Fair is Phar-isee

Reflecting on the daily readings for today brought me to an unfortunate realization: I have a lot more in common with the Pharisees than I’d like to admit. Let me explain.

The first reading from Daniel is one of my favorite Old Testament stories. The vicious and wicked elder judges receive harsh justice for their evil crimes. The innocent and virtuous Susanna is vindicated and lauded for her perseverance and faith. Everything is tied up in a neat little bow—the good guys win.

Then there’s the reading from John. As in many of the Gospel stories, the stern by-the-book Pharisees serve as the villains of the story. Power-hungry and self-righteous, they seek to trap Jesus in a no-win theological scenario: save the life of the young woman and you reject the law of Moses or uphold the law of Moses and condemn the woman to death. Christ’s answer to this dilemma is well-known, one of the most famous and quoted (or at least paraphrased) lines from the Bible: “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

In the end, the adulteress is forgiven, not stoned to death. Christ’s love and forgiveness save the day. Another win for the good guys, right? Well, if things are that simple, then why do I feel like one of the Pharisees here?

Well, like the Pharisees, I value rules and desire strongly to see justice done on my terms and in my time. Reading Daniel, we’re expected to cheer when the innocent Susanna is not punished for adultery, but I also cheer when the evil judges are executed. It’s hard to sympathize with them, given their attempted crime. They get what they deserve, and I feel content that justice has been delivered. If I was alive during Christ’s time, I might very well have been one of the Pharisees attacking him, secure in my conformity to the rules and the law. Yes, it’s just an imaginative exercise, but there’s enough truth to it to unsettle me. I think that’s a good thing.

If I’m too comfortable, I’ll never be forced to grow and fully accept what Christ was telling everyone in the crowd that day. Jesus saves the guilty adulteress, and we feel relief because we know this victory is not about justice, about what’s ‘fair’ or sentencing others to what we feel they deserve. No, it’s about God’s unconditional and unending love and knowing we can come back to Him as many times as we need, no matter how far or how often we fall.

As it says in today’s pre-Gospel verse from Ezekiel: “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, says the Lord, but rather in his conversion, that he may live.” For those of you like me, who see some of the Pharisees inside yourself, let us pray for each other: may we model our hearts after God and always value love and conversion above justice.

Author: Parker Hornsby, English Department