30 March 2020
Monday of the 5th Week of Lent
What was Jesus writing on the ground? Was he doodling; giving himself time to think, so not to respond in anger to the Pharisees? Was he listing the sins of Pharisees, he would have known them well? Perhaps he was tracing in the dirt one of his more notable saying: “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye” Matt.7:3. We will never know, but his taking the time to write on the ground shows Jesus to be patient man, which is a good thing for all of us.
We are too quick to notice the sins of others and too slow to recognize our own. The season of Lent is a gift from our patient Lord, giving us one more opportunity to turn our condemning eyes away from others and towards ourselves. The point in today’s Gospel isn’t that the woman didn’t sin, its that the Pharisees didn’t see that they had. Not seeing their own sinfulness, they didn’t see their need for forgiveness, and if they didn’t need forgiveness, they didn’t need Jesus. The woman knew she had sinned, she knew her need for forgiveness, and she knew her need for Jesus. How wonderful the words of Jesus must have sounded in her ears. “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”
Lent is quickly coming to its end, but there is still time for us to drop the stones we carry ready to throw at those we condemn.
If we don’t drop them, we will only be stoning ourselves.
Let us Pray,
O God, by whose wondrous grace
we are enriched with every blessing,
grant us so to pass from former ways to newness of life,
that we may be made ready for the glory of the heavenly Kingdom.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.