Throwing Stones

Today I will talk about throwing stones because that is the topic of today’s gospel.  It seems that throwing stones was quite popular in the time of Christ.  In fact, John’s gospel gives us three stories of people throwing stones in their efforts to kill someone.

The first story is found in chapter 8 of John’s Gospel - the Gospel passage that we just heard.  When the people decide to throw stones at the woman caught in adultery, Jesus says to them, “Let the one who has no sin be the first to cast a stone.”  Then the people all walk away and the woman is saved.

The second story is also found in Chapter 8 of John’s Gospel.  When Jesus is preaching and telling the crowds that God is his Father, they become very angry, and they decide to kill him.  They pick up stones to throw at him, but Jesus is able to escape.

The third story of throwing stones is found in John’s Gospel, Chapter Ten.  One day Jesus says to the crowds, “My Father has chosen me and sent me into the world.  You should know that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”  Once again, they pick up stones to throw at him and once again, he slips away.  John’s Gospel gives us three stories of people throwing stones.  Why? Because St. John wants to show us that there was a sharp difference between the spirit of Jesus and the spirit of the crowds in his day.  A sharp difference between life giving persons and death giving persons.

Jesus was a life-giving person.  He wanted to carry out the mission of his Father and His Father is a life-giving person.  We see that God is a life-giving person in Chapter 43 of the Book of the prophet Isaiah.

In that chapter God said, “I put water in the desert and rivers in the wasteland for my people to drink.”  Those words were found in our First Reading today.  God put water in the desert because he wanted his people to love.  We see that God is a life-giving person in Chapter 33 of the Book of the prophet Ezekiel.  God said, “I do not wish the sinner to die but to turn to me and live.”  Then God said, “When sinners turn away from their wickedness and do what is lawful and right, they shall surely live.”

 Jesus was a life-giving person in today’s Gospel.  He saved the life of a sinner who had been condemned to death.  Jesus spoke to the woman who was caught in sin.  He did not condemn her; but he condemned her sin.  He said that a sin is a sin.  Then He said, “Go, and sin no more.” Please notice: He did not sanction her sin.  Then he proclaimed the mercy of God.  He forgave her sin and sent her forth to live a new life: a life without sin.

Then Jesus delivered a challenge to the scribes and Pharisees who were carrying stones.  Jesus said, “Whoever has no sin should be the first to throw a stone at her.”  Jesus confronted them and they backed down and they walked away without throwing their stones.  There is a sharp contrast between the death-giving spirit of the scribes and Pharisee and the life-giving spirit of Jesus.

That conflict will break out into open warfare on Good Friday.  The life-giving Jesus will be crucified by the death-giving people and his heavenly Father will respond by giving him more life than he had before…a life with no more suffering, no more tears, no more sadness - as we read in the Book of Revelation.  But that is not the end of the story.  The life-giving Father and the life-giving Son and their life-giving Spirit continue to give New Life to those who believe in them.

In just a few moments, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit will change the bread on the altar into the Bread of Life.  And the Bread of Life will nourish us so that we can be life-giving people.  In John’s Gospel, the Pharisees gave their people stones to throw.  They told the people to throw the stones at the sinful woman and to throw stones at Jesus.  Meanwhile Jesus never gives us stones.  Instead, he gives us the Bread of Life so that we can be life-giving people.

Today we need to treasure the calling we have received from Jesus.  We are called to bring a life-giving spirit to the world in which we live.  We are called to replace the spirit of getting even with the spirit of giving people support.  We are called to replace the spirit of pessimism with the spirit of hope.  We are called to replace the practice of criticizing others with the practice of giving praise.  We are called to stop judging others and to take on the practice of welcoming others into our circle of friendship.  We are called to replace the spirit of apathy with the spirit of compassion.  And we will be able to do all of these life-giving things because Jesus will give us the Bread of Life when we receive Holy Communion today. 

Jesus will never give us stones to throw.  He will give us his life - the Bread of Life - and he will call us to imitate him by being life-giving persons in the world in which we live.  We pray now that we will always say Yes when Jesus calls us to be life giving persons.