Fifth Sunday in Lent – Year C
April 06, 2025 – 10:30 AM
Saint Cecilia Catholic Community, Palm Springs, California
Rev. David Justin Lynch
Isaiah 43:16-21 | Psalm 126:1-6
Philippians 3:8-14 | John 8:1-11
+In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, AMEN.
Very often, when Christianity makes the news, it’s about a sex or gender-related issue. Abortion, birth control, same-sex marriage, divorce, women in ordained ministry, and related issues, are guaranteed to make headlines. This leaves non-Christians with the strong, but wildly inaccurate impression that one’s sex life is a particularly important issue for Christians.
But for Jesus, it’s doubtful that sexuality had the same importance as it does for traditional Christians. Indeed, the first known versions of the Gospel of John did not even contain the passage appointed for today’s gospel reading. Biblical scholars universally agree that it was added several hundred years later. So, when you are confronted by people who judge all things by, “the Bible,” always ask them, “Which version?” And then tell them, “Go do your exegesis before spouting your opinion.”
But even more egregious than any exegetical questions, many Christians use traditional Christian sexuality doctrines to judge and condemn other people.
The net result for the church in today’s world has been most unfavorable. Many people have abandoned Christianity, particularly Catholic Christianity, over these issues, and even more non-religious people will never set foot in a church or consciously encounter God in any context.
If clergy want to know why churches have so many empty seats, what they have traditionally preached about sexuality is a big part of the picture. Yet many of them stubbornly don’t want to change what they preach. Protestants of the sola scriptura orientation rely on the Bible, while Catholics of the solum magisterium mindset stick to Rome’s pronouncements. Both have kept their feet set in cement. For them, upholding “the law” is more important than compassion for people. What Jesus brings us is liberation from all that nonsense.
Today’s Gospel illustrates why traditional Christians could not be more wrong on sexuality issues. Simply put, the message of today’s Gospel is that Jesus doesn’t want you and me to judge or punish other people based on their sex lives.
Instead, Jesus invites us to look at ourselves before we judge others, just as Jesus did in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, where Jesus tells us not to judge others lest we be judged in the same way, where Jesus said, “Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye but do not see the log in your own eye?”
How often are we tempted to throw stones, whether physical or verbal, at others to compel them to conform to our expectations? And how often do we do so without considering our own imperfections?
Condemning people is easy, but forbearing from doing so is difficult, and telling others not to condemn is even more difficult. That’s because condemnation is often used to reinforce social norms. Those who tell others not to condemn those who sin is seen as tearing away at the fabric of civilization. Take capital punishment, for example. People who oppose it are seen as enabling crime.
However, Jesus was someone who questioned social norms, as we should, too. In today’s Gospel, Jesus was seen as a prophet, as someone competent to judge others, but what was really happening was that religious authorities were trying to trap him to justify prosecuting him for whatever offense might stick. The religious authorities in the days of Jesus saw Jesus as a threat to their power. As we well know, people in power don’t like to be threatened and will do everything they can to preserve their control over other people. Jesus offers us liberation from that mindset.
In today’s Gospel, the religious authorities put Jesus “between a rock and hard place.” If Jesus urges that the woman be released, he clearly violates the Mosaic Law and proves himself to be an irreligious person, and certainly not a prophet. If he orders that she be stoned, he is in trouble with the Romans because the Jewish establishment in the days of Jesus could not put anyone to death.
Jesus dealt with this situation by challenging the mob’s motives. Jesus declared to them, “Let the one among you who is without sin—let that one be the first to cast a stone at her.” That statement illustrates the true theme of this story. Today’s Gospel is not a story about sex. It is a story about hypocrisy. Getting hypocrisy out of our lives is how Jesus liberates us to genuinely love God and our neighbor.
Jesus is far more concerned about hypocrisy than sexuality. Not surprisingly, this pericope is not the only one where Jesus dealt with hypocrisy. There are at least thirteen others, including Jesus warning against religious leaders who exploit others while pretending to be pious in Mark, healing on the Sabbath in Luke, and a strong condemnation of the Pharisees in Matthew for not practicing what they preach.
However, over the approximately two thousand years since Jesus walked on this earth, human nature has not changed. The Church has failed to take Jesus seriously when it comes to hypocrisy. Religious leadership and hypocrisy often go hand in hand. Here are a couple of examples.
Carl Lentz, the former pastor of Hillsong Church in New York City, was fired in twenty-twenty due to “leadership issues and breaches of trust,” which included an extramarital affair. He admitted to cheating on his wife.
In the 1980s, televangelist Jim Bakker participated in a widely publicized scandal involving an extramarital affair with church secretary Jessica Hahn.
These individuals and others preached conservative sexuality doctrines, but the way they lived their lives in the outside world was altogether different.
According to the General Social Survey at the University of Chicago, ninety-one percent of the general population find adultery morally wrong, more than the number that reject polygamy, human cloning, or suicide. Yet the number of Americans who cheat on their partners is substantial. Ashley Madison and similar websites have tens of millions of users. Again, basic human nature has not changed since the time of Jesus.
What Jesus wants us to do is not to condemn those who sin to punishment but to show compassion to them. This mode of doing business reflects God’s unconditional love for all of humanity. Keep in mind that every person is created in God’s image and that God loves each one of them unconditionally.
Jesus calls us to be countercultural by not judging other people. But it is hard not to do that. I will admit to doing so myself. Even though I am a Priest, I am also a sinner, just like you. I pray every day that God makes me more like Jesus. Please know that at Saint Cecilia Catholic Community, we will never, ever judge your sex life. We consider that a private matter between you and God.
As we continue our journey through Lent, we remember that the suffering of Jesus was transformed into the joy of His Resurrection, which we will celebrate on Easter morning. Today’s psalm commemorates the return of the exiles from Babylon by reminding us that those who sow in tears will reap in songs of joy.
The work of Jesus is not done. The Kingdom of God is not yet here. Like Paul in today’s Second Reading, we need to stay focused on Jesus, forgetting what lies behind us, and pressing forward to what lies ahead.
What is holding us back is the fear of change and the fear of the unknown. In today’s Gospel, Jesus was leaving the judgmentalism of the past behind and looking forward into the Kingdom of God, where forgiveness and reconciliation flows from God’s unconditional love.
Jesus has plenty to offer us. Jesus offers us liberation.
Jesus liberates us from any need to judge other people.
Jesus liberates us from the judgments of others.
Jesus offers us liberation from sin’s power and consequences.
Jesus offers us liberation from rigid religious traditions that burden people rather than bring them closer to God.
Jesus offers us liberation from social and religious norms that obstruct the advance of God’s kingdom. And finally, Jesus liberates us when we follow his command to love one another as Jesus loved us. Our job is to follow through and do exactly that. AMEN.