JESUS WRITES

Reflections on the Fifth Sunday of Lent: Isaiah 43:16-21, Philippians 3:8-14, John 8:1-11

Jesus never wrote anything during his life. The New Testament books were either written by his disciples or attributed to them. Today’s gospel is perhaps the only instance where we have a record of Jesus writing down something. John writes, “Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger”. We don’t know what he was writing. However, the very gesture of writing (an act evocative of God’s finger inscribing the Law (Exodus 31:18) is a powerful imagery that is meaningful to our Lenten journey.

1. Jesus writes what is easily overlooked: 

According to Jerome, Jesus wrote down the names of those accusing the woman and their respective sins to fulfil Jeremiah 17:13 which states, “Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust”  (Against the Pelagians, Book 2). Isn’t it interesting that our reflections on this gospel passage focus exclusively on the woman’s sin? Where are the men ‘caught in the act’? The scriptural passages that require death for the sin of adultery include both the man and the woman. “Both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death” (Leviticus 20:10). “Both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman as well as the woman” (Deuteronomy 22:22). Why is it then that the woman is singled out as ‘sinful’? What about those who were not caught? Were those gathered there with stones in their hands truly sinless?

Jerome’s interpretation highlights Jesus’ indirect criticism of this oversight. So when he says, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her”, Jesus brings to light the sins of the ‘uncaught’ and the hypocrisy of those waiting to condemn her. He dethrones them from the jury box (the self-appointed judges), the witness stand (the eye-witnesses), and the public gallery (the spectators). He moves them all to the accused box. As they leave one by one (beginning with the elders), the unspoken, silenced, and overlooked truth echoes: we are all sinners (except that some of us haven’t been ‘caught in the act’ yet). When we realise this fact, the stones of judgement begin to fall off our hands automatically.

2. Jesus rewrites the law: 

Augustine, in his sermons on the passage, focuses on the trap that the scribes and the Pharisees had set by bringing this woman to Jesus, who had no juridical power to condemn or forgive her. The intended trap was for Jesus: to choose between mercy and justice. If Jesus approved of the woman’s death, he would fail in his own teaching about mercy, forgiveness, and love. If he approved of her death, he would end up disagreeing with the law and thus lose his credibility. As usual, Jesus refuses to fall into the trap by choosing neither option. Instead, he shifts the focus to another important dimension of the ‘mercy-justice’ debate. Is justice about fulfilling the letter of the law (no matter the cost) or its spirit?

Let us be clear, Jesus did not teach lawlessness or cheap mercy. He made sure to tell the woman, “Do not sin any more”. Mercy is never a free permit to sin. However, what differentiates Jesus’ approach to the law from that of the Pharisees is applying the spirit of the law instead of adhering to scrupulous legalism. To Augustine, God wrote the law on stone the first time, and now he’s writing on the ground. The Law once carved in stone becomes grace written in dust, impermanent and adaptable, emphasising restoration over punishment. Jesus rewrites the foundation of the law: not legalism that kills but mercy that gives life.

3. Jesus draws the map to a new future:

There are two categories of people before Jesus. 1. The religious leaders who believed they had worked and prayed hard enough to ensure their ticket to heaven; and 2. A ‘victim’ is hopelessly trapped in a cycle of sin and selective justice. While the first group focus on her past sin and the present punishment it deserves, Jesus focuses on her possible new future. He replaces condemnation with compassion, shame with dignity, and fatalism with hope. While the Pharisees seek to trap her in cycles of sin and judgment, Jesus offers liberation through grace, inviting her (and all humanity) into a story where redemption is always possible. He is bent on giving her the chance for a fresh start, a new beginning, and a new horizon for her life.

He advocates a paradigm shift: the past need not imprison us when met with transformative mercy. He replaces condemnation with compassion, shame with dignity, and fatalism with hope. While the Pharisees seek to trap her in cycles of sin and judgment, Jesus offers liberation through grace, inviting her (and all humanity) into a story where redemption is always possible. Paul in the second reading, reminds us what truly matters, “Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead”. The first reading insists, “Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see, I am doing something new!”. Let us seek the Holy Spirit to atone for our ‘overlooked’ sins, live by the Spirit of the law and dare to envision a new future.