The Story of a Woman Caught in Adultery

Homily for the Fifth Sunday in Lent

St. John’s Gospel is obviously different than the three synoptic Gospels of Saints Matthew, Mark, and Luke. (The word synoptic means “look-alike.”) St. John’s Gospel looks nothing like the other three. The primary reason that St. John’s Gospel looks different is because it begins with the premise that the other three Gospels do not seem to grasp; namely, St. John begins with the premise that Jesus is divine, that he is God. The rest of the Gospel comes back to this issue over and over again.

Consequently, the inclusion of the story of the woman caught in adultery seems to be completely out of place. In fact, manuscripts of St. Luke’s Gospel include the story whereas now the only evangelist to included it is St. John. However, even though it might be out of place, its location in St. John’s Gospel sheds some light onto the story itself. The preceding chapter ends with Nicodemus asking a rhetorical question, “Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?” Obviously, this woman has not had a hearing. This provides us with a lens for reading this story.

Now, we already know to take the Gospels’ presentation of the scribes and Pharisees with a grain of salt. Our Gospel authors have historical contexts and agendas that affect how they present Jewish figures in their stories and often misrepresent them while doing so. We must bear this in mind as we explore the narrative.

Our story begins with the author setting up the scribes and Pharisees to be the villains of the story. Christians have regularly interpreted this story as an anti-law story. The common understanding of Jesus’ response to the scribes and Pharisees is that he is condemning Torah law. However, Jesus is doing the opposite.

There are a couple of things readers should know. First, Roman law did not allow execution for adultery. Second, the law to which the scribes and Pharisees refer seems to be a combination of Leviticus which states that both adulterer and adulteress shall be “put to death,” and Deuteronomy which describes the manner of execution; namely, stoning.

With this knowledge in mind, it seems the author is presenting the scribes and Pharisees as attempting to test Jesus’ faithfulness to the Torah. Will he uphold the Torah law and agree to stoning? Or will he abandon his loyalty to God and his people by following Roman law? Jesus does neither of these things. Instead, he allows the crowd to see the irony of the situation they have created. They are testing Jesus’ faithfulness to Torah law by being unfaithful to it themselves.

The law in both Leviticus and Deuteronomy is very clear. Both participants in the act of adultery must be caught and both must receive the same punishment. The Gospel story is also very clear, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery.” If she had been caught “in the very act,” then her partner in adultery was also there and should have been brought along with her. These details encourage readers to understand that it is not Jesus who has turned his back on Torah law but the Pharisees who have done just that.

Jesus’ response to the situation is a bit mysterious. He bends down and begins writing on the ground. There are two possible explanations here. It may be an allusion to Jeremiah, who suggests that those who turn their back on God will be written on the earth. Also, Jesus might also be reminding the Pharisees that their ancestors forced God to carve the commandments into stone two separate times because of their sin of idolatry.

Today’s Gospel asks readers to reflect on moments when they may have lost sight of the bigger picture. Most of us have been in situations where we are so focused on getting the one thing we want that we hurt others in the process. Sometimes we do it knowingly, and sometimes we do not realize what we have done until it is too late. Once it happens, we cannot take it back, but we can grow more self-aware so that we avoid making similar mistakes again. We can imagine writing our own names in the ground, giving ourselves a chance to walk away from a situation before we do real harm.

However, at the same time the story reminds us that no sin is so great that God will not forgive the sinner who is repentant. We are reminded of this fact by the words of Jesus at the end of the story: “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 anymore.” This is the same response that we hear when we confess our sins. The confessor does not condemn of judge the penitent. He simply says, “Go and sin no more.”