April 3, 2022, Fifth Sunday of Lent (Year C)

One beautiful aspect of God’s word in scripture is that it is multivalent, that is to say it can be open to different meanings in different times and different situations. We can see this when we compare the message of the First Reading (Isa. 43:16-21) which is directed toward the people of Israel and how it compares to the woman caught in adultery in the Gospel (Jn. 8:1-11).

The reading from Isaiah is from the time when the Israelites were held captive in Babylon.  It is a message of hope from God delivered by the prophet. He first reminds the people of the time when they were rescued from the bondage of slavery under the Egyptians. This was when God delivered them to safety as the pharaoh and his charioteers pursued them across the Red Sea. Isaiah writes, “Thus says the LORD, who opens a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters, who leads out chariots and horsemen, a powerful army, till they lie prostrate together, never to rise.” (Isa. 43:16).

Then after this reminder of God’s intervention to save the Israelites, Isaiah writes that they should forget the misery and desperation they have endured at the hands of their Babylonian captors. Rather they should look forward to how God is intending to act once again on their behalf. He is about to have them released from the captivity in Babylon and lead them home. He says, “Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see, I am doing something new!” (Isa. 43:18).

This deliverance from Babylon is described using a metaphor of a dry wasteland which God will transform to promote life. Between the captivity in Babylon and the return to Israel lay hundreds of miles of wilderness. But the Israelites need not be afraid. God will a make a road in the wilderness, provide rivers in the desert, and even protect them from wild animals, because the beasts of the field will honor the Lord, while the people rejoice and sing praise to Him for this salvation.

We might compare the salvation of Israel pronounced by Isaiah to the predicament of the woman caught in adultery in the Gospel. As the story goes, Jesus has arrived in the temple area where he sits and begins to teach the people. While he is there the Pharisees and scribes bring a woman who has been caught in adultery. They want to see how Jesus will react so that they might entrap him over some conflict regarding the Law of Moses. They say 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?” (Jn. 8:4-5).

The point of their question does not really concern the fate of the woman. Rather it is a test to pit the judgment of Jesus against currently accepted practices. But Jesus will not be manipulated by their tactics. He basically ignores them by bending to write something on the ground. When he rises, he says, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” (Jn. 8:7).

Again, Jesus bends down to write on the ground. This time when he stands up the only person remaining is the woman. All of the others in the crowd have walked away one by one. Jesus then speaks to the woman and asks where everyone has gone. Is there no one left there to condemn her? When she replies in the negative, Jesus says to her, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.” (Jn. 8:11).

Like the Israelites of the First Reading who were held captive in Babylon, this woman has been trapped in the exile of sin. And according to the Law of Moses on which the scribes and Pharisees dwell, she must be sentenced to death. In a sense they, too, are like the Israelites remembering the things of the past, stressing the strict laws which allowed for no interpretation or exceptions.

But now Jesus, without so many words, is telling them exactly what God said through the prophet, Isaiah: do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. In other words, while it is important for them to have a law to protect against and punish for sinful behavior, this was to be followed down to the last letter only before the time of Jesus. Now with the presence and grace of Jesus, sinful situations are to be considered mercifully and with compassion before punishment is inflicted. This is a time for them to put the old things aside and consider the new with Christ.

This is what Jesus is doing with the sin of this woman. He does not deny her culpability, nor ignore its occurrence. He simply offers the witnesses a chance to consider the circumstances, to consider that only those who have no sins of their own be the ones to pass judgment. And of course, only Jesus fits this description. Unlike the scribes and the Pharisees, he is the only one without sin. Only Jesus has the power of God to judge the woman and determine her punishment.

So, Jesus offers this woman a new way. A river in the wastelands of sinfulness and protection from the wild animals, the Jewish leaders, so she can put aside her old ways and remember not the things of the past. Rather she is to see that Jesus is doing something new, giving her the chance for conversion and release from the exile of sin.

This is the same opportunity that Jesus gives us this Lenten season. Do not remember the former things, like the Israelites who were mired in the desperate circumstances of captivity and exile, or the adulterous woman trapped in sin. Staying stuck in the past can keep us from the new things God wants us to do. Forget the past, with all its discouragement and defeat, and move on to what God has for us in the future.

It is the message from Paul as he writes what he is doing in the Second Reading (Phil. 3:8-14): “Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, to continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:13b-14).