In our first reading today, we heard the prophet Isaiah speak the words of the Lord, “Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In the desert I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers.”

God was doing something new when Jesus came into the world.  Jesus was a new way, the old way was the Commandments and the Law, this is what the Pharisees and Scribes were all about.  They recognized Jesus was doing something new, but they didn’t like it, it threatened them. 

 

It threatened their way of life.  If they listened to Jesus, they’d have to change.  They’d lose what they had worked for, this power, pleasure and prestige would be diminished, or at least that was what they feared. People often fear what they do not know and cannot control.

 

I believe the religious leaders of the time did perceive something new, a new focus on mercy and forgiveness, but out of a place of their own fear, out of a place of envy, jealousy, they sought to kill Jesus, they just wanted to cancel Him.  

 

When they brought the woman caught in adultery, it was just another trap.  Adultery, under the Law, was a death sentence, and the scribes and the Pharisees were responsible for enforcing the Law, but if she was caught in the very act like they said, where was the man?  It takes two, ya know?

 

It makes one wonder if she wasn’t “caught” with one of the scribes or the Pharisees, and now they were just using her for their malicious trap. They knew Jesus was more about mercy than justice. They put her in the middle to shame her publicly for her sin and to trap Jesus.

 

Jesus recognizes their malice, and instead begins to write on the ground.  Although we do not know exactly what He was writing, many Saints and Scholars have said that He was writing all of their sins, pointing out she was not the only guilty one in this circle.

 

When they continued to push Jesus for a response, a new response, a response that they could use to condemn Him to death along side of her, Jesus responds with the perfect line of mercy and forgiveness, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her,” and they all left.

 

Jesus had exposed their sins, but Jesus’ only purpose for exposing sin is that He can heal it.  Jesus is aware of the woman’s need for forgiveness, she is too, she realizes she did something wrong and understands her need for forgiveness, but the Scribes and Pharisees don’t recognize theirs, that’s why the act of Jesus writing their sins on the ground would be so powerful.

 

The scribes and Pharisees were probably even deserving of being stoned to death too.  But Jesus is doing something new, even though they were all guilty of sins deserving death, Jesus was preparing to take these sins to himself, to die for the forgiveness of their sins, to unleash a river of mercy in this desert of justice. 

 

Jesus wants us to trust Him with our sins, to give them to Him so he can heal us, and now in Lent is a perfect time to write them out ourselves and give them over to God in the confessional, and let God free us from these sins, healing us in the process.

 

I often think of this last line in the confessional.  The Gospel said, “So he was left alone with the woman before him. Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She replied, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”

 

I often think I should repeat this line from Jesus to people as they leave the confessional, “Go, and from now on do not sin any more.” Not as an ultimatum, not as an ultimatum or a threat to the sinner, but as a promise, as a promise that through the redemptive death of Jesus Christ, that we have been redeemed by His blood, we have been released from our death sentence just like this woman.

 

Jesus loves us so much that He would die for love of us, to free us from our sins, and give us that mercy and forgiveness!  Everyone knows the famous John 3:16 verse, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” But John 3:17 says, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”

 

Jesus didn’t condemn this woman, and He has no interest in condemning us either.  He doesn’t want to shame us either, we do a good job of doing that ourselves, shaming ourselves, condemning ourselves, shaming others, condemning others…

 

It’s time for us to look at ourselves and stop shaming, stop condemning, but rather give that mercy and forgiveness to ourselves so that we can go and sin no more out of knowing, out of trusting so completely, that Jesus loves us, He has given us that mercy and forgiveness and loves us so much that we don’t need to sin, we have no desire to sin.

 

Our sin is often wrapped up in seeking this power, pleasure and prestige that the world says we need, that the Scribes and Pharisees sought, but with God’s love, we don’t need any of that, we have no reason to sin because we are loved so very much.

 

This is exactly what Paul is saying today when he says, “I consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having any righteousness of my own based on the law but that which comes through faith in Christ…”

 

This is the only thing that matters!  Paul was a Pharisee.  Paul was killing Christians. But then when he encountered Jesus and realized the new thing that was happening, he realized how loved he was by Jesus, and made that his only goal in the world.  

 

Much like our first reading which instructed, “Remember not the events of the past,”, Paul said, “Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus.”

 

This is the most important thing.  As we enter into these last couple of weeks of Lent, we will hear the pain and the torment that Jesus goes through for love of us, and we have to recognize, He would have done that if we were the only person on earth, the only one. And for that we will respond like our psalmist says, “The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.” 

 

I imagine this is how the woman responded internally as well, deserving death for her sins, thinking this was going to be the end, but suddenly she was freed from her death sentence by the love of Jesus.  We have committed sins deserving of death as well, and maybe we have not been put on trial like this woman, but imagine if we were, what would our response be, to know we were guilty but to have Jesus free us?  I’d hope we were filled with joy at having our life back and we would go and sin no more out of that great love.

 

But as we go through these last two weeks and hear these painful readings, it might be beneficial to stop and ask ourselves, “What more could have He done?  What more could He have done to prove His love for us?”  

 

So that we could hear him say, “Go and sin no more” to us personally, and we would actually do it, because our trust is so deep, our love is so deep, knowing beyond a doubt everything else is rubbish…

 

I don’t know if there is anything more, but if there is, ask Him for it.  Give Jesus every last little bit of doubt on your heart and ask Him for whatever you need to be able to walk away focused only on knowing Him, and trusting Him, and wanting only Him, so we are able to echo Paul and say, “forgetting what [sin] lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus, [our Savior].”