Lectionary: 252He said to them, “You belong to what is below,
I belong to what is above.
You belong to this world,
but I do not belong to this world.
That is why I told you that you will die in your sins.
For if you do not believe that I AM,
you will die in your sins.”
So they said to him, “Who are you?”
Today’s reading follows immediately upon yesterday’s story about Jesus and the woman “caught in the very act of adultery.” Yesterday, the Lord seemed fully engaged and very active in this world; today we hear him insist, “I do not belong to this world.” Given yesterday’s incident, we might agree Jesus comes from a very different place.
It is a place where judgment is executed quite differently. If we expected to find the judge seated on his bench above the crowd, this one stooped to the ground. Where we expect the woman to be condemned for her behavior, we find the vindictive mob judged and retiring in sheepish confusion.
But even their judgment is odd. Do they withdraw because they know they have all sinned? Because no one will claim to be the most sinless in the crowd? Because they realize they have no standing in this courtroom? Where the mob was perfectly willing to stone the woman, no man will stand alone and condemn her. Nor, for that matter, will he declare his righteousness superior to hers. Jesus’s other-worldly action has shredded their collective will, and no one dares to act alone.
Judgment is an apocalyptic event, something that comes at the end of time, or at least at the end of a story. But the Gospel of Saint John is all about the coming of the judge in this middle time. In this story of Jesus, the mob is caught completely off guard for no one of them supposed he might be judged today. “It will come for me;” he said, “but not today. Today is when I judge this woman!”
The story is a curious reversal of Genesis 3, in which the Man blamed God and the Woman for what he had done. Yesterday, God and Eve, crouched close to the ground and silently rebuked Adam’s self-righteousness. Today we hear the judgment: he will die in his sins for he does not believe that I am!
As we approach Palm Sunday and the events of Holy Week, the Gospel of John declares that our salvation depends upon our faith in the one who will be arrested, tried, condemned, and crucified. Many of his disciples will be traumatized and scattered by the violence and horror of his death. Only his mother and the disciple whom he loved will stay through that dark hour. As disciples we should expect to be tested, and Lent teaches us to pray urgently that we will be found faithful in the end.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.