5th week in Lent, Monday – 22nd March 2021 – John 8,1-11
Choice for Different Outlook
The men who dragged the woman for judgment by Jesus show an attitude that helps explain why people then and now refuse to accept Jesus’ offer. They were not really concerned that the woman had sinned, that she had broken the law. Nor did they understand the prophets, who called all sin as adultery because it shows people’s unfaithfulness to God. They knew the letter of law and they were using it not to bring the woman to repentance, but to further their own ends: namely, to trap Jesus who was threatening their way of thinking and their way of life. When Jesus pointed out that they should look at themselves in a different way, that they should see themselves as sinners like the woman, they were in effect being given a choice. They could be open to a new and different way of looking at the failings of others and to a new way of seeing their need for God, or they could remain in their self-centred and righteous opposition to Jesus. However, these men closed their minds and hearts and chose to go home and plot how to remove this thorn from their midst. Their trick lies in using the Word of God for one’s own ends and interpreting it for one’s own way. Indeed their action affects the growth and flowering of the new life offered by Jesus.
