... Ash Wednesday almost upon us and nothing written, all today at Didoct, tomorrow a funeral and a lunch club... last night's late night attempt for your comments and criticism! I'm not the world's best creative writer, but hopefully you can work out what I'm trying to do - and let me know if it succeeds even to 1%.
The Woman Caught In Adultery
In Lieu of a Sermon
I want you to close your eyes for a few moments, and try to imagine the story as it unfolds. Jesus has been on the Mount of Olives, spending time alone. Early in the morning he comes back down the mountain, all is quiet, except for early birdsong, the ground is still moist with dew, the air still and cool. He arrives at the temple where, already, there is quite a bustle of people arriving. New parents come to offer sacrifices, people who have recovered from skin diseases seeking a priest to grant them permission to reintegrate with society. Different languages and accents fill the air, already heavy with the smell of sheep and birds. He sits down and soon a crowd gathers. You are part of that crowd, you have travelled a long way to listen to Jesus and you have heard amazing stories about him. Then just as you are all settled, and he is beginning to enchant you with his teaching, an angry mob rushes up to him, dragging with them a woman, dishevelled, barely clad. They stand her in front of Jesus, announcing to all and sundry that they had caught her in the very act of adultery… Open your eyes and look at her…
I can see you all, looking at me, I feel your eyes piercing me, the heat of your scorn, the assurance that I am a wanton woman who is doubly to be despised, for I have interrupted your meeting simply by being caught.
You don’t know me.
Don’t know my name.
Don’t know anything about me.
Yet you sit there, as judge, jury and executioners.
I wonder what you think of me, what thoughts are running through your heads.
Where is the man? Where indeed. But then this is not about justice; it isn’t me they are seeking to try but him - Jesus.
What were we doing? I can almost hear you salivate as you wonder and imagine some sordid, steamy encounter. You assume you know exactly what and why, don’t you?
Who was he? Does it matter? Synagogue official, Roman soldier, carpenter, fisherman… what do you imagine?
And me? What do think of me? A harlot? A wanton woman? A bored housewife?
And what drove us to it? Lust or loneliness? Desire or despair…?
What do you actually know, as you sit there, so still, so silent, so staring…?
A woman caught in adultery. Someone who has done wrong. Someone who deserves to die. Someone with a sinful past who has no right to a future…
What’s that? He’s speaking…
“Let the one who has no sin cast the first stone”
Still you sit there, looking at me. You weigh the words, heavy words, emotive words…
What will you do?
Close your eyes as you ponder what you will do. Don’t leap to a conclusion, ponder who she is, what she has done, what she deserves…
Ponder your own life, what are the adulteries of your heart? Money? Power? Success? Busyness? Food? Alcohol?
Weigh the words, ponder your attitudes and slowly, quietly walk back to the present, to this church building, to this service. Feel the hard wooden pew beneath you. Become aware of the smells and sounds of this place…
And then, in your own time, open your eyes…
She is gone, the crowd melted away, one by one, until only Jesus remained. And he gave her new hope – go, and sin no more.
Often we wonder about the man, why he wasn’t there when she was, feeling, instinctively, that he got off free, whilst she faced death, alone and terrified. But I wonder if actually, as it turned out, she got the better deal?
This Lent our Bible studies explore the theme of ‘calling’ or ‘vocation’ and we will be looking at how God calls each of us in different ways and to different roles.
In this incident, we find two very different examples of calling, as experienced by the woman.
Firstly, she was called to account by the people who brought her to Jesus. The woman has done wrong, no question of it, she had been caught ‘in the act.’ At one level the scribes and Pharisees behaved perfectly properly in addressing the situation they found. But at another, they were equally sinful since their aim was not to bring her to justice but to trap Jesus. Already he had a reputation for mixing with undesirables and seemed far too liberal in his attitudes – what would he do now?
For those who had come to listen to Jesus this must have been a very tense time. I imagine some of them were angry that they had been interrupted. Others would have been incensed by the woman’s behaviour. Maybe a few had their own consciences stirred. We have no way of knowing.
Jesus doodled on the ground, refusing to be drawn. And the tension mounted.
Eventually he stood up and spoke: directly and powerfully. Whoever has no sin, let them throw the first stone. These words should cut into us, as they would have cut into the first hearers. Not one could look Jesus in the eye and say and say they had never sinned. As realisation dawned one by one they all drifted away, with plenty to think about.
And then Jesus spoke to the woman again, calling her onwards to a new beginning, new hope, new possibilities. Go… one of the classic Bible words of calling from God. Go to a new place… go and make disciples… go and sin no more.
This woman had the opportunity to start afresh. What was past was past, she had been called out of despair into hope, out of fear into courage, out of death into life, out of darkness into light… As for the man, well we just don’t know, do we. But he didn’t have the blessing of being personally set free by Jesus as she did.
Lent is our time of preparation for Easter, our time of being called to account – to repentance or penitence – and our time of being called on – to forgiveness, new life, and new hope. As we reflect on all that Christ has achieved for us through the cross, so it is good also to hear his voice calling us on – your sins are forgiven you, go…
