Condemn a Sinner If You Are Sinless!

Rev. Marcel E. Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year C

St. Mary of Assumption Church, Whittier, CA

Sunday, March 13, 2016

During the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, some of those who disliked him and often times looked for an opportunity to set him on trap were the Pharisees and scribes. When they arrested a woman caught in adultery, their chief reason for bringing her to Jesus was to use her as a pawn to bring some charges against him (John 8:6). In this instance, Jesus was in the temple area teaching when they rudely interrupted him: “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So, what do you say?” (John 8:4-5) That was a very tough position to be in. If Jesus had categorically denounced capital punishment, they would have accused him of negating the Law of Moses that requires it in this instance. And if Jesus had approved it, they would have accused him of breaking the Roman law that denied the vanquished Israelites the authority to impose capital punishment. 

What was at stake here wasn’t the acknowledgement or otherwise of what the woman did. There was no disagreement about what she had done. Jesus agreed with the Pharisees and scribes that her action was sinful; but disagreed with them on what should be done to her. For them, she deserved to be stoned to death because the Mosaic law said so, but for Jesus, she deserved a second chance because “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that through him, the world might be saved” (John 3:17). He was only interested in calling sinners to true repentance, and not to condemn them. Every single one of them standing before Jesus was living on a second chance. None of them had a clean record or a spotless life. Their desperate plot to set Jesus on trap did not allow them to realize it. To avoid falling into the trap they had set for him, Jesus made them embark on a journey of their past. He made them take a walk down memory lane: “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7b). Jesus was simply saying to them, condemn her if you are blameless. Of course, none of them was sinless, so, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders” (John 8:9) after seeing their sins written on the ground by Jesus. If anyone of them had tried to throw a stone at her, it would have come back to him.

As far as the Pharisees and scribes were concerned, the woman in question was a no-body, someone who did not matter, whose life could easily be wasted. For them, she was a woman of easy virtue; she was no good. But when Jesus looked at her, she saw a real person, a human being gripped by sin and public shame, who desperately needed liberation. She did not make any excuses for her sin. She did not blame anyone for her lifestyle. She did not blame the devil for her behavior. She knew she had done wrong, unlike the Pharisees and scribes who needed Jesus to remind them that they too had sinned. When all her accusers had gone, Jesus looked up, saw her heart, read the contrition in her heart and then said to her, “Neither do I condemn you” (John 8:11b). Jesus did for her what her community declined to do. He gave her what her folks refused to give her. He gave her a second chance but with a challenge: “Go and from now on do not sin any more” (John 8:11c). By asking her not to return to sex trade eloquently shows his trust in humanity and in human nature. Jesus was asking her to do a very difficult thing, but he believed she could do it. He had seen that within her lies the ability, capacity and capability not to continue to mess up her life, but to mend it and to right the wrong. Jesus had seen that if she only tries, she would overcome her weakness and turn her life around. He believed that a terrible sinner today, can become an amazing saint tomorrow. The worst today, can become the best tomorrow. Jesus believed that the woman was not yet a finished product; so he offered her a second chance to go and redeem her image and to straightened her crooked life. In Jesus, there is the gospel of second chance. He is not so much interested in what you have been but in what you could become. He is not so much interested in what you have done but in what you would do moving forward. 

Beloved in Christ, Jesus teaches us that only the person who is without sin has a right to judge and condemn other sinners. We are only allowed to condemn the guilty if we ourselves are guiltless. It’s unfair to demand standards from others that we never even try to meet ourselves. It’s hypocrisy to loudly condemn the faults in others that are also evident in our own lives. The common weakness of all means that only God has the right to judge. No one is good enough to condemn. Therefore, our first reaction towards a member of the church, family, and society who did something wrong should be pity. When we are confronted with someone who has done wrong, our reaction should not be condemnation, but compassion. The lessons of John 8:1-11 are these: God is full of mercy and compassion, but he still expects us to try and be better each day. Although Jesus forgave the adulterous woman, but also challenged her to put her life in order. He urged her to leave sin behind because it hurts and damages a person and the person’s relationship with God. Sin lowers and reduces us. 

This Gospel also highlights something else: the age-long maltreatment of women. The sin of adultery can only be committed by two persons. But in this story, only the woman was presented as the sinner. Nothing was said of the man. The accusers only brought the woman and were ready to apply the law of capital punishment on her. What about her partner, the man? But in the end, Jesus used their intolerance, discrimination, self-righteousness and hypocrisy to underscore once again that he has not come to call the virtuous, but sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32). He forgave the woman, gave her a second chance, believed in her and offered her hope. Jesus restored her dignity and self-worth. 

Folks, if you are sinless, then condemn the sinful. If you have never sinned before, be the first to condemn the fallen. But if you have erred in your life, show the same mercy that you received when you fell.