Fifth Sunday of Lent © 2025

INTRO:
Speaking of SAND, you might remember I go annually to CANCUN on the Caribbean Sea in the wintertime. It is soooooo beautiful!!!! AND do you know what???? …… I truly HATE SAND and rarely walk the beach. Sand gets everywhere!
LOL I would never have made it in JESUS’S day!
But what about the writing in the sand in today’s Lenten Gospel?

Jesus meant it to diffuse the situation and not get into a tryst with the PHARISEES or the Roman authorities. You might not have noticed but in the MOSAIC LAW (that the PHARISEES promote) …. only the woman was brought forward. That is the trick! The MOSAIC LAW states that in the act of adultery that she was supposedly “caught in” …. there had to be “a man there” as well… and he should have been brought forward too and be stoned.

It is not the “kindest” of laws, is it??? … but it was there! And, in these ancient times, it was ONLY the Romans who could apply a capital punishment, such as a stoning!
So, JESUS saw the trap (he knew the law) and decided I am not going to get into with these PHARISEES or ROMANS. I will just be quiet and write in the sand.
And the PHARISEES were not going to throw the stones, because only the ROMANS could inflict this punishment, and if they began to throw stones, the ROMANS would arrest them!
And so, this Lenten story ends because Jesus really wanted to TEACH US:
That God is all-forgiving.
That God always has mercy upon each of us when we sin!
And isn’t that the truth? The beauty of God made man, in JESUS!
The way to our holiness is to admit that we sin and seek forgiveness from God. Certainly, Jesus teaches, that adultery is a sin, but so is “internal lust,” which is the seed of adultery.

CONCLUSION
A beautiful Gospel that represents the paradox of an unyielding teaching of our way to holiness combined with an inexhaustible willingness of GOD to forgive, show mercy, and heal us!