A reading of the holy gospel according to John. Jesus went to the Mount Of Olives. And early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down to teach them. The scribes and the pharisees brought a woman who had been taken in adultery, and placing her in the midst, they said to Jesus, teacher, this woman has been taken in the very act of adultery.
Now in the law of now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. What do you say about it? This they said to test Jesus that they might bring some charge against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. As they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.
Once more, he bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. But when the pharisees heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the eldest. And Jesus finally was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus looked up and said to her, woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?
And she said, no one, lord. And Jesus said, neither do I condemn you, and do not sin again. And this is the gospel of the lord. The name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen.
You have just listened to or perhaps possibly you have read two of the most famous narratives of the bible. The story of Susanna and the false judges and the heroic Daniel, and this incident of our Lord's life of the woman taken in adultery. Notice, there wasn't any question about that. In one instance, you're talking about a woman innocent of all crime. In the other case, there's no question about her guilt.
And in both instances, she goes scot free. It's this second story of the woman taken in adultery that is often used as an illustration to dramatize, to even to prove that our blessed lord condoned adultery and therefore sin. Well, of course, the story doesn't have anything like that in it at all. The law said that a woman taken in adultery Christ didn't see her sin. Christ did not he was not a witness of it.
The witnesses who brought him brought the woman to Christ disappeared. There was no one there was no one any longer to accuse her. And Christ said, neither do I. So there's not even the slightest suggestion here that Our Lord was taking a weak attitude towards adultery, as much as many people would like that to be true. But what is perfectly clear is our Lord's indulgence to the sinner.
As God Almighty, he certainly didn't know whether or not she was guilty. And there's nothing said here about the woman's psychological state whether she was sorry or repentant or what have you. We get a picture here of a very humble person. There is not the slightest suggestion of arrogance on her part, of a hardened person. There's no suggestion of that.
And so this story of our blessed lord cannot in any way be translated as god almighty taking a a slack attitude towards sin. Not at all. Because that was not the issue in this case. That was not the focus of the story. The The focus of the story was the an effort on the part of our lord's enemies to entrap him.
They were only using the woman as an instrumentality to get their fists on Jesus Christ, just as the judges used Susanna. That's the similarity of the two stories. So let's not lose our focus here. But on the other hand, we can't well, there is not as I say the slightest hint that our lord is condoning sin. At the same time, it's a well, what I was gonna say a marvelous story of Christ's love.
What can I say? This is one of the most touching stories in the New Testament. I think it matches the one we had yesterday that Christ wept at the tomb. They botched the translation as usual. The Latin says, la cremata ses Christus.
It says Christ wept. So the great brains translated Christ began to cry or something. But our blessed lord wept out of sympathy for his people. He didn't he wasn't weeping because of Lazarus, because of his love for Martha and Mary and their friends and their grief, and he was sympathetic with it. And we are told that Christ, the son of God, wept.
And so these this story today, it's not it's a it's an incident in our lord's life. This is not a parable. Brings out not at all Christ condoning sin, but it brings out magnificently and dramatically Christ's love for the sinner. Let us take it to heart. In the name of the father, and the son, the holy spirit.
Amen.