Circling for the Kill

I drove past an intersection where a group of crows were picking at a carcass on the road. It reminded me of the scribes and Pharisees,  hovering around the woman caught in adultery. She was dead meat to them, bait, used to test Jesus. 

Who was she? What was her life like, such that she was willing to risk death by seeking comfort in another man’s bed? We don’t know. Jesus didn’t fall for the test. We don’t know what he wrote in the sand, but somehow he reframed the story. How? Maybe a clue comes  in how often this reading uses the word “one.” 

Jesus singled the “crows” out, one by one, and challenged them:  Who will be the first to throw a stone? You? Or you? Or you? One by one, they went away, beginning with the eldest. 

Jesus didn’t treat the woman as carrion—he saw her. He straightened from the ground. He looked her in the eye and asked,  “Has no one condemned you?” “No one,” she said. 

Judgment changes when it sees “the one.” Jesus shifted the  condemnation of the group to the mercy extended to “the one.”

Have you ever judged someone and then later you heard their whole story? It sets you back with an “Oh” and an “Oops.” Accurate understanding is the first step in right judgment. This is the key to God’s mercy—God knows our story, inside and out. You and I, we are not a part of a crowd; each of us is “one,” unique in God’s eyes.  We matter to God. 

This unnamed woman mattered. Jesus scraped her off the road and brought her back to life, to set her on a new path. He delivered her from death. 

Perhaps she then began to sing, “The Lord has done great things  for me—I am filled with joy!” 

Consider/Discuss 

• Have you ever wondered about the youngest “crow,” the Pharisee who left last? Did he consider himself righteous and without sin? Did he walk away still hefting a rock in his left hand? As we move toward Holy Week, what are you and I not seeing? Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you where your heart is still hardened. Is there one for whom you still hold a rock in your hand? How could you retell that person’s story as “one” whom Jesus loves?  And then forgive, in this week before Easter? 
• Two thousand years later, there are people who are still dismissed as dead meat. Why is there hardness of heart in cultures, in families, in  governments, and in places of employment? What can you and I do to help the unseen be seen, to foster justice, to help the “whole story” to be told? 

Living and Praying with the Word 

Lord, you know each of our stories. You know our whole story.  Help us to see that each person we meet is your unique “one.” A baby born in a refugee camp in Syria is precious in your eyes. A starving girl in South Sudan is “one” to you. A heroin addict living in a doorway in downtown Detroit is irreplaceable in your vision. You call us to become like you; we are never done learning to see as you  see. Show us how to be “one” who can help.