Thoughts around Easter

​by Eva Knausenberger
 
Have you ever wondered how the woman felt after her face-to-face meeting in the temple with Christ and the people who wanted to stone her to death?
 
I have often wondered why this particular passage is read before Easter. It seems however especially relevant at our time, a time when different opinions about Covid-avoidance, in particular, create an almost war-like atmosphere in and around us, especially when the interpretations of scientific evidence clash with morality in our mind and heart to ask: “What is the truth?”.
 
The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. (John 8)
 
The knowledge that: “there is no way out, I have been caught in a compromising position in the eyes of others…” is probably all too familiar to many of us, as well as the feeling that stones are being thrown, which have the weight to kill our ability to live a joyous, fulfilling life. The tempters too are always with/in us, testing us. It occurred to me that I harbour in my own soul the judges, the scribes, the Pharisees, the accusers and stone-throwers and all those that cried: “crucify”. Not a pretty picture, no. Am I sorry that it is so? How much good would it do?
 
So, what about Easter? What did Christ write into the earth? My own interpretation at this time is that He wrote: YES, YOU CAN……
 
I, too, am the adulteress standing in the middle, between the accusers and Christ, -albeit in inner allegiance to Him. It will of course take time for the accusers to leave the inner sanctuary one by one, but we can also find that the biggest stone is then rolled away by a miracle and spiritual resurrection is possible.