“Go, and Sin No More!”

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year C

St. Mary of the Assumption Church, Whittier, California

Sunday, April 7, 2019

The unnamed adulterous woman in today’s Gospel (John 8:1-11) encountered Jesus by a mere chance. She did not come to him voluntarily; she did not meet him because she was looking for him. Her encounter with Jesus was forced upon her by the scribes and the Pharisees who caught her in adultery. This makes me want to ask: What about the man with whom she was seen committing adultery? But that’s a discussion for another day. The point I want to highlight is that it was her own sin and wrongdoing that brought about her encounter with Jesus Christ. The scribes and the Pharisees wanted to hear what Jesus would say about what Moses said should be done to people caught in adultery. Moses commanded that such a woman and man should be stoned.  So, when Jesus was asked to weigh in, rather than argue with them, he raised the argument to another level. On the Palestinian soil, he wrote the new law of grace and forgiveness. In the woman brought before him, Jesus recognized the people he came to save. The woman represents the Israel of yesterday who entered into covenant with God but did not always stay faithful to God; she represents the unfaithful wife of prophet Hosea named Gomer. She also represents the Church of tomorrow whom Jesus loves, and for whom he will sacrifice himself in order to set free from the addiction of sin. Because Jesus did not come to judge but to forgive and save, he said to her, “Neither do I condemn you.” But quickly he added, “Go, and from now on do not sin any more.” 

Friends, like the adulterous woman, each of us came to Jesus a sinner. Whether we came to him out of our own free volition or someone brought us to him, the truth is that we all came to him as sinners. Although none of us is perfect, Jesus still wants us to leave our sinful life behind. How is this possible? The saints we celebrate every day teach us that it is possible to love God above all things; that it is possible for our love for God to trump every addictive and habitual sin. I have heard some preachers, including Catholic priests say that God does not care about our sin. What? False theology like that emanated from the German priest Martin Luther, who once declared, “Sin boldly but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly.” But let me put it as clear as I can possibly be: it is not true that God does not care about sin. If God does not really care about sin, why did he send his spotless Son Jesus Christ to die for us? Jesus suffered and died to reconcile us with God and to set us free from the clutches of sin and Satan. Our friendship with God was broken by sin. So, by his passion, the friendship/relationship was repaired and healed. Furthermore, if God does not care about sin how come Jesus urged the woman to go and sin no more? Sin has consequences! It hurts the sinner, their relationship with God and with others. The prodigal son teaches us that sin has spiritual and social consequences: “Father, I have sin against heaven and against you…” Any Christian who toys with sin will be reliving the life of Judas Iscariot. 

Any teaching that declares that God does not care about sin is not the gospel of Christ. Our arrogance, violence, injustices, sins all press down upon the body of Christ. God is deeply pained by sins, by the attack on the family, by abortion, and by all sorts of anti-Genesis aimed at eliminating the family. God is pained by a move to reinvent mankind, to modify the very grammar of life as planned and willed by God. God is pained by the attacks leveled against the immigrants of the world. Those who do this forget that everyone of us is an immigrant in the world, that the real owner of the world is God. An attack and rejection of immigrants is an attack on the Son of God who was once an immigrant with the rest of the Holy Family in Egypt. God is pained by our refusal to love and care for the little. Sin, in a nutshell is insane arrogance hinged on “I can do whatever I like, after all, it is my life.”

Jesus asks the woman brought to him to leave sin behind because he recognizes that sin is a heavy burden. It lowers and destroys. Sin punishes us and brings us evil. Sin is evil. So, how can God not be pained by sin? How can God not care about sin? How can God not care that the people he loves with everlasting love are turning away from him and falling into evil and destruction? But the good news is that God still loves us and desires what is good for us. It is his love for us that drives him to cry out “Sin no more” because he understands that sin hurts us. It takes away our holy pride, peace and joy. Sin can cut us off from life, and can dry up from within us the very source of our dignity and freedom. So when Jesus said to the sinful woman, “Go, and from now on do not sin any more” he was basically telling her, Abandon Sin! Abandon Sin!