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Fifth Sunday of Lent: God's Forgiveness and Acceptance

By The Rev. Francis T. Gignac, S.J.

April 1, 2001

This story of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11) is not part of the authentic Gospel tradition. It was a free-floating story, composed in the West, that first appeared in Greek manuscripts of the New Testament in the sixth century. It is inserted in several places in the Gospels, most often at the end of Luke just before the passion, probably because of the reference to the Mount of Olives, a term used only in the passion narratives. Nonetheless, it is a story that has caught the popular fancy down through the ages and is the subject of one of the best medieval mystery plays because it exemplifies all we know of Jesus offering God's forgiveness and acceptance.

One reason the story was placed here in the Gospel according to John is that in the next chapter the author describes Jesus as the light of the world, through whom all are judged, even though in that chapter he attributes to Jesus the saying, "I do not judge anyone." So here we have a story of Jesus not passing judgment. The scribes and Pharisees, the literary figures portrayed as opponents of Jesus, test his fidelity to the Mosaic law by asking him if he would exact the penalty of stoning laid down in Deuteronomy 22 for a betrothed virgin. According to the story, Jesus declines to answer, and instead stoops to write something on the ground. This is an allusion to Jeremiah 17:13: "Those who turn away from you [Yahweh, God of Israel] shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living water." Living water has been a theme of the last four chapters in this Gospel, culminating with a reference to the Spirit of God as the source of living water just before this story. After Jesus' statement that only those without sin should throw the first stone, the elders, who were the principal witnesses, are pictured as departing, leaving the woman alone with Jesus, who tells her that he does not condemn her either, but that she should go and sin no more.

There has been much discussion about whether this story was suppressed in the early Church because of its message of leniency toward sinners. In an age of rigorism, when the sacrament of penance could be received only once in a lifetime, this liberal portrait of Jesus must have seemed almost a maudlin justification for indifference toward sins of the flesh. Yet Jesus forgave where others would have condemned; and this story's succinct expression of the mercy of Jesus is as delicate as anything in the New Testament, and its portrayal of Jesus as the serene judge is full of majesty. It is an exquisite drama, and the balance between the justice of Jesus in not condoning the sin and his mercy in forgiving the sinner is one of the great lessons of biblical literature.

The first reading is from Second Isaiah (Isa 43:16-21), by an anonymous poet writing at the time of the return of the Jewish exiles from Babylon, about 538 B.C. In this passage, the poet continues his favorite theme – that this journey across a desert back to the Promised Land constituted a new exodus. Yahweh is the Holy One of Israel precisely because he has redeemed his people from the Babylonian captivity through the hands of Cyrus, the first king of Persia, whom the prophet will call two chapters later "the Messiah of Israel." Here he shows how God uses Cyrus as his instrument to redeem Israel. It is Yahweh who is opening a path through the waters and leading out chariots.

These words portray the Exodus from Egypt, ending in the final scene where the Egyptians lie prostrate together, never to rise. But the prophet warns the people of his time: don't just glory in the past; apply it to the present. See what Yahweh is doing for you now. It's the same thing, yet it is something new: "In the desert I make a road, in the wasteland rivers." This is a new exodus; remember it constantly as a continuing act of redemption. So, too, as Christians we ought to remind ourselves not just to glory in the saving events of the past but to apply them to the present. The redemption that God brought about through the death and resurrection of Jesus is a continuing act. Our role and present task is to allow it to exercise its effects upon us more and more.

The second reading is from the latter part of Paul's thank-you letter to the community at Philippi (Phil 3:8-14), in which he presents his personal experience in coming to know Christ in terms of righteousness or justification. He contrasts the righteousness from God that comes through faith with one's own righteousness based on observance of law as two mutually exclusive ways of pleasing God. The goal of his life as a Pharisee was to observe the law as perfectly as possible. But once he had a faith experience of the Lord, the revelation to him was that God confers his own righteousness on the believer through faith in Christ.

Consequently, Paul's goal as a Christian was to know Christ and to experience the power of his resurrection, in the hope that he might be transformed into the image of Christ and share in his resurrection. He draws a subtle contrast with mystery religions: he is not an initiate admitted into divine secrets who has already arrived at perfect spiritual maturity. Rather, using an athletic metaphor, Paul says that he is pushing on to the finish line, racing to win the prize that God offers, which is life in Christ Jesus.

So, too, we are called in our daily Christian lives, and perhaps in a special way during this season of Lent, to press on to our goal of becoming more and more identified with Christ. Not that this is something that we can achieve on our own. Rather, heeding Paul's advice that righteousness comes from God through faith, we must let ourselves be transformed by God's saving power. By trying to die more to selfishness and sin and live more for others, thereby becoming more like Christ in his sufferings and death, we, too, may hope to share more fully in his risen life.

The Rev. Francis T. Gignac, S.J., is a professor and chairperson of the Department of Biblical Studies at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

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Revised: March 1, 2001