As I was reading and reflecting over our Scripture this week, I could not help but remember the plot of Les Miserables – the novel by Victor Hugo, but likely most familiar to many of us as the stage musical and movie. It is a wonderful example of exercising the rule of law and order versus exercising the rule of mercy and compassion, and how we often find ourselves rigidly following the first at the expense of the second.
You might remember the plot. Jean Valjean has 
been sentenced to prison for five years for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister and her starving family with 12 more years tacked on for the multiple times he has tried to escape. Finally after 19 years he is released from prison by Inspector Javert.
Valjean ends up staying in the Bishop’s house, promptly steals the silver, gets caught by the local police and hauled back to the Bishop’s house. But the Bishop shows mercy – telling the police that not only did Valjean not steal the silver but in fact, had left two candlesticks behind that had been given him. After the police leave, the Bishop tells Valjean to go and do good. Go and sin no more but turn the silver into doing good.
Which he does after a short episode of stealing a valuable coin and yet again having a warrant out for his arrest. He changes his name and sets about doing good, but Javert yet again enters the picture determined to arrest him and throw him back in prison despite all the good Valjean has done. It becomes a cat and mouse game, until one day Valjean saves Javert’s life.
That presents Javert with a dilemma – return the mercy Valjean has shown him with the rigidity of law and order, or let him go. Mercy disrupted Javert’s plan to arrest him – his conscience simply would not let him forget the mercy shown him, but instead of going and doing good, he can’t live with himself and drowns himself in the Seine.
I remind us of this plot because in so many ways, our story today is not about the woman accused of adultery, but the interplay between the religious leadership’s adherence to the rule of law and order and Jesus’ determination to expand the law into one that practices and grows mercy, justice and faith. Grows our desire to love mercy, do justice and walk our faith.
Jesus is again teaching in the Temple and the crowds are gathering. Now what do we think Jesus is teaching? Is he teaching in a way that is pleasing to the religious leadership or in a way that is irritating and shocking to them? Is he teaching to the letter of the law or is he teaching that the law must be carried out through the lens of love? Remember the religious leadership are determined to derail Jesus’ ministry. Determined to see him in jail and be rid of him and his teaching. Determined to show how blasphemous Jesus is in their thinking – how he riles the people up – how he is going to get Rome riled up.
And so I have no doubt they come up with a plan and use this woman who they say is caught in the act of adultery. Now they don’t bring witnesses, and they don’t allow for a trial which is what they are supposed to do. No, they try and set a trap for Jesus, dragging her to stand in front of Jesus.
Hear these words again from Scripture: They stood her in plain sight of everyone and said, “Teacher, this woman was caught red-handed in the act of adultery. Moses, in the Law, gives orders to stone such persons. What do you say?” They were trying to trap him into saying something incriminating so they could bring charges against him.
Jesus doesn’t answer – he bends down and begins to write something on the ground. I really wish we knew what he might have written. Maybe these guys are driving me crazy! Maybe why are they harming this woman. Maybe he was writing a prayer or maybe he was just doodling. I wonder too how long he wrote on the ground – long enough that the religious leaders kept on questioning him. Their plan is to trap him, and he doesn’t seem flustered at all.
Instead, he finally straightens up and says: “The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone.” He doesn’t put the woman on trial or pronounce judgement on her; at least in this passage, he doesn’t berate the religious leaders who have broken their own laws by bringing the woman to him – instead he shows both the religious leadership and the woman mercy. He shows them mercy: the compassionate treatment of those in distress, especially when it is within one’s power to punish or harm.
One by one, the elders – the religious leaders leave. Jesus’ merciful actions and words have disrupted their plan to trap him. He straightens again and asks the woman where is everyone – has no one condemned you? She replies – no on sir. Then he, like the Bishop, tells her – go and do good with this merciful action. Go and do good. Take this act of mercy and live it.
In Matthew, Jesus reminds the religious leaders that they can’t follow part of the law – the easy part frankly – of tithing mint, dill and cumin if they don’t follow the harder part of the law which includes justice and mercy and faith. The more rigid rules are easy to follow; the spirit of the law is so much harder to follow. And, it is the spirit of the law that we see Jesus practicing and teaching over and over and over again.
The spirit of the law that is steeped in love and loving action. The spirit of the law that guides us to practice mercy. The spirit of the law that I wish Inspector Javert had understood. We cannot become so beholden to rigid laws and rules that we can’t practice mercy and justice and compassion growing in our faith.
There is a wonderful Substack written by someone who goes by Shady – here is a story about justice and mercy:
In America, a 15-year-old boy was arrested for stealing bread and cheese. When he was presented in court, the judge asked him why he stole.
Tears filled the boy’s eyes, and he said that his mother was seriously ill, he himself was hungry, and he didn’t even have enough money to buy food. Hearing this, the judge became emotional. Instead of punishing the boy, he turned to everyone present in the courtroom and said:
“If a child in our society is forced to steal food just to survive, then the criminal is not him — it is all of us.”
The judge fined every person present in the courtroom 50 dollars for allowing such a situation to arise. He also fined the shopkeeper 500 dollars for not helping a hungry child. All the collected money was given to the boy, and he was allowed to leave without any punishment.
In our country, laws seem to apply only to the poor, while powerful people roam freely. Here, even judges who take crores in bribes still sit in court delivering justice. How can we expect them to do justice correctly?
But this judge gave a remarkable judgment. It is true — if there is a king, and someone in his kingdom sleeps hungry, the one truly guilty is the king.
The rigid rule of law or acting with mercy. Which one makes us more judgmental of others? Were we to look at this boy through rigid law, he has committed a crime and should be arrested, charged and convicted. Were we to look at this boy through eyes of mercy, we see the why – just like Valjean stole a loaf of bread to feed his starving sister and her family. Mercy is hard – it is not an easy practice and we will always feel like we are part of a balancing act.
In her A Sanctified Art commentary for this week, Rev. Lizzie McManus-Dail writes this:
The receiving and extending of mercy in the most awful and improbable of places is what makes me know that God is still at work in this world. Mercy is a practice of hoping and knowing that there is more than the thing that hurts us—more than the thing that haunts us. This, too, is how mercy is part of God’s justice, for God’s justice is God’s joy.
God’s justice does not align with our human metrics of justice and punishment. God’s justice is the delight God feels at the lost sheep coming home, the coin being found. God’s goodness is not retributive. God’s goodness is rooted in goodness propagating in the face of death. Which is, perhaps, why Jesus tells her: Go. Sin no more. And live.
Or as the Bishop might say – go and do good with the merciful act you have received today. Let’s continue to reflect on mercy and justice and faith in these next weeks and months. What might God be calling us to in regard to being merciful? In regard to matters of justice or even how we grow in faith? So go and do good with the merciful act you have received today. May it be so.