The Gospel narrative is the woman taken in adultery. I have always had a difficulty with this Gospel reading, so I made a concerted effort to go back and read it very, very carefully. And just as I expected I found the root of my difficulty.

Jesus is in the Temple teaching when the Scribes and Pharisees bring in a woman and have her “stand before all of them.” They inform Jesus that she was found “in the very act of committing adultery”! The “very act” – this tells me that “someone is missing”. And then the Scribes and Pharisees inform Jesus that according to the Law of Moses – that such a “woman” was to be stoned to death! Jesus begins to write on the ground. I want to think that Jesus thinks as I do – how can you accuse “one” participant in the act of adultery? Was He writing the name or names of some men in the town who could have been her partner? Did He write the name of one of the Scribes or Pharisees who were standing right there, when Jesus was asking whoever was without sin to throw the first stone? When Jesus stood and found the woman standing there alone he asked, “has no one condemned you?” “Neither do I – go and sin no more.” Today are we still caught in the double standard of male and female? I want to think that today Jesus would again say – neither do I – neither do I agree with the double standard that exists in our society. We are created in the image of the Trinity – the Mother and Father of creation!