make a show of her and what she had done. Perhaps it was their way of dealing with the missteps of people: make them pay by public humiliation!
My hunch, however, is that they weren’t all that concerned with her actions and her morality. Rather, she was a pawn, an instrument, a tool with which they were trying to trap Jesus. They didn’t seem concerned about the woman. They were concerned for the disruption caused by Jesus.
Most of us use people to our own ends without realizing we are doing so. We make objects, tools, or instruments out of other people, using them for our purposes, manipulating them in ways that help us get to our desired end.
For the Pharisees, this meant using this woman as an object to pin down Jesus. For us it may mean using a loved one or a friend or a stranger to help us get what we want.
Our basic problem is an inherent self-centeredness in which we spin the universe around ourselves. We see others in light of what they can give us or what we can get from them. We use persons to further our purpose. In fact, we can propose a “stoning” if it helps us to get closer to our desired end.
Throughout the Gospels Jesus never, ever objectifies a person. He doesn’t deal with people on the basis of labels or categories. He doesn’t reduce people to how they help him accomplish his mission. In fact, his radical teaching is that he only is helped toward his mission by “the Father.” How differently he lived!
Here, late in Lent, we may be challenged to see people differently. This may be a time to make a commitment to see people as persons, not as objects or as tools. It’s more difficult than you might think. Try it for 24 hours, though, and see how you do.
Each person you see today will be broken, needy, and poor in some way. Their inner state is not a cause for you to use them, but to extend compassion, mercy, and love to them.
Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" 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. 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." Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
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. Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
"No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."
Each of us have our unique ways of making people in our life-world pay for their sins. We may give them the cold shoulder. We may deal with them out of our learned passive-aggressive tendencies. We may broadcast their failings not-too-subtly to others. We may withhold the fruit of our friendship.
The teachers of the Law and Pharisees in John 8 made this adulterous woman stand in their midst. They simply stood her up and looked at her with the glare of condemnation. They were glad to make a show of her and what she had done. Perhaps it was their way of dealing with the missteps of people: make them pay by public humiliation!
My hunch, however, is that they weren’t all that concerned with her actions and her morality. Rather, she was a pawn, an instrument, a tool with which they were trying to trap Jesus. They didn’t seem concerned about the woman. They were concerned for the disruption caused by Jesus.
Most of us use people to our own ends without realizing we are doing so. We make objects, tools, or instruments out of other people, using them for our purposes, manipulating them in ways that help us get to our desired end.
For the Pharisees, this meant using this woman as an object to pin down Jesus. For us it may mean using a loved one or a friend or a stranger to help us get what we want.
Our basic problem is an inherent self-centeredness in which we spin the universe around ourselves. We see others in light of what they can give us or what we can get from them. We use persons to further our purpose. In fact, we can propose a “stoning” if it helps us to get closer to our desired end.
Throughout the Gospels Jesus never, ever objectifies a person. He doesn’t deal with people on the basis of labels or categories. He doesn’t reduce people to how they help him accomplish his mission. In fact, his radical teaching is that he only is helped toward his mission by “the Father.” How differently he lived!
Here, late in Lent, we may be challenged to see people differently. This may be a time to make a commitment to see people as persons, not as objects or as tools. It’s more difficult than you might think. Try it for 24 hours, though, and see how you do.
Each person you see today will be broken, needy, and poor in some way. Their inner state is not a cause for you to use them, but to extend compassion, mercy, and love to them.
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