Our only hope

In a few minutes you will have the chance to come up to Eric or to me and receive a cross in ash, signed on your forehead with the words Remember that you are but dust, and to dust you shall return. Turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ.

In both Old and New Testament times, penitents covered their faces and bodies with ash to disfigure themselves, and dressed in coarse rough clothing which would scratch their bodies. Then in the early church Easter was traditionally the time for those who were separated from God through sin and who had used Lent to make amends, to be received back during the Easter Vigil. And so today's ritual is a reflection of the first part of this discipline as we enter the time of Lent, a time when we reflect on how we fall short of the life God would like us to lead, and how necessary it was that he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to be our salvation and our pattern for life.

In the first millennium sinners made public penance on Ash Wednesday before their bishop, being given a rough tunic to wear covered in ash. Eventually this practice was superseded by a general acknowledgement that we are all sinners, symbolised in today's ‘ashing'. This has a further symbolic meaning in that the ash itself is made by burning last year's palm crosses, a kind of ‘religious recycling' that reminds us that we constantly need to face our own shortcomings and place our hope in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So, if Jesus is our pattern, how does he react in today's Gospel when faced with the woman who has apparently been caught committing a mortal sin, whose punishment according to Jewish Law should be death by stoning?

Imagine the scene. Jesus and his group are suddenly accosted by Jerusalem's religious leaders, thrusting a woman before them whom they accuse of being caught in the act of adultery. They challenge Jesus to say what should happen to her. At first Jesus appears to hesitate. He bends down and writes in the dust – what, we do not know. Without a doubt, he was aware of the trap that had been so cunningly laid for him. If he agreed that she should be stoned to death then he would be opposing the Romans who had removed the right of execution from the Jews. But adultery was indeed punishable by death so that a refusal to agree would mean a denial of Jewish Law. It was what today we would call a ‘Catch 22' situation. But was it?

Jesus knows the scriptures as well as the Jewish leaders did. Leviticus states that both the adulterer and the adulteress should be put to death. So, if as they claim, they caught her in the act, where is the man? Without doubt this is a trap to get Jesus to say something seditious either to the Romans or to his own people. But Jesus can see clearly what has happened; this is a put-up job to catch him out. They were not interested in justice, as Jesus sees all too clearly. So he bends down and writes in the dust. Perhaps he was writing the seventh commandment, or perhaps, as one tradition suggests, he was writing the names of the elders and against them their own most secret sins. Now that's an interesting thought!

When further pressed he speaks those famous words, Let anyone of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her. And he continues to write in the dust.

Imagine the woman's terror, first of the baying mob who had dragged her here, then of this enigmatic man who has got rid of the rest, but may now judge her himself. But what does he do? He simply tells her to go and sin no more.

This is the pattern we are offered. The past has happened. Move on and do not do it again. How simple and yet how difficult. Even if it were a trap, there is no suggestion that she was innocent. Yet she is dismissed to pick up the pieces and move on. Jesus does not suggest that this is an easy option. We can imagine the reactions of her neighbours and friends, but at least she is alive to try again to live an unsullied life.

And why did all those men slope away? Without doubt some of them at least knew that all this had been engineered to catch Jesus, which made them as guilty as the woman they used. How many of us would dare to claim that we are without sin? Few, I fear. I think we too would have crept away ashamed.

Jesus let everyone judge themselves. He did not need to tell the woman that what she had done was wrong: she knew in her own heart. So did the men. They knew what they had got themselves involved in. Indeed if Jesus had cared to pursue their claims and could have proved that it was a set-up, they too would have been guilty of sin which would have led to their own deaths. But he is content to let everyone face their own shortcomings and live to try to be better. It is a process of Love not Law. Even though Jesus has more right than any of us to stand in judgement over failed humanity, he does not do it.

And what about that sentence, “Let anyone who is without sin, be the first to throw a stone at her”? I have heard this quoted as being in support of the abolition of capital punishment. It is not. The Jewish Law was quite clear that death was the sentence for various sins, and Jesus was a Jew. It has also been quoted in support of the idea that no-one who is sinful has the right to condemn another. Again in Jewish Law the guilt or otherwise of the executioner is not at stake. No! Jesus is concerned with this particular group of Pharisees and Scribes who have deliberately used this woman to try and ensnare Him. It is they who are as guilty as the weak woman who is being used. They are not interested in justice for the woman or for Jesus. After an embarrassed silence, they creep away leaving a confused woman and – one imagines – an amused if relieved Jesus.

And why does he not require the woman to confess and say how sorry she is? It is not because her adultery does not matter: of course it does. Rather it is because he alone, because of who he is, who can draw a line under her sin and give her a new start.

Deo gracias . He can do the same for us. It is called divine love and grace and it is our only hope! So we must acknowledge our infinite blessings and reflect on how we are going to spend this Lent. Whether it is giving up or taking on, giving to our amazing Lent Project in support of the Mission Aviation Fellowship or studying to deepen our understanding of our faith, d o something so that you come prepared to the Holy Week journey, knowing that by God's grace you are ready to walk the path to the cross.