Advent Reflection

From Anglican Mainstream.

For those of us who struggle with the changes and chances of life and are frustrated by the hard knocks life sometimes renders, we receive confidence from Mary the poor, struggling Galilean peasant woman, has been chosen by God. Mary celebrates what the ‘great’ ‘saving’, ‘mighty’, and ‘holy’, God has done for her in looking on her ‘lowliness. Mary sings passionately of God’s mercy to oppressed people – God’s victory over the proud, the powerful and the rich. Good guys don’t finish last!

Engage the reflection.

Why Read the Bible: To Learn About Mercy

At dawn [Jesus] appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

–John 8.2-11 (NIV)

There has been a lot of lousy theology written recently about this passage, especially from the revisionists who want to fundamentally change the nature of the Gospel and turn it into some feel good tripe. Hopefully this reflection will not add to the heap.

From today’s passage we get insight into the nature of mercy and extending it to others. Being merciful to others does not mean giving away the farm in the process. It does not mean that we surrender our integrity or God’s Truth and values. Instead, being merciful requires that we remember who and what we are–desperately flawed and broken people who are without hope unless we receive mercy from God.

The dynamics of this story are powerful and compelling. We sense the rottenness of this scenario immediately when Jesus’ opponents only bring the woman to stand before him. We ask ourselves, “Where is the man? It takes two to commit adultery. Why did the teachers of the Law and Pharisees not bring him along as well?” This helps make clear to us the mean-spiritedness of Jesus’ opponents. They did not have to bring the woman to him to face public ridicule. They could have confronted him about this issue without humiliating the woman, but they didn’t choose to do that. Instead they exposed her to public ridicule.

Then we notice Jesus’ reaction to the challenge. He bends over and starts writing on the ground with his finger. The context of this story evokes memories of God’s finger writing out the 10 commandments on tablets of stone for Moses to give to his people (see Exodus 31.18) and we wonder what is going through Jesus’ mind. Is he put off by yet another attempt to distort and abuse God’s perfect Law? If he is, he doesn’t show it. He does not condemn those who brought the woman before him. He does not condemn their mean spiritedness but lets their very actions condemn them when they walk away in silence without stoning the woman.

Finally, there is the punchline to the story. The trap Jesus’ enemies laid for him was brilliant. Roman law forbade the Jews to practice capital punishment so if Jesus said that it was OK to stone the woman (as the Law prescribed–see, e.g., Leviticus 20:10), his enemies could have portrayed him as an enemy of the state and had him arrested. If he refused to allow the stoning, his enemies would have accused him of denying the Law, which would have been unthinkable (and deadly) for any self-respecting Jew. But Jesus is more brilliant than any schemes we mere mortals can concoct. He simply tells his opponents to stone the woman–if they are free of sin.

I don’t know about you, but I hate it when that happens.

Humiliated by their own evil, one by one Jesus’ enemies drop their stones and walk away, leaving only the woman. Jesus does not condemn her but neither does he condone what she had done and here is where the rub comes in for many folks. They confuse mercy as being carte-blanche by nature, but nothing could be further from the truth. Because Jesus did not condemn the woman does not mean he condoned her behavior. That would be impossible for him to do because clearly he loved the woman–as he loves all humans–and wanted the best for her. And so our Lord tells her to stop living in the darkness and come into the light of God’s desired behavior so that she could experience real life! Here we see love and mercy perfectly manifested.

Being merciful means that we must be willing to forgive, but that is very difficult for us because of our pride. The more we believe that we are incapable of sinning, especially when confronted with the sin of another (e.g., “I would NEVER act like that!”), the less likely we are to forgive or to extend mercy. But to forgive means that the offending party has to acknowledge that he has done wrong and caused hurt. He must let the offended party express that anger and hurt, uncomfortable as that is, so that real healing can begin.

Being merciful is terribly costly because it also demands that we acknowledge we are in the same boat, that we swim in the muck as readily as others. But being merciful also demands that we desire the best for ourselves and others, and so we must insist and encourage them to come out of their darkness and into God’s light. Otherwise, forgiveness is never possible and alienation will continue. For example, think how differently this story would be if Jesus had simply forgiven the woman and then encouraged her to continue in her adulterous lifestyle (“It’s OK, honey. I forgive you. Just don’t get caught the next time.”)! The only thing that this would have accomplished would be to ensure that alienation and darkness would continue to reign in the woman’s life (and in the lives of these with whom she interacted) and that is certainly not love being expressed, at least in biblical terms, because love always seeks the best for others with “best” being defined by God’s standards and values.

When we realize that we are under God’s just judgment because we know that we all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) in whose image we are made, then we are ready to extend mercy to others because we want for them what we want for ourselves–God’s mercy instead of his justice. But it is costly because to be merciful we must be ready to forgive. To be merciful demands that we must also be willing to love the offender enough to want him to turn away from his darkness and come back into God’s light.

Thankfully the Bible reminds us that we have a God who is both just and merciful. We know this because he came into the world to live among us and die for us so that our just exile from God can be forever ended. And because we love him and want to be like him, we are resolved, with the Spirit’s help, to show mercy and extend forgiveness to those who wrong us. We are people who live with real hope because we are recipients of God’s grace and mercy, and we want others to see what is our secret. When we show mercy and forgiveness, REAL mercy and forgiveness that insists the offender abandon his darkness and turn toward God’s light, then we will indeed provide a powerful witness to a broken and hurting world that so desperately needs God’s forgiveness and healing.

What about you? Are you more interested in personal justice or showing God’s mercy?