I wonder if this really would have worked. Surely some sanctimonious SOB would have picked up a rock and hurled it at her. Jesus is awful trusting that every member of the crowd was self reflective enough to pause, consider, and then reconsider.
Not that it would ever happen, but if I were in Jesus' shoes, I would have tried to convince the scribes and Pharisees that they were wrong. I would carefully and skillfully show them the error of their ways. I would have engaged in mental combat, a tactic that requires my being convinced that I am right, or at least that I have superior mental combat skills.
Jesus does sometimes match wits with his opponents, but here he does not, at least not directly. Instead he hands their question, "Now what do your say?" right back to them. Not how I, we Presbyterians, or many other Christian groups address issues of scriptural interpretation. We're partial to the mental combat tactic. If we're playing nice on that day, perhaps it will only be a spirited discussion.
Jesus essentially concedes to his opponents on the scriptural interpretation question. "Yes, you are correct. The Law says to stone her. Go ahead." But then that caveat about who gets to toss out the first pitch.
Christians are all over the map on this, but quite a few of us seem to view God as a rather harsh judge. We're sinners and so God has to nail us. Thank heaven God came up with a strategy to circumvent this requirement. God will nail Jesus instead, and those smart enough to grab one of these "get out of jail free" cards will be able to dodge to rocks God going to throw.
But in this one story from the Bible, Jesus embodies a very different picture of God. To the woman he admits is guilty he says, "What? Everyone else admitted to being guilty, too? Fine, you can go." Jesus won't condemn the woman because no one else is in a position to do so.
It is just one story among many, but it is remarkable nonetheless. The crowd ends up being generous to the woman because they need the same generosity. And Jesus says, "Fine. I'm good with that." There's something profoundly hopeful here, something I need to remember this Advent. At a time when our failings as individuals and as a culture are so vividly on display, from Ferguson to Staten Island to our willingness torture other human beings and more, it is good to recall that God still sees us as worth saving in some way, if only because we all seem to need it.
What good news. God looks at us, at the messes we've made and the ways we treat each other yet still dreams of a day when,
The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them...
They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.
Thank God; thank God.
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