Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At daybreak he appeared in the Temple again; and as all the people came to him, he sat down and began to teach them.

The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman along who had been caught committing adultery; and making her stand there in full view of everybody, they said to Jesus, ‘Master, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery, and Moses has ordered us in the Law to condemn women like this to death by stoning. What have you to say?’ They asked him this as a test, looking for something to use against him. But Jesus bent down and started writing on the ground with his finger. As they persisted with their question, he looked up and said, ‘If there is one of you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Then he bent down and wrote on the ground again.

When they heard this they went away one by one, beginning with the eldest, until Jesus was left alone with the woman, who remained standing there. He looked up and said, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ ‘No one, sir,’ she replied. ‘Neither do I condemn you,’ said Jesus ‘go away, and don’t sin anymore.’’ (John 8:1-11)

We know the story of the woman caught in the act of adultery so well that we usually miss the fact that it is not only the woman who experiences God’s forgiveness through Jesus in this story.

The scribes and Pharisees, out to trap Jesus, parade a hapless woman before the crowd gathered to hear Jesus teaching. We can only imagine her embarrassment as they publicly accuse her of adultery. Noting that the law of Moses says that they should stone the woman to death, they ask what Jesus thinks.

Jesus, already seated, bends lower and writes on the ground. What he writes we do not know, but from his ‘lowly’ position Jesus quietly manages to turn the whole situation around.

At first he says nothing. When the scribes and Pharisees persist with their question, Jesus simply says, ‘Let the one without sin be the first to throw a stone at her’, and goes back to his writing.

We sense that an awkward silence followed before the once threatening scribes and Pharisees seem to just melt away. Jesus’ words seem to touch them deeply and melt away both their harsh attitude towards the woman and their desire to entrap him.

Like the woman, they are not condemned by Jesus but restored to right relationship with him and the woman – they no longer want to trap Jesus or harm the woman. They quietly leave. Jesus pronounces forgiveness for the woman and tells her not to sin anymore.

The Gospels of the last two Sundays were parables about God’s forgiveness and tender care in nurturing us back to life. In today’s Gospel we see God’s lavish forgiveness in action as Jesus deals with a concrete human situation of life-threatening judgement and condemnation.

We are called, not to be judges over others, but practitioners of God’s lavish compassion and mercy.

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