Justice of God over Injustice and Evil of Falsely Accused: Monday of the 5th Week of Lent (A)

Sometimes, it is interesting to read the Scriptures with “what if”, because there are so many facts not necessarily written with letters in the sacred books. And, a case in this point is found in today’s Scripture readings: the story of Susanna and Daniel in Daniel 13 and the story of a woman accused of adultery and Jesus in John 8.

What if the woman accused of adultery in John 8 did not commit adultery but falsely accused as in the case of Susanna in Daniel 13? Then, it would mean that the wickedness and evil so eager to kill Jesus could even use false accusation to arrest Jesus. If it is the case, we must ask: how low could human morality be denigrated once it is infected with evil?

The accusers and executioners said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery” (John 8:4). But, does it necessarily mean the woman had actually committed adultery, thus, deserving to die, according to Deuteronomy 22:13-21? The Johannine Gospel text did not mention anything about necessary sufficient witnesses to convict a person with a violation of the Law for death sentence in light of Deuteronomy 17:6 and 19:15. Therefore, the accusation that the Pharisees and the Scribes made against the woman for adultery could be false and have no legal merit. Nevertheless, the woman was accused and brought to Jesus. Why, did they do such a thing?

If you follow how the Johannine narratives of Jesus’ life are developed from the previous chapters, you notice that it is to trap Jesus with a legal dilemma that the Pharisees and the Scribes set up. In the Gospel reading of last Saturday (Saturday of the 4^th week of Lent: John 7:40-53), we noticed that the religious leaders’ desire to arrest and kill Jesus was growing. But, their attempt to catch Jesus failed because of the guards had wondered about a possibility of Jesus being the actual Messiah. Nevertheless, the wickedness in the religious leaders never gave up in their attempt to catch and kill Jesus. So, this time, it is possible that they set up an adultery case in order to trap Jesus in a legal dilemma between the Jewish Law on punishing adultery and the Roman Law.

During the time of Jesus, Judah was under the control of the Roman Empire. Thus, Judah was not considered as a sovereign state but rather a vassal state, under the Roman jurisdiction. It means that the Jews under the Roman jurisdiction, whether in the Roman territories or vassal states, had no legal rights to prosecute and execute. It means that the Roman authority did not honor the legality of the Jewish Law – the Torah. This reality of the time created a legal dilemma for Jesus in responding to the case of the woman accused of adultery.

The accusers knew that they could report Jesus to the Roman authorities for disrespecting the Roman Law if he had allowed them to execute the woman. At the same time, they knew they could accuse Jesus for not honoring the Jewish Law, if he interrupted the process of execution of the accused woman.

John 8:6 reminds that the accusers’ intent was to trap Jesus so that they would be able to get rid of Jesus. And, for this evil mission, they would not mind setting up a case against the woman, even without a legally sufficient witnesses (Deuteronomy 17:6 and 19:15) against her.

It is interesting to note that Jesus did not challenge these wicked leaders’ action against the woman and against him by challenging the legality of the case they were making to stone the woman to death, invoking Deuteronomy 17:6 and 19:15. Rather, he challenged the very hearts of the accusers, telling that only those who have never sinned are qualified to throw a stone at her (John 8:7). And, this resulted that they could not make a case against her, as they recognized their own sinfulness and left the scene, leaving the woman and Jesus alone.

Jesus, then, told the woman, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more”(John 8:11).  Jesus did not tell her not to commit adultery anymore. He simply said sin no more. Jesus just wanted to make sure that she will not sin, knowing that we all are sinners, for whom he came to this world to save. We should not jump on to a hasty conclusion to assume that she had committed adultery, though she has sinned just as we all have.

My understanding of today’s Gospel narrative (John 8:1-8) is based on my exegesis of Daniel 13 (the Book of Susanna), from which today’s first reading (Daniel 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62) is taken.

In Daniel 13, Susanna, wife of Joakim, was falsely accused for adultery by two wicked judges (elders) of the community in Babylon (suggesting that the setting was during the Babylonian exile). It was the unquenchable lust of these wicked old men to violate Susanna. However, their attempt to rape her was botched as she screamed for help. Rather than vanishing from the site, these wicked men turned the situation to kill Susanna by the Jewish Law, the same Law that the woman in John 8:1-11, was accused of.

In response to Susanna’s scream, people came to the scene and found her with the two men with the legal authority. The men made a case and told the people that she must have had a sexual act with a young man, whom they could not catch. But, they demanded to the people that Susanna needed to be tried by the Law.

Because the wicked men, who tried to violate Susanna, were the judges, they presided her trial. They were determined to execute her according to the Law, which they had authority in. Justice was hijacked by the wicked judges as a result of their failure to rape her. And, she was destined to be killed by the hijacked Law. Then, Daniel, a man of God, appeared to challenge these wicked judges, proving that the judges’ accusatory witnesses against Susanna were lies with their inconsistency between the mastic tree and the oak tree (Daniel 13:55, 59). And, the justice brought by Daniel convicted the wicked judge and sentenced them to death. And, Susanna was vindicated.

Juxtaposing Daniel 13 (Book of Susanna) and John 8:1-11, a point of today’s Scripture readings (Daniel 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62 and John 8:1-11) is about injustice of false accusation and how God’s justice counters. As Daniel responded to Susanna’s case and as Jesus responded to the woman accused of adultery, God’s justice prevails. The readings also challenge us for our tendency to make decisions hastily – only with our biased assumptions without thoroughly examining.

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In philosophy classes, as well as science classes, we have learned the follies of hasty reasoning. In science, testing the validity of hypotheses demands meticulous and thorough investigatory verification to minimize the probabilities of unintended errors or omissions. Nevertheless, in science, we humbly know a conclusion we draw from our thorough hypotheses testing can never attain perfect validity. The same can be applied to a legal process. Past cases reversed on appeals are examples of this problem in our legal system.