Christ Encounters of the Liturgical Kind
Worship: Transformed by the Love of Jesus Christ
The light already shines within you, resistance is futile.
Genesis 50: 19-21 - LXX - English
καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς ᾿Ιωσήφ· μὴ φοβεῖσθε τοῦ γὰρ Θεοῦ εἰμι ἐγώ.
ὑμεῖς ἐβουλεύσασθε κατ᾿ ἐμοῦ εἰς πονηρά. ὁ δὲ Θεὸς ἐβουλεύσατο περὶ ἐμοῦ εἰς ἀγαθά ὅπως ἂν γενηθῇ ὡς σήμερον καὶ τραφῇ λαὸς πολύς. καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· μὴ φοβεῖσθε· γὼ διαθρέψω ὑμᾶς
καὶ τὰς οἰκίας ὑμῶν. καὶ παρεκάλεσεν αὐτοὺς καὶ ἐλάλησεν αὐτῶν εἰς τὴν καρδίαν
The Adulterous Woman ~ John 7: 53 - 8:11
Today's Story ~ Soiled in
earthly life, washed in heavenly water ~ 1000
words.
In a former age, the Lord raised up a deliverer to call a people out of Egyptian bondage and gather them together at Mount Sinai for the purpose of entering into a marital covenant with them. We - the children of Israel - are the ones who perceived the thundering, the flashes of lightning, the voice of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. Young and immature, we trembled in presence of the Lord and stood at a distance. We admonished our deliverer to speak to us rather than God lest we should die in our weakness. Moses assured us that God had come in order to raise us as his divine offspring and that this fear would empower us to overcome our inclination towards error.
Even so, the ways of the Lord were too high and lofty for our still developing minds. It is not known how many years we actually spent wandering in the wilderness, but the biblical authors used the mystical and liturgical number forty to document our journey. It is recorded that an entire generation perished in the desert given our propensity towards self-destruction and erroneous ways. Even the great Moses died before our descendants were allowed to enter into the promised land, but the Lord did allow him to preview our inheritance from atop Mount Nabau.
Meanwhile, Joshua and Caleb were the only two individuals directly involved with the exodus from Egypt to lead our descendants into the promised land of Canaan. A number of great exploits are recorded in canonical scripture. These narratives outline our conquest of the land and its distribution among the twelve tribes of our father Israel. Our descendants were admonished to sanctify and purify the land of all its inhabitants lest we should be led astray by following the twisted paths of unknown gods and worshiping the work of our hands rather than the Lord who had brought us out of Egypt. Yet, we failed to do so and allowed remnants of compromise to persist among us.
As such, our descendants began to take on the ways and customs of the land. We soon found ourselves wanting to be like the surrounding nations and began to cry out for a king to rule over us. So, the Lord permitted us to follow the desires of our hearts to allow us to better understand our own wisdom and folly. Thus, canonical scripture goes on to outline a history of kings who ruled over us in both righteousness and wickedness. A number of prophets were also raised up to instruct us in the ways of the Lord and to discern his voice from all the others in the land.
Meanwhile, our nation became divided into a northern and southern kingdom. Each experienced a form of exile and captivity, but only the southern kingdom of Judah had retained its identity by the advent of Christ. It would be virtually impossible to outline all of the historical and liturgical drama leading up to this crucial period of time, but it is sufficient to say that the Lord was bringing the children of Israel into greater maturity while preparing the Gentiles for their reception of Christ's Gospel. This, in turn, made it possible to now identify the maternal and bridal Church.
In fact, a close examination of canonical Scripture reveals a radically different perception of reality once we have begun to truly acquire the eyes of faith. Only then can we discover ourselves living within the sacred texts. Only then can we recognize our own story as that of Israel. Only then can we recognize the story of Jesus as our own.
