Not condemning; not condoning

Isaiah 43.16-21 ‘Behold, I am doing a new thing and I will give drink to my chosen people.’

Philippians 3.8-14 ‘For the sake of Christ I have suffered the loss of all things, becoming like him in his death.’

John 8.1-11 ‘Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.’

 

Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

She said, “No one, Lord.”

And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you;

go, and from now on sin no more.” (John 8.10-11)

 

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The Gospel account of a terrified woman being dragged along by a group of men ready to kill her with rocks and stones for committing adultery is chilling.

 

It will not have been the first time, nor the last, that something like this has happened.

 

The condemnation and righteous fury of the scribes and Pharisees is challenged by Jesus and the scene turns into one of forgiveness, healing and restoration – it takes us deep into the heart of Jesus’ mission.

 

Before we go into the Gospel let’s just go back to paradise, to the Garden of Eden, as described in Genesis.

 

There is method in this! And you might start to make some connections between Eden and the gospel reading as we go along.

 

In the Garden God creates Adam from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2.7).

 

But Adam is alone in the garden and, as Adam names the creatures, none can help in the task given to Adam of tending paradise.

 

So, as equally in God’s image as the man, God creates the woman (Genesis 2.22): from one flesh they’re created so they can find fulfilment in each other and be complete and fruitful (Genesis 2.23).

 

They enjoy the Garden paradise, tasting the fruits of all the trees, but God warns them not to eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, for that is knowledge only God can bear.

 

But eat they do.

 

And then they hide.

 

Out of God’s sight.

 

God finds them, and blame is passed around: from the man, to his wife, to the serpent. (Genesis 2.6,7; 12,13).

 

God clothes them in protecting garments and then they are driven out of the Garden paradise. (Genesis 2.24)

 

Any connections?

 

What’s the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise got to do with today’s gospel reading?

 

Before addressing that, it’s worth knowing that although humanity left Paradise, there was always an echo of it in the Temple of Jerusalem.

 

In Hebrew thought the Temple is the representation of paradise on earth, a microcosm of how creation should be, with purity of worship and unity with God, just as the Garden of Eden in the beginning.

 

Our gospel opened with Jesus in the Temple, at the beginning of the day: a new creation day.

 

He is there, teaching people how to live lives worthy of Paradise.

 

And in come the scribes and Pharisees with the woman.

 

You might ask, where’s the man, the co-respondent in the adultery? (see Leviticus 20:10-12).

 

The scribes and Pharisees had singled out this woman, just as Adam blamed Eve for the fruit of the tree being eaten.

 

Adultery is a grave sin which takes two people, a violation of the seventh of the Ten Commandments ((Exodus 20.14) and a breach of fidelity between husband and wife.

 

Adultery is used throughout scripture as an image of human infidelity towards God: God as a spurned bridegroom whose bride turns away. (cf Hosea)

 

Just as in Eden the man hides, and both man and woman have breached a relationship of trust and covenant.

 

It was eating the fruit that broke that trust: that was the moment of infidelity: cheating on God.

 

Here it is the scribes and Pharisees who take it upon themselves to condemn and pass sentence: they put themselves as arbiters of good and evil; precisely why Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden.

 

This is the moment for Jesus to restore, to bind up and to heal, to recall everyone in the Temple – the echo of Eden – to a restored relationship with God.

 

But Jesus’ first action is puzzling: he bends over and writes in the dust. Why?

 

Dust is the very stuff from which Adam was created in the first place before being set in the Garden of Eden, even from dust God brought life, even from the dust of sin Jesus can bring forgiveness.

 

It’s so intriguing. We have no written words of Jesus, he wrote no books, and the only reference to him writing is in the dust.

 

He is the one whose words stand for ever (Isaiah 40.8b; 1 Peter 1.25), but these written words are blown away in the dust.

 

It is only when Jesus stands up and confronts the baying mob with their own sin, that they see they are in no position to stone this woman.

 

She had violated the Law.

 

They violate the Law.

 

No one stands innocent before God, as St Paul says, ‘For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3.22,23)

 

Sin is not just about breaking rules; sin is the words and deeds that estrange us from God, be that in Eden, in the Temple that morning, or in our daily lives.

 

The scriptures reveal patterns we know to be true of ourselves.

 

Jesus’ project for humanity is bigger than rules kept or broken, it is about the renewal of Creation, about restoring men and women in the image of God, about making us holy by being as he is, in perfect relationship with the Father, unobscured by sin and death.

 

The man and the woman were expelled from the earthly paradise, the Garden of Eden: Jesus’ mission is to restore men and women to their first innocence.

 

I wonder if Jesus wrote in the dust the words of Isaiah from our first reading?

 

Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness
    and rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43.19)

 

From his writing,

 

Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

 

Jesus both refuses to condemn the woman, and he refuses to condone what she has done.

 

Scribes and Pharisees wanted condemnation.

 

Given attitudes to marriage and fidelity today perhaps some would condone.

 

But being humane is not being just or merciful or true; it doesn’t reconcile or restore.

 

As St Augustine says, ‘It is sin [Jesus] condemns, not people’ (Augustine, Homilies on the Gospel of John, 33.6-7)

 

We come into Jesus’ presence like Adam and Eve, like the woman caught in adultery – ‘guiltie of dust and sin’, as the priest and poet George Herbert puts it. (George Herbert, Love [III])

 

And as we come into his presence, feeling under condemnation of others or of ourselves, may we hear Jesus’ words: “I do not condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”