They said this to test him

Is 43,16-21; Ps 125; Phil 3,8-14; Jn 8,1-11
7 APRIL

To understand the Ancient Covenant well, we must distinguish and separate the content of the Two Tablets of the Law and the sanctions established for each violation of the Ten Commandments. While the law remains stable, immutable forever, sanctions can also be annulled and cancelled. Adultery will never be permitted to any man and woman. But while, in the first days, it was sanctioned with the death of adulterers, with David for the violation of this Commandment the Lord has also granted his pardon. It is the Lord, not the man, who in his great mercy has modified the sanction of death with the remission of the penalty. With the prophet Ezekiel, in the conversion of the heart, in repentance and in the return to the Law, the Lord granted forgiveness and life to every transgression. The law always obliges. The penalties can be modified.

You say, “The Lord’s way is not fair!” Hear now, house of Israel: Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair? When a virtuous man turns away from virtue to commit iniquity, and dies, it is because of the iniquity he committed that he must die. But if a wicked man, turning from the wickedness he has committed, does what is right and just, he shall preserve his life; since he has turned away from all the sins which he committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die. And yet the house of Israel says, “The Lord’s way is not fair!” Is it my way that is not fair, house of Israel, or rather, is it not that your ways are not fair? Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, each one according to his ways, says the Lord God. Turn and be converted from all your crimes, that they may be no cause of guilt for you. Cast away from you all the crimes you have committed, and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies, says the Lord God. Return and live! (Cf. Ez 18,1-32).

Scribes and Pharisees do not care about either the woman or her adultery. They have only one purpose. Finding a reason for accusing to be able to condemn Jesus in a legal way. If Jesus had said “Do not condemn her” they would have accused him of sinning against the Law of Moses. Not against the law of his Father, but of Moses. The Law of Moses was their thinking, their doctrine and their tradition. If he had said “condemn her”, they would have made him hateful to the people. They would have discredited him so that no one believed in him anymore. They would have praised their tradition and declared his teaching null and void. But Jesus is under the mantle of the Holy Spirit. This suggests him the right answer: “Let whosoever is without sin, cast the stone against her first”. Everyone leaves, because everyone knows that he is a sinner before God.

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 anymore.”

Jesus teaches to separate the Law from the sanction of punishment linked to disobedience against it. Today we are ruinously slipping towards the abolition of the law in order to remove the sanction. It is thought that the penalty is what makes the difference between one person and another. The difference is not made by the sanction, but by the observance of the Law. One does not become worthy because the sanction is removed, but because he is in the divine law. The law is eternal and unchangeable. The sanction can be changed. Never the Law.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, help us to believe in the truth of the Law of the Lord.