5th Sunday of Lent [C]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
April 3, 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John 8:1-11<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus was facing an unsurmountable dilemma when confronted with a woman caught in adultery. The Pharisees demanded that Jesus throw her with a stone, following the Mosaic Law, which reads, \u201cIf anyone is caught sleeping with a married woman, both of them must die [Deut 22:22].\u201d However, the flip side was that every Israelite at that time knew that they were not allowed by Roman Law to carry out the death penalty. So, if Jesus had not thrown the stone, He would have been accused of being unfaithful to the Law and not a man of God. However, if Jesus threw stones, He would be dealing with the Romans. What did Jesus do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus wrote on the ground. What did Jesus write? We don\u2019t know for sure, and quite a lot of opinion has developed over the last thousand years. However, there is one interesting tradition about this. Jesus was fulfilling Jeremiah\u2019s prophecy. About 600 years before Christ, Jeremiah once prophesied that \u2018those who have turned away from Thee will be written on the earth because they have forsaken God, the fountain of living waters [cf. Jer. 17:13].\u2019 Jesus was writing the names of those who had put Him to the test, the fountain of living water [cf. John 7:38].<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now it\u2019s Jesus\u2019 turn. Jesus threw this question back at them, \u201cWho is without sin, let him throw the first stone.\u201d Of course, Jesus was sinless, but the Pharisees always clamoured that they were an elite group who lived blemished according to the Mosaic Law and even had an obsession to force others to live Mosaic Law their ways. So it\u2019s as if Jesus was saying, \u2018OK, you who claim to be the perfect enforcers of the Mosaic Law, throw the first stone and prove that you are truly faithful to the Torah.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A surprising thing happened. The Pharisees chose not to throw stones. They would rather disobey the Mosaic law than deal with the Romans. This shows that they are nothing more than opportunists and hypocrites. In front of the crowds, they showed themselves to be lovers of the Law, but they were ready to leave the Law in a disadvantageous situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s incomplete if we don\u2019t see a little bit of Jesus\u2019 action towards the woman. Jesus didn\u2019t throw stones, but that doesn\u2019t mean Jesus condoned or tolerated what happened. Jesus clearly said, \u2018Go, and sin no more.\u2019 Jesus stated that this woman was a grave sin that violated the sanctity of married life. However, Jesus, the God who has the right to forgive, read this woman\u2019s contrite heart. Jesus forgave her. However, Jesus\u2019 forgiveness was not cheap. Jesus demanded a radical change from a life of sin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Who are we in this story? Are we like the Pharisees who are busy finding fault with others? Are we like those busy showing off, but we run away when we face a tough choice? Are we the ones who wallow in sin and don\u2019t know what to do? Or, are we those who cannot appreciate the grace of God?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
5th Sunday of Lent [C]
\nApril 3, 2022
\nJohn 8:1-11<\/p>\n
Jesus was facing an unsurmountable dilemma when confronted with a woman caught in adultery. The Pharisees demanded that Jesus throw her with a stone, following the Mosaic Law, which reads, \u201cIf anyone is caught sleeping with a married woman, both of them must die [Deut 22:22].\u201d However, the flip side was that every Israelite at that time knew that they were not allowed by Roman Law to carry out the death penalty. So, if Jesus had not thrown the stone, He would have been accused of being unfaithful to the Law and not a man of God. However, if Jesus threw stones, He would be dealing with the Romans. What did Jesus do?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[57,58,67],"class_list":["post-11250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-renungan","tag-english","tag-sunday-reflection","tag-valentinus-bayuhadi-ruseno"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11251,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11250\/revisions\/11251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}