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(I wrote this in 2001 … whenever this text comes up in the lectionary, I think of this. So here it is again.)
The lion and the lamb
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Fifth Sunday of Lent
John 8:1-3
At dawn Jesus appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group.
Her eyes were slits. She was angry and embarrassed. For one thing, the police had ripped her clothes nearly to pieces before throwing them at her. Their lustful looks were not lost on her. Even with her eyes nearly shut she saw everything she needed to see.
Soon would come the stones. She had seen this once. She was a little girl holding onto her mother’s hand. Loud shouts and ugly laughter and men throwing rocks. She held on tighter and squinted her eyes. She caught a glimpse of a man’s face. Leering, awful, selfish face.
She saw that same look this morning. Magnified, merciless… men who hated something … not her, she knew they didn’t really hate her, but something … yet it was her they pointed at, they yelled at her, tore her clothes, laughed that ugly laugh, and soon they would begin to throw the rocks. Their hatred was going to kill her.
They were taking her to the temple. Their temple…she had not been there in awhile. She heard them talking about Jesus. Someone had told her about Jesus. Her friend told her he was easy to talk to. What he said didn’t always make sense, but it seemed like he understood. Her friend felt happy and strong when she left him. Right now she was feeling very weak, jelly and water. She couldn’t walk, really; she stumbled.
They picked her up and threw her forward. In silence she squinted ahead toward the temple. It looked like a prison. People were screaming at her. Little girls were holding their mothers’ hands and hiding their faces. She felt the strange hatred on her skin and waited for the rocks.
(To be continued … tomorrow)
Lord, there is no excuse for what we do. We turn the kingdom of God into a prison when you intended it to be a party. To avoid looking at ourselves we leer at others. I am sorry. Forgive me. Turn my eyes toward home.
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1465
