By Jen Christianson
Neither do I condemn you, Jesus says to the woman. And he sends her out, restored. Restored to community, perhaps; restored in the eyes of her condemners, maybe; but I think restored most of all in her own sight. Restored, because the Lord refused to condemn her.
“Who is in a position to condemn?”
It’s a question we hear in worship, in the declaration of pardon. A strange place to find it, because the answer to that question – only Christ – is the same person who forgives us. The only one who can really condemn us is the one to save us. It’s an upside-down reality, too good to be true, and yet this story from John shows us that it is true.
It feels too good to be true. It must be too good to be true – we must be like those who dream in Psalm 126. But then we hear again the words of Jesus: “neither do I condemn you.” He didn’t then, and he doesn’t now, and it isn’t a dream – it is real.
Sometimes we speak of these miracles in the past tense: “The Lord has done great things for us,” but they are also present and future. Redemption was granted to this woman when she least expected it, and healing, and restoration – and it has been ours, and is ours, and will be ours.
In Advent, when we’re faced with the brokenness of this world, with the brokenness inside, when this promise from Jesus seems like a dream, we can read these passages, and hear again this reassurance. The dream is true: we are whole, and forgiven, and redeemed in God’s sight – the only sight that matters.
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