Jesus rescues a hapless woman accused of adultery from the men who wanted to lynch her and from her indignity. It is important to parse this event to get its full meaning. Jesus is at the temple precincts teaching. This temple is the edifice of law for the Jewish leadership, while for Jesus it was his Father’s House, the house of mercy. He has always been consumed by the concerns of his father and His House. The first and last words he speaks in the gospel of Luke is concerning his father. So, this incident is in the precincts of his Father’s House.
It was probably a morning, and most likely a Sabbath. Jesus was sitting and teaching as all translations agree. Then, some men drag a woman in front of Jesus. She must have been thrown violently in front of him. She was looking at Jesus, begging for mercy. A crowd of ferocious men were standing around, looking down upon her. The postures and gazes of the characters on the scene give a clue to the powerplay on the scene. The men were clutching stones and gnashing teeth; the situation is volatile with high voltage. One wrong word from Jesus might even end up in two dead bodies, not just one. He could get lynched as well.
The men asked the trapping question, would he advise killing her or not, a close ended question, forcing him to take one or the other alternatives they offered. There is an eerie silence, the woman was preparing for her painful death, and the men looking for a high adrenaline execution of a rape with stones. Jesus was evaluating the situation, perhaps. The woman is brought there to test Jesus. Not she, but he was the focus of this incident. Jesus is the reason why she is here. She is made the scapegoat for their purpose. The history has often run this way, SHE is just a currency of exchange for HIM. HE settled the scores, by buying HER, selling HER, molesting HER, killing HER. They want to demolish Jesus and the woman is only an instrument. He bends down to write something. There are all sorts of speculations on what Jesus had been writing. My mind races back to the writing of God in Daniel, the only other instance we find the hand of God writing in the scriptures. Mene mene shekel, upharsin (Dan 5:25). God made a judgement. You have been numbered and weighed and are found wanting. Everyone is numbered and weighed, and is found in short of goodness, holiness. It meant no one was righteous enough there to judge. Probably they read what he wrote, or they did not. But the silence was deafening.
As it got prolonged, the suspense begins to wane, reflection begins to dawn. Jesus appeals to the conscience of the men after their adrenaline rush is subsided. Behind the well phrased sentence, “Let him who has not sin be the first to cast the stone,” might have been an emotional plea, “don’t we all sin?, Is there anyone among us who could claim to be sinless?” As an answer, the stones started falling from the hands beginning from the older ones to the youngest, not on to the woman, but straight down at their own feet.
In the dramatic moment, we could imagine that Jesus defeated the opponents single handedly and emerged victorious with the punch questions. I think, the situation was far beyond that, He saved them too. Remember, he did not even look at whose stones were falling down first. He fixed his gaze downward, not wanting to judge the ones whose stones fell away. The angry men go back with two convictions, one; that all are sinful and there is no right for him to cast stones at that woman or any other person. The other; a lesson on mercy, have compassion.
What contradiction it would have been, if the temple precincts turned out to be the location for a merciless lynching! Lynching as a whole, divides the gravity of the crime into all participants and no one needs to bear the burden of the murder. This is particularly true of stoning to death. Every murderer would exonerate oneself, “the victim did not die because of my stone.”
A trial in any other Jewish court of the law would establish the truth by credible eye witnesses and after listening, the teacher could have given the verdict to cast stones. Jesus goes beyond finding the truth. He is the personification of the Father’s mercy. He envelops her in forgiveness and mercy. He assures her, I do not condemn you. Pope Francis narrates the difference between forgiveness and mercy. Forgiveness does not exempt anyone from the punishment or the consequence of the crime. Mercy saves one from the consequences of the sin. Mercy is the manner of divine forgiveness.
I and you, most likely would ask this question, did she do an act of adultery all by herself? Where is the man? Well, the Jewish society exonerated the man, then, some cultures do it even now.
At the end Jesus would look up at this woman, giving her, her original dignity. Even in physical posture, Jesus was sitting down at her level so that he could look up at her unlike the other men who were standing and looking down on her, as Fr. Armellini puts it. Perhaps for the first time, in her recent past a man has looked at her, for no pleasure of his, but with respect. For the first time, perhaps, the woman in her experiences love without lust.
Truth is not a stone to be thrown at all the vulnerable people. If that stone has to be cast at anyone, it should be at oneself.