Our Lord wards off his opponents. First, we see
him tested, so that he can then be accused; and secondly, he checks his
accusers (v 6b). As to the first, the Evangelist does three things: first, he
mentions the occasion for the test; secondly, he describes the test itself (v
4); and thirdly, the purpose of those who were testing our Lord.
The occasion for the test is a woman's adultery.
And so first, her
accusers detail the crime; and also exhibit the sinner. As to the first, the
Evangelist says, Then the scribes and
Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. As Augustine says, three
things were noteworthy about Christ: his truth, his gentleness, and his
justice. Indeed, it was predicted about him: "Go forth and reign, because
of truth, gentleness, and justice" (Ps 44:5). Since they could find
nothing false in his words or his teachings, they had ceased their accusations
on that score. He showed his gentleness as a liberator or savior; and they saw
this when he could not be provoked against his enemies and persecutors:
"When he was reviled, he did not revile" (1 Pet 2:23). Thus, Matthew
has: "Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart" (11:29).
Thus they did not accuse him on this point. And he exercised justice as its
advocate; he did this because it was not yet known among the Jews, especially
in legal proceedings. It was on this point that they wanted to test him, to see
if he would abandon justice for the sake of mercy.
The Evangelist shows them proceeding with their
test. First, they point out the woman's fault; secondly, they state the justice
of the case according to the Law; thirdly, they ask him for his verdict.
First, they mention the freshness of her fault,
saying just now; for an old fault
does not affect us so much, because the person might have made amends.
Secondly, they note its certainty, saying, caught, so that she could not excuse
herself. This is characteristic of women, as we see from Proverbs (33:20):
"She wipes her mouth and says: 'I have done no evil." "Thirdly,
they point out that her fault is great, in adultery, which is a serious crime
and the cause of many evils. "Every woman who is an adulterous will
sin" (Sir 9), and first of all against the law of her God.
They ask Jesus for his verdict when they say, But what do you say? Their question
is a trap, for they are saying in effect: If he decides that she should be let
go, he will not be acting according to justice, yet he cannot condemn her
because he came to seek and to save those who are lost.
The Evangelist reveals the malicious intention
behind those who were questioning Jesus when he says, They said this to test him so that they could accuse him. For they
thought that Christ would say that she should be let go, so as not to be acting
contrary to his gentle manner; and then they would accuse him of acting in
violation of the Law: "Let us not test Christ as they did" as we read
in 1 Corinthians (10:9).
Jesus checks his enemies by his wisdom. The
Pharisees were testing him on two points: his justice and his mercy. But Jesus
preserved both in his answer. First, the Evangelist shows how Jesus kept to
what was just; and secondly, that he did not abandon mercy (v 7). As to the
first, he does two things: first, he mentions the sentence in accordance with
justice; secondly the effect of this sentence (v 9). About the first he does
three things: first, we see Jesus writing his sentence; then pronouncing it;
and thirdly, continuing again to write it down.
We can see from this that there are three things
to be considered in giving sentences. First, there should be kindness in
condescending to those to be punished; and so he says, Jesus was bending down:
"There is judgment without mercy to him who does not have mercy" (Jas
2:13); "If a man is overtaken in any fault, you who are spiritual instruct
him in a spirit of mildness" (Gal 6:1). Secondly, there should be
discretion in determining the judgment and so he says that Jesus wrote with his
finger, which because of its flexibility signifies discretion: "The
fingers of a man's hand appeared, writing" (Dan 5:5). Thirdly, there
should be certitude about the sentence given; and so he says, Jesus wrote.
The effect of his justice is their embarrassment,
for on hearing this, one after the other departed, both because they had been
involved in more serious sins and their conscience gnawed them more.
And there
remained only Jesus and the woman standing there, that is, mercy and
misery. Jesus alone remained because he alone was without sin. as the Psalm
says (Ps 13:1): "There is no one who does what is good not even one,"
except Christ. So perhaps this woman was afraid, and thought she would be
punished by him.
Jesus forgives her; and so it says, Then Jesus
said: Nor will I condemn you, I who
perhaps you feared would condemn you, because you saw that I was without sin.
This should not surprise us for "God did not send his Son into the world
to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him" (3:17);
"I do not desire the death of the sinner."
Finally, Jesus cautions her when he says, Go, and do not sin again. There were
two things in that woman: her nature and her sin. Our Lord could have condemned
both. For example, he could have condemned her nature if he had ordered them to
stone her, and he could have condemned her sin if he had not forgiven her. He
was also able to absolve each. For example, if he had given her license to sin,
saying: "Go, live as you wish, and put your hope in my freeing you. No
matter how much you sin, I will free you even from Gehenna and from the
tortures of hell." But our Lord does not love sin, and does not favor
wrongdoing, and so he condemned her sin but not her nature, saying, Go, and do
not sin again. We see here how kind our Lord is because of his gentleness, and
how just he is because of his truth.
No comments:
Post a Comment