Day 37: Neither Do I Condemn

All sin is akin to adultery, because it all involves taking what rightfully belongs to God and giving it to other 'gods.'  All sin is breaking covenant with God.

Thus when Jesus forgives the adulteress in John 8, He is really forgiving all of us.  We stand with that adulteress, who has given herself to men who are not her covenanted spouse.

Of course He is also telling the scribes and Pharisees that they are adulterers, like the woman they are prepared to stone.  But He is also offering them forgiveness, just as He offers the adulteress forgiveness.  In forgiving the adulteress, He forgives us all.

He is the only one who has the right to throw a stone, for He is the sinless one.  He, after all, is the cuckold.  Hear God's cry of rage against His faithless spouse in Ezekiel 15.  But in Christ this rage has gone: all that is left is compassion and mercy.  The cuckold does not abandon His adulterous wife.  Neither do I condemn you. . . It is a moment of reconciliation.  Christ is fulfilling God's promise to "remember the covenant He has made" and to "make atonement" for all His faithless wife has done.  It is in accordance with this remembrance of His mercy that Christ declares the woman innocent of her crime.  He is not simply declaring this woman innocent; He is declaring His people innocent.

This Gospel is paired with the story of Susanna in the Book of Daniel.  Susanna is innocent, unlike the woman in John's Gospel. But remember: in John's Gospel Jesus' words pronounce the adulteress innocent despite her guilt.  In both tales, innocent blood is spared.  Susanna is innocent of wrongdoing according to the Law, but the adulteress is innocent because of Christ's gracious action on her behalf.  

The fact that the elders in Susanna's story are the ones who are truly guilty - the true adulterers - underscores Jesus' implication about the scribes' and Pharisees' unfaithfulness.  The desire of the scribes and Pharisees to find a trumped-up charge to bring against Jesus also parallels the perjury of the elders in Susanna's case.  The point is clear: when we pass judgment on and condemn others, we perjure ourselves.  Because in the act of judging others, we imply that we are innocent - that we are "sinless" - when we are not.  We are all complicit in each other's crimes.

When we judge others, we second-guess the God who has refused to condemn them.  We put our judgments before God's.  One of the worst sins is smug self-righteousness.  Such self-righteousness can be found both in those who moralize and impose their codes of behavior on others, and in those who take refuge in God's promise of forgiveness as an excuse to persist in sinfulness.  The devil is at work in this, again using things that are good - moral judgment, trust in God's mercy - and turning them to his evil purposes.  The only cure is in humility: an awareness of ourselves as we truly are before God.  Only when we are humble will we have the clearness of vision to condemn the sin (both in ourselves and others) out of love for the sinner (both ourselves and others).