It is now daybreak. The conquering sun has begun the process of vanquishing the dark ignorance of the night. The true light of the world shines for all to see, for a new deliverer has ascended the Mount of Olives to bring forth a new law for those entering into the household of faith. An unnamed woman has been caught in the act of adultery. She is brought into the Temple and thrown at his feet by a crowd made up of two distinguishable parties. One group is trained in and knowledgeable of the finest details of the law delivered previously by Moses. The other group takes pride in their ritual purity and separation from the profane elements of society. Both groups wish to test this one who is claiming to be a greater deliverer than Moses and the expressed embodiment of Abraham's faith.
Hence, they place the adulterous woman before him as a trap.
They say to him, "Teacher, this woman is betrothed to one man. Our oral traditions and sacred writings maintain that an engagement is as binding as the day in which a husband and wife consummate their marriage in the conjugal act wherein the offspring represents the two having become one. Yet, this woman is guilty of prostituting herself to every thought, whim, and desire that passes her by. The sacred writings of our lawgiver record that such a soul is unworthy of her husband and should be sentenced to death, but what do you say?"
The sinless lamb of God bends down and begins to write upon the dusty ground with his finger. They continue to question him, but he straightens himself and says, "If any of you are without error, then let such a one cast the first stone at her." Again, he bends down and writes upon the earth as if to remind them of their own origin.
Upon this response, each begin to depart one by one, beginning with the elders until only the Bridegroom is left with the Bride standing before him. Again, Jesus straightens himself and asks her, "Daughter of Eve, where are your accusers? Does no one sentence you to death?"
Recalling to mind her youthful days spent within the Temple, she replies, "No one, lord."
Jesus responds, "Then neither do I sentence you. Continue your journey into the purity of my redemptive love."
Author's Note ~ The
Adulterous
Woman & Transformation ~ 300 words.
As author and narrator, I have purposefully chosen to employ a consderable amount of artistic license in this story. Most of the story is a highly abbreviated summary of the Old Testament followed by a very brief explanation of how the New Testament reinterprets the story of Israel as the story of Jesus which is actually the story of humanity. The last part is an interpretive renarration of the adulterous woman's encounter with Christ where I intentionally blur the lines between ancient Israel and the Church by employing a more allegorical and typological reading of the text.
In fact, I totally disregard what has become known as historical criticism. This particular passage is often bracketed off from the rest of John's Gospel because it does not appear in some of the earliest manuscripts. Whether it was included in the original text or added later is not the question that should concern us. The more important question relates to why it has been canonically transmitted from one generation unto the next. Christianity was originally a highly spiritual and unadulterated religion. It was preserved in communities wherein the Mystery of Christ was regularly experienced by those who were knowledgeable of ancient Israel's Temple liturgy and its transformation.
In time, the Christian religion gained popularity among the multitudes. Various political forces sought to capitalize on their superstitious minds by infiltrating the newly adopted religion of the empire. As a result of this, the outer expression of the Christian religion became watered down and defiled. It is my opinion that this adulterous woman passage was most likely added to John's Gospel as a prophetic apologetic for how and why ancient Israel had become the harlot Church. After all, various mystery schools and gnostic sects continued to appeal to the more educated classes. Initiates would have certainly been aware of the deeper spiritual interpretations of scripture.
Documentation &
Additional
Resources
Image information:
Monica Bellucci as Mary Magdalene in The Passion of The Christ by Mel Gibson,
Icon Productions, Websource: ScreenRush
Bibliography:
The Temple and the Church's Mission, by G. K. Beale; InterVarsity Press, 2004; GoogleBooks
The Drama of Doctrine, by Kevin J. Vanhoozer; Westminister John Knox Press, 2005; GoogleBooks
Eat This Book, by Eugene H. Peterson; William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2006; GoogleBooks
The Roots of Christian Mysticism, by Olivier Clement; New City Press, 1995; GoogleBooks
The Spirit of the Liturgy, by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger; Ignatius Press, 2000; GoogleBooks
Sacred Drama, by Patricia Wilson-Kastner; Augsburg Fortress, 1999; GoogleBooks
Letter and Spirit, by Scott Hahn; Doubleday, 2005; GoogleBooks