Some people drain their assets to pay for their legal defense in courts. To them, that’s the price of justice for them. Such is life in the adversarial litigation culture, which feeds only greedy lawyers.
In the Gospel Reading of the Fifth Sunday of Lent,
Cycle C (John 8:1-11), we see Jesus in light of a defense lawyer, appointed by
God, for a woman accused of committing adultery.
Does it mean that God was contradicting Himself for
providing the Law against adultery yet to give a leeway to escape from justice?
If it is how you think, then, you may be prone to be fooled by the religious
leaders’ anti-Jesus propaganda. Read and study the Law and exercise your
faith-driven conscience in regard to what the religious leaders were doing with
the woman against Jesus. The accusers, who were the scribes and the Pharisees, claimed
to Jesus that the woman was “caught” in the very act of committing adultery
(John 8:4) and asked Jesus for his legal opinion, as she was to be stoned to
death, according to the applicable Mosaic Law (John 8:5; cf. Leviticus 20:10;
Deuteronomy 22:22-24).
To this, Jesus’ “legal opinion” resulted in the
acquittal of the woman with his words, “do
not sin any more”(John 8:11). But, the way Jesus “defended” her was not
like what a typical lawyer would do as he did not get into the technicality o
the applicable Law, such as calling and cross-examining two witnesses, which
the Law demands, and calling the man, involved in her alleged adultery.
Remember, it takes two to commit adultery. The way Jesus acted as the defense
lawyer for the woman is a new way of bringing justice, and its essence is mercy
with trust, and such a new way is the way of God, as reflected in the First
Reading (Isaiah 43:16-21).
When the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman, whom they claimed to have caught in the very act of adultery, and asked his legal opinion to test him in order to accuse him (John 8:4-6a), Jesus prostrated and started writing something on the ground with his finger (John 8:6b). It is not certain what he wrote on the ground. But, it is possible that he was writing the names of those who brought the woman, because he knew their sins. And he wrote their names as to say that they were bound to be condemned, in light of Jeremiah 17:13, which says that those who have forsaken the Lord to be registered in the netherworld. And yes, they had forsaken the Lord because they brought the woman to trap Jesus, not just forsaking but trying to attack the Lord. What other sin can be as great as such one? And in their effort to trap the Lord to kill him, they were using the woman.
Jesus' act of writing something on the ground with his finger (John 8:6b) can be juxtaposed to God writing His commandment on the first stone tablet (Exodus 34:1) and to Moses writing more of God's commandments in the second stone tablet (Exodus 34:24). This is to suggest that Jesus came to fulfill the Law (Matthew 5:17) by showing his new way of interpreting and applying and observing (i.e. Matthew 5:21-48). Thus, Jesus' legal opinion on the woman to be stoned to death according to the Law by her accusers, the scribes and the Pharisees, was to be a fulfillment of the Law, which was abused by the scribes and the Pharisees to attack Jesus, at the expenses of the woman's life.
There is also something fishy about the way the scribes and the Pharisees tried to execute the woman by stoning for committing adultery, as they alleged, because the Law in Deuteronomy 22:22 requires both a woman and a man to be brought together for execution. Not to mention, the case cannot be established unless at least two witnesses are secured (Deuteronomy 19:15) ,and making a false testimony is entitled to death (Deuteronomy 19:16-21). They did not bring the man, who was in the adulterous relationship with her. And no witnesses were present at the scene. They simply brought a woman, claiming that she was caught in the act of adultery, to be stoned to death according to Deuteronomy 22:22. So, they asked Jesus for his view on this.
Can we trust what the scribes and the Pharisee said about the woman? Of course not. Chances are, they were using this woman as a bait to trap Jesus so that they would be able to press charge on her. There was a possibility that a woman was falsely accused of adultery and to be executed by stoning simply to attack Jesus. Otherwise, they would also bring the man in the adulterous relationship with her, because the Law (Deuteronomy 22:22) requires both to be brought and to be executed, if she had truly committed adultery and at least two testified in accordance with Deuteronomy 19:15.
It was likely that these experts of the Law, the scribes and the Pharisees, were abusing the Law to trap Jesus. So, it was time for a new way of practicing the Law to be brought so that the Law would be fulfilled.
Though the scribes and the Pharisees wanted to make this a trial of the woman to trap Jesus (John 8:6a), Jesus was turning this occasion to a trial of the woman’s accusers.
So, Jesus answered their questions on his legal
opinion on her “punishment” for adultery, saying:
Let the one among you who is without sin
be the first to throw a stone at her (John 8:7).
This is a change of the tide. Jesus is now turning the
target of the trial from the woman to her accusers.
The result is, that none of the accusers threw stones
at her and left the scene, leaving Jesus and the woman. And Jesus acquitted her
(John 8:10-11).
Did Jesus ask her if she had actually committed adultery? As far as it is written by John, no. Why would Jesus ask such a question as God is not interested in digging up our past sinfulness (Isaiah 43:25)? And this is just like how the father of the prodigal son was upon his return. He did not ask his younger son, who squandered his inheritance money, what he did with the money, as in the Gospel Reading of the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Cycle C (Luke 15:1-3, 11-32).
Because of His mercy, God is
not as interested in our past but more interested in how we live from now to
the future (Isaiah 43:18-19). So, Jesus was putting his trust in her from that
point on, saying her not to sin any more (John 8:11b).
So, how much did the woman pay for her defense
attorney, Jesus?
Nothing, monetarily. Jesus was her pro-bono lawyer. And this is
how God works for us. He trusts us, as a lawyer trusts his or her client to
defend. That is why God has never drawn a contract with us but always a
covenant, which is always open-ended on our side because it is based on God’s
trust in us.
So, the price she has to pay for her legal defense by
Jesus is to live her life without committing sin, whether she had actually
committed adultery or not.
Putting a whole life to meet God’s trust through the
Christ is the “price” we pay to have our Parakletos,
as reflected in the Second Reading (Philippians 3:8-14). It is not that you
have to drain your bank accounts and sell your house. Jesus is not that kind of
lawyer to send you his bills. But, he wants you to live your whole life worthy
of his trust in you – not to sin any more. That is why Paul says that is is a
priceless gain to find a new life in Christ (Philippians 3:8), which is to be
new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). And this is how God’s justice is
carried out according to the Law, and its substance is His mercy. It is because
God trusts in us in our new life in Christ upon being touched by His mercy,
upon going through conversion of our hearts through His mercy. According to
Jesus’ legal opinion, what the woman accused of adultery needed was not the
death sentence according to the Law but the mercy of God so that she can live a
new life in Christ. And this is just how God makes a new way, as He converts
the inhabitable land into the land abundant with life, as reflected in the
First Reading (Isaiah 43:16-21).
For us to retain our Parakletos, Jesus (1 John 2:1), our payment is to live a life
worthy of God’s trust with mercy , thus, to live a life in Christ (Philippians
3:9), which means to live in the freedom from sin, freedom in God (Romans 6),
freedom from the Law (Romans 7), namely, the children of God, letting the Holy
Spirit, another Parakletos (John
14:16) dwelling in us (Romans 8). This is our payment to retain our defense
attorney, Jesus. Can we afford this?
Of course, we can, as we keep our faith in Christ.
Let God’s mercy change us into new creations in
Christ, because this is how our Parakletos defends us so that we are
free from the Law (Romans 7).
Only the mercy of God can renew us, as Jesus did to
the woman who was accused of adultery by the sinful hypocrites.
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