5^th Sunday of Lent
Jn 8:1-11
During the time of Old Testament and at the time of Jesus, adultery was a great offense which deserved death punishment. But through today’s gospel Jesus is teaching the Scribes and the Pharisees that there is no sin on this earth that could not be forgiven except for the sin against the Holy Spirit. They brought the woman to Jesus, not out of respect for Jesus at the first place. Their original intention was not the punishment of the women for her adultery. That was only a secondary one. Their original intention was to put Jesus into test. Somehow they wanted to find an opportunity to bring some charge against Jesus. Their thoughts look so satanic. During Jesus’ temptations Satan used the scripture to convince Jesus. But Jesus would not yield himself to Satan’s cunningness. Here also we see that the Scribes and Pharisees quoted from the Scripture as if Jesus did not know this Scripture.
 
All that Jesus did was to bend down and write on the ground. This simple act of Jesus has completely changes the atmosphere among the crowd. Jesus bent himself down at the time of temptation and difficulties. He humbled himself in order to save a soul. We see a similar attitude when devil tempted him three times. He would not make use of his divine power to take care of himself. He would depend on God for his needs. This is what we fail to do when we meet with temptations. We like to react immediately at these times of our lives. We want to always assert who we are. But Jesus took enough time to make a good decision. To find solution for any difficulties and problems in life we need some time. Most of the time, the time would heel everything. B ut it requires us to practice the virtue of patients. And that is what Jesus did here.
 
Their persistent pressure to put her to death makes Jesus break his silence. He wants to remind all of them their status of life. He tells them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin, be the first to throw a stone at her.” They all leave one by one. Their act of leaving the woman alone but with Jesus proves that the Scribe and Pharisees and all of us are sinners who need a savior. And Jesus is the Savior. He saves the woman from the hands of the Scribes and Pharisees temporarily and permanently from the fire of hell. Today he wants to save us also from the clutches of worldly pressures which want to put us to spiritual death and gain us eternal punishments.
 
Jesus asks her if no one has condemned her. Her reply gives Jesus an opportunity to teach her and all of us that he did not come to condemn us. Instead, he has come to save us. Many people can take it for granted that Jesus has come to save us. Therefore, we can do anything and everything. After all Jesus is very merciful. He would not punish us. This is the wrong idea we want to remove from our mind. Jesus’ forgiveness attaches some responsibility to the woman. After having forgiven Jesus said, “Go and from now on sin no more.”  This is the invitation that follows the act of Jesus’ forgiveness. The woman was willing to accept Jesus’ invitation to repent from her sinful ways. Thus, she was saved for ever.
 
The temptations are natural. We become victims of temptations all the time. If temptations are present in human life, God and his mercy is also present in our lives. He is always there to forgive us. All that we need to do is, to admit our sins as the woman did in the gospel. Secondly, we should have the desire to resolve not to sin any more. And Jesus would take care of the rest as he did to the adulteress woman. Therefore, as we are approaching the fifth week of lent let us be prepared to be open enough to accept Jesus’ invitation to repent of our sins. Let us make use of the free gift of the sacrament of reconciliation and save ourselves from eternal punishment.