Readings:
Daniel 13:1-62; Psalm 23; John 8:1-11

[ Daniel 13 (and 14) is not available in many Protestant bibles, but is available here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/daniel/13. It describes sexual abuse and false testimony against Susanna by two community elders who were judges, using their power for corruption. Susanna, ganged up against, cries out to God to proclaim her innocence. Daniel, listening, gains insight through his Holy Spirit stirred up by God. He successfully speaks up for Susanna, fights for justice, causing the elders to be seen for what they are and convicted. Susanna is then known to be innocent (‘As she was being led to execution, God stirred up the holy spirit of a young boy named Daniel, and he cried aloud: “I am innocent of this woman’s blood” ’ — Daniel 13:45-46). ]

The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman along who had been caught committing adultery; and making her stand there in full view of everybody, they said to Jesus, ‘Master, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery, and Moses has ordered us in the Law to condemn women like this to death by stoning. What have you to say?’ They asked him this as a test, looking for something to use against him. But Jesus bent down and started writing on the ground with his finger. As they persisted with their question, he looked up and said, ‘If there is one among you without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her. Then he bent down and wrote on the ground again. When they heard this they went away one by one, beginning with the eldest, until Jesus was left alone with the woman, who remained standing there. He looked up and said, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ ‘No one, sir,’ she replied. ‘Neither do I condemn you,’ said Jesus, ‘go away, and don’t sin any more.‘
John 8:3-11

This passage does not appear in some of the early Gospel manuscripts, presumably because it was thought to be untrue, or if true, unsuitable reading for Christians!

Jesus says, ‘Go and sin no more.’ He is not condoning adultery, but he says, ‘neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more’, himself practising his own preaching, ‘Judge no one’.

Of all the difficult demands Jesus makes of his followers, one of the most difficult, and most ignored, is his command to judge no one. Today’s Gospel reading is not about adultery, but about not condemning. Adultery can destroy in very obvious ways: condemning can be even more destructive, especially when it masquerades as righteousness.

In this passage the scribes and Pharisees are presented as being pleased, both at catching the woman and at the chance of catching out Jesus. There is an unpleasant trait in all of us which causes us to delight in the misfortune of another, provided we are unscathed ourselves. The Germans call this delight in another’s misfortune, Schadenfreude, a characteristic which keeps the tabloids selling by the millions.

The roots of Schadenfreude go deeper than sins of the flesh. We are creatures of anxiety, and the deepest fear in us is the fear of annihilation, of being literally a nobody. One way of countering this fear is to be superior to someone in at least some respect. ‘Someone is interior, therefore I am!’ That is why in any society the most ruthless and bitter struggles are often amongst the poorest people.

Society, whether of church or state, organizes itself to ensure this superiority by some kind of caste or class system. Nations depend for their survival on having an enemy of some kind. There is nothing more effective for rallying a nation than going to war. Our educational system with its emphasis on competition rather than cooperation, our economy with its emphasis on ‘market forces’, all nurture this existential anxiety, so that survival demands having the advantage over someone, doing better than others rather than in cooperating with them. We are caught up in a whole web of values which stem from this fear of annihilation, which makes war, violence, oppression and exploitation inevitable.

Jesus said, ‘Let the person without sin cast the first stone.’ We can never assess the inner guilt of another person, because we cannot know the past influences which are now affecting them, the pressures which afflict them. We can say their behaviour is objectively wrong, immoral or illegal, but we can never know their inner guilt before God. The only person we should judge is ourselves. If we bring ourselves before God and acknowledge our guilt, he never refuses forgiveness. We must never, therefore, condemn or refuse to forgive another person in our hearts, for in refusing to forgive them, we are refusing to let God be the God of forgiveness to ourselves.

Prayer
Lord, you said, ‘Let the person without sin cast the first stone.’ Show us our own sin and your mercy, so that we may always be gentle and never condemn others in our hearts. We ask you this through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen.