Selective Scripture (5th Sunday of Lent, Year C)

In a few hours, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on whether or not to extend health care to 34 million Americans. There are many reasons to oppose this bill and there are many reasons to support it. But one of the dumbest arguments I have ever heard during the 14 months of sometimes heated and emotional debate, is that voting on this health care bill on the Sabbath is an affront to God.

I have problems with this on many levels. First of all, it’s not the Sabbath. Saturday is the Sabbath. Secondly, Jesus himself healed on the Sabbath, and the self-righteous, religious hypocrites of his day complained that this, too, was an affront to God. But most of all, I have problems when people try to cloak their meanness, their cruelty, their stupidity and their bigotry in the trappings of religion.

It’s funny, those same people who quote the Bible to denounce health care don’t ever quote that same Bible when it tells us not to mistreat the aliens and foreigners in our midst but to treat them as our fellow countrymen. Leviticus 19:33~34.

I have trouble when people use the Holy Bible to make life miserable for others. I have trouble when people suggest that anyone who opposes them and their twisted way of thinking must be enemies of religion and of God.

This was surely the way the men were thinking in today’s gospel who tried to trap Jesus with his own words and reputation for compassion. Jesus was known to be a healer and miracle worker. The problem was, he was also going around spreading God’s forgiveness to the worst possible sinners. Tax collectors and prostitutes were flocking to him.

So they laid what seemed the perfect trap for him. They caught a woman in the very act of committing adultery and forced her to stand there in shame in the middle of the crowd, but it was in fact Jesus whom they were putting on trial. The law is clear: Leviticus 20:10 “the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death.” (If we still followed this practice today, we would soon run out of politicians, movie stars and golfers.)

So if Jesus said, “You are correct. That’s the law. Stone her,” then all the common people who had put their hope in Jesus would realize he’s just like the rest of the religions leaders. The so-called hero of the poor and the oppressed and of sinners would be exposed as a fake.

But if Jesus said, “No, you must spare this woman’s life,” then the Pharisees would exclaim “Aha! See? He puts himself above the law of God. He too deserves to be stoned to death!”

It was indeed the perfect trap, except Jesus was the perfect escape artist. The Law is clear. We all agree adulterers must be put to death. Now, who among you is qualified to execute this woman? Who among you has never committed a sin worthy of death?

Ever check your horoscope? Lev. 20:27 “Any man or woman who is a fortune teller shall be stoned to death.”

Leviticus 20:9 “Anyone who curses his father or mother shall be put to death.”

So Jesus challenges the woman’s accusers with the very Law by which they sought to stone her. And they dropped their stones and left one by one, beginning with the eldest? Why the eldest first? Because the longer you live the more sins you commit. The more you sin, the more you stand in need of God’s mercy.

Then there's that curious sentence in today’s gospel, about how Jesus bent over and wrote with his finger on the ground. Scripture scholars and theologians have speculated for centuries on just what did Jesus write. No one knows, but I have my theories.

I think he may have written “Where is the man?”

After all, they claimed to have caught her in the act of adultery, so where is the man with whom she committed adultery? You can’t commit adultery by yourself. Perhaps he was there in the crowd of her accusers.

The only man there who had the authority to condemn her, the only man there without sin was Jesus. And he refused to condemn her.

So who are we to accuse and judge and condemn one another?

Jesus risked his reputation and life to come to the defense of this sinner. One week from today he will stand accused and judged and condemned, but no one will come to his defense.

Let us approach these coming holy days more with gratitude than with guilt. We stood condemned and Jesus died in our place. We have been spared from punishment for our sins and given a chance to live new lives.

Let us resolve to live for him who died for us. Let us use the Scriptures to set people free.