Fifth Sunday of Lent (C)

April 7, 2019

Readings:

First Reading: Isaiah 43: 16-21 (or Ezekiel 37: 12-14)

Psalm: 126 (or Psalm 130)

Second Reading: Philippians 3: 8-14 (or Romans 8: 8-11)

Gospel reading according to John 8: 1-11 (or John 11: 1-45)

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Homily

Jesus prayed anywhere, on the mountains and hills, in the desert, in a boat, etc., where there are no people to destruct him, especially when important things or matters he needed to discern and implore.  “Jesus went to the Mount Olives” (Jn. 8: 1).  This time he went to the Mount Olives, in Gethsemane, a garden across the Kidron Valley on the Mount of Olives (in Hebrew Har ha-Zetim), a mile-long ridge paralleling the eastern part of Jerusalem.  This is his favorite place for praying and to ask for strength, courage and wisdom to face his opponents, where also Jesus is said to have prayed on the night of his arrest before his Crucifixion.  In this place he will pray, for the last time, with his chosen apostles when the time comes to go to Jerusalem to fulfill the promise made by God to mankind.

It is the common practice of Jesus when he is in Jerusalem to go early in the temple to offer sacrifices as well as to pray in his Father’s house.  “But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area, and all the people started coming to him, and he sat down and taught them” (Jn. 8: 2).  It is also usual sight to see many people of different preoccupations in the temple early in the morning to offer also sacrifices and prayers especially the sick and the poor, tax collectors and sinner, some Pharisees and scribes, and the elders.  When people saw Jesus, they came to him and would like to listen to his teachings of the mercy, forgiveness, compassion and love of God the Father as compared to the teachings of the rabbis, scribes and Pharisees on the stiff neck of God, who punishes for the ignorance of the law by these people – ordinary, uneducated and simple, who do not know their left or right hand as the sayings goes.  As a true teacher, Jesus sat down and started teaching them about God’s goodness.

When, suddenly from nowhere, some other scribes and Pharisees came in the temple and brought with them, a woman, whom they said was caught doing adulterous thing.  “Then the scribes and Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle” (Jn. 8: 3).  Supposedly to be scribes and Pharisees, they are reading and studying the writings of Moses in the evening and putting them into practice in the morning, that they are apparently in the temple and doing their duties and responsibilities.  What are they doing at night up until the dawn?  How come as early as dawn they were roaming around and rallying couples and partners having love affairs and/or procreation? How did they catch the woman and prove that she had an adulterous affair with another man? and where is her partner (the man) who slept with her?  Was he not also guilty of adultery?  The scribes and Pharisees placed her in the middle of the temple area where there were many people especially Jesus who was there teaching forgiveness, love, compassion and mercy of God, the Father.

They presented the woman caught in adultery to Jesus.  “They said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery.  Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.  So what do you say? They said this to test him, so that they could have some charge to bring against him” (Jn. 8: 4-5).  They would like to test and to trap Jesus using the woman they caught committing adultery with the Law of Moses. It is their opportune time to accuse Jesus of violating the long held tradition by the elders and leaders in Jerusalem.

Jesus did not look on the woman’s face or to her accusers but instead he bent down and lowered his head and wrote on the ground using his finger. “Jesus bent down and begun to write on the ground with his finger” (Jn. 8: 6).  We do not know what Jesus wrote on the ground, we can just speculate.  He might write his verdict to the woman and above all his judgment against her accusers.

Even the experts of the writings of Moses, the scribes and Pharisees, did not see, know and understand what Jesus was writing, and they became impatient.  They wanted an immediate response from Jesus.  “But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, ‘Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her’.” (Jn. 8: 7).  Jesus in his bending position straightened up and said what they did not expect to hear from Jesus whom they called teacher.  Nobody wanted to hear what Jesus said, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her,” because they thought that they are righteous, fear loving people and obedient to the Law of Moses that accuses and punishes and makes the life of many harder, but in reality, the scribes and Pharisees as well as the elders were the most sinful people in the community.  They are the most insensitive, unforgiving, reproachful to others especially the poor, the marginalized whom are being called sinners.

After saying his verdict and judgment, Jesus went back to his position – “Again he bent down and wrote on the ground” ((Jn. 8: 8) – bent down, lowered his head and continued writing the Law of God, which is love. 

They realized what they did and thought against that woman and their bad intentions against Jesus.  They realized also that they were sinners and needed forgiveness, mercy and compassion.  In the end of this drama one by one left the sight starting from the elders.  “And in response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders.  So he was left alone with the woman before him” (Jn. 8: 9).  All of them were gone.  Nobody was left behind.  No one threw stones to death the woman suspected of adultery.

Jesus knew, because there was silence in the area where he was, that all the scribes and Pharisees left them behind, and that no one touched the stone to throw them to the woman to condemn her.  “Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’” (Jn. 8: 10).  Jesus, by this time straightened up and looked at the woman’s face with kindness and understanding and asked her if she was not condemned by the leaders of the temple who according to them, “was caught in the very act.”

The conversation began.  Now, she is free – to talk, to move, without any hindrances, “wala ng pumipiggil sa kanya,” as if she was loosen and released from chains. “She replied, ‘No one, sir.’  Then Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you.  Go, and from now on do not sin any more’.” (Jn. 8: 11). No one condemned her even Jesus did not condemn her, but he told her, “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore,” and we can add, or else, “so that worse may happen to you,” as what he said to the sick (or crippled) man  (c. Jn. 5: 14).  We, too, we are forgiven of all the sins we have done in order for us to start anew, to have a fresh beginning, to start again our new life by living the Commandment and/or Law of God, which is love.  Love God and neighbors by doing what is right, for he wrote our sins not on paper but on the ground, so they are easy to erase and deleted.