John 8:7
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.”
Reflection
The story of the woman caught in the very act of adultery and brought to Jesus is an interesting one for the following reasons: 1. Where is the man in the whole drama because an act of adultery is committed by two people? So, why did they not bring the man as well because Leviticus 20:10 says, “If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbour—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death.” 2. Did the male partner escaped or they intentionally apprehended the woman only and left the man to go his own way? The text is silent on these issues. Jesus asked them to do a simple thing; “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” According to Deuteronomy 17:7; 19:19, the witnesses were normally the first to throw the stones, but false witnesses were to pay the same penalty they had hoped to inflict on the victim. Jesus here asked them to do a simple self-introspection. It was a commonplace of Jewish teaching that even the most pious had committed sins. This was the knowledge that made every accuser to disappear from the scene. What one needs to understand is that Jesus is not promoting sin but rebuking judging others. Lenten season is a period of self-introspection and confession of one’s sins and not judging others. Let us maximize the Lenten season by genuinely examine ourselves and seek repentance from our sins. Amen.
Collect
Almighty God,
whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain,
and entered not into glory before he was crucified:
mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross,
may find it none other than the way of life and peace;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen
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