Breaking the Word

He said to them again, "I am going away and you will look for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going you cannot come." So the Jews said, "He is not going to kill himself, is he, because he said, 'Where I am going you cannot come'?" He said to them, "You belong to what is below, I belong to what is above. You belong to this world, but I do not belong to this world. That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I AM,   you will die in your sins." So they said to him, "Who are you?" Jesus said to them, "What I told you from the beginning. I have much to say about you in condemnation. But the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world." They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father. So Jesus said (to them), "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him." Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him. (Jn 8:21-30)

Jesus was misunderstood by his listeners. This misunderstanding seemed to have been usual. Jesus said many things about himself. He wanted them to understand all in the kingdom concept and God’s action in the world. But his listeners understood them all in social and their cultural concept.  Jesus said that he was going away from them. But they understood as: "He is not going to kill himself, is he, because he said, 'Where I am going you cannot come'?".

Thinking of the people was very much earthly. They saw everything in social, cultural and earthly context. Jesus spoke everything in heavenly context. Whatever Jesus said and did was influenced by his idea of God and the kingdom. God was his priority and God was the first.

The question, then, was who was Jesus? Where was he from? Jesus had given answer to this many times during the course of his discussion. He was from above and from the Father. Whatever he did was by the decision of the Father. Even if the people were not ready to accept this now they would realize it at the end of his life. At the fulfillment of his mission people would realize that Jesus under the guidance of the Father.

while Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area, and all the people started coming to him, and he sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle. They said to 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?" They said this to test him, so that they could have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger. But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he bent down and wrote on the ground. And in response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders. So he was left alone with the woman before him. Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She replied, "No one, sir." Then Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go, (and) from now on do not sin any more."  (Jn 8:1-11)

Pharisees and the Scribes brought a woman caught in the act of committing sin. They were justified in condemning her to death. Moses had commanded to stone such women. But Jesus never argued about Moses and his statements. Jesus knew the writings of Moses. The writing of Moses was the word of God for Jesus. What Moses had written were in the book.

Jesus bent down to the earth and wrote something on the ground. What he wrote was anyone’s guess. He could have written the names of those who were standing and who were also sinners. He could have written the list of sins that they had committed to remind them of their own situation. Because when he starts to write, the author says, ‘and in response, they went away one by one’. Their movement was in response to his writing on the ground.

Jesus is left alone with the woman. (Jesus the sinless and the woman, caught in the act of sin). Since Jesus was sinless, could we say that he did not see the sin in the woman but rather the woman in a context of sin. Sin did not stand out against the woman (it was so for Pharisees and Scribes) but a woman in need of healing (cleansing). That is why Jesus says “from now on do not sin any more."