Everybody Must Get Stoned

The story of the woman caught in adultery (John 8) has always shaken me to the core.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve done all too many things in my life that could have gotten me stoned back then under the law of Moses.

Hell, looking back over the years, there are a few things in my life that might have at least gotten me arrested even today.

Or, at a minimum, totally and completely humiliated should they ever become publicly disclosed.

Some can be chalked up to youthful indiscretions.

Others . . . not so much.

And I’m not exactly Mr. Badass either.

(But no, I’m not going to publicly confess them here so just hush.)

Still, unlike the laws of man, I know that God’s justice never fails and is always correct.

And it’s always merited, unlike his divine mercy – a mercy which should be as shocking to us, as it is unmerited for us.

But you know, I don’t always see myself in the place of the woman in this little, man attempts to one-up God, drama.

No.

More often, in fact, I find myself to be one of her accusers.

One of the many self-righteous, hypocritical, arrogant, vengeful, petty, vain, know-nothing, accusers that Christ totally demolished.

But he did so without words, or deeds, or displays.

In fact, he broke them with his silence:

By his silence he invites everyone to self-reflection. On the one hand, he invites the woman to acknowledge the wrong committed; on the other, he invites her accusers not to shrink from an examination of conscience:

“Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her” (Jn 8: 7).

And once they had confronted themselves, they just walked away.

Perhaps they walked away partly humiliated, partly angry.

But walk away they did, for they had no choice.

Now, as we all remember, Christ didn’t excuse the woman’s breach. And a serious breach it was.

But he revealed that his divine mercy was even greater than her sin:

While this authoritative reply reminds us that it is only the Lord who can judge, it reveals the true meaning of divine mercy, which leaves open the possibility for repentance and emphasizes the great respect for the dignity of the person, which not even sin can take away.

“Go, and do not sin again” (Jn 8:11). The last words of this episode show that God does not want the sinner to die, but to repent of the evil he has committed and live.

So there’s the key, the one that applies to the woman and to her accusers, both: