Daily Blather: At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" 11 "No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin." (John 9:1-3)
One of the problems the early church had with this passage was that it showed a picture of Jesus that they didn’t want to hear: namely a loving forgiving Jesus. So many in the church want a harsh unforgiving Jesus on one side and a tolerant everything goes Jesus on the other. To so many, the idea of Jesus forgiving this woman without requiring public repentance and restitution is beyond their worldview. The woman was an adulteress, she needed to at least tell Jesus she was sorry she had been a prostitute. Jesus didn’t even ask her is she was. All he said was don’t do it again.
Forgiveness of people who don’t ask for it is hard. All this woman saw was judgment, but Jesus gave her compassion. Yes, you are a weak human being who has done stupid things, but go on. Be better. Try your best not to get in this situation again.
She had gotten judgment all her life. Whatever had driven her into this lifestyle, you can be sure that judgment followed her. All of her customers, all of her acquaintances, the people she met at the store or the water well or anywhere gave her judgment. The men who used her judged her. All the world gave her judgment. Jesus didn’t condemn or even look down at her. I would imagine he even gave her his cloak to cover herself. After all, she was caught, the text says, in the very act of adultery. The slimy little creep who was with her got away, and she was hauled up in front of a bunch of leering men to be condemned.
But Jesus did nothing, except to show her love.
People do not come to church for fear of being exposed as sinners. That is stupid because we all are sinners. Some of us have accepted Jesus, but we are all failures. If he condemns her, he has to condemn us too.
Since we are his servants, and since he is an uncondemning master, so we should be. Someone once said that the church should be a hospital, not a hospice. We go there to be healed, not to die. And we are healed when someone gives us the medicine of the Great Physician. Enough for now.
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