"The Good News Is...Rooted in Justice, Mercy, and Faithfulness" (March 22, 2026 Sermon)
/The Good News Is...Rooted in Justice, Mercy, and Faithfulness
Rev. Dr. Stephen M. Fearing
Guilford Park Presbyterian Church
March 22nd, 2026
5th Sunday in Lent (Year A)
Scripture Readings
Matthew 23:23
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others.”
John 8:2-11
Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and, making her stand before all of them, they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”
Sermon Manuscript
To state the obvious, our world is currently filled with pain and division. As a pastor married to a therapist, Tricia and I often reflect on why this is and what role we should play—as parents, faith and mental health professionals, and followers of Jesus—in helping to repair the breach. I’m especially grateful for a common refrain she shares with me, which both saddens and challenges me to do better: she often laments that, as a society, we seem to have lost interest in and the ability for nuance in nearly every situation. Social media algorithms lure us into rage and then reward us for sharing it with others. Growing partisan hostility discourages any form of compromise for the common good. Preachers are accused of being “too political” just for sharing the basic tenets of Christianity. Our culture favors those who are deliberately combative in their tone, extreme in their beliefs, and callous with their words. Amid all of this, there is enormous human collateral damage. Why? Because nuance has left the building. We’re too busy arguing why we’re right and everyone else is wrong that we fail to see who suffers in the wake.
Sadly, you and I do not know the name of the collateral damage in today’s passage from John’s Gospel. She is an unnamed woman whose identity is of little use to the people who have thrust her before Jesus in contempt and rage. It was early in a morning, perhaps not unlike the one we are gathered on today. He had sat down and was teaching near the temple to those who would listen. But his tutelage is interrupted by scribes and Pharisees who have allegedly caught this woman in the very act of adultery. “Teacher,” they muse, “the law says we should stone her. What say you?”
Jesus could have instantly jumped into the argument, escalated the situation, and turned his response into a viral rage-bait video that I’m sure would have gained him a large following on social media. But instead, he does something quite rare in our culture: he practices the pause. Quite literally, as it turns out. Without saying a word, he bends to the ground and doodles in the sand. I can only imagine how much this must have angered those who came to argue, or at least puzzled them immensely. What on earth was he thinking? The text doesn’t tell us how long he wrote in the sand, but I like to think it was for an obnoxiously awkward amount of time.
Eventually, the scribes and Pharisees continue to press the issue. So, Jesus straightens up and calmly, gently, but firmly says the words we all know well: “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Earlier this week, I thought that if I had to recall that verse from memory, I would forget the last two words. Notice, Jesus doesn’t say, “let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone.” No, he says, “let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” It’s as if Jesus, through both his silence and measured response, is refusing to allow the people trying to trap him to look away from the woman, whose life could very well end in bloodshed.
“Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
And then he does it again! Slowly, he lowers himself back to the ground and continues his sand art.
Nearly three and a half years ago, I preached on this very passage at the first worship service I ever led among you as your new pastor. In that sermon, I lamented, as so many have before me, that we don’t know what Jesus wrote in the sand that day. I ultimately concluded that it doesn’t matter what he wrote; what was most important was the deliberate act of pausing to gather his thoughts and craft a thoughtful, faithful response. I still believe that. However, I also think it’s a helpful spiritual exercise to make some educated guesses. Jesus might have been simply drawing something of no great consequence. Perhaps he just drew a line in the sand, as a visual reminder of the choices we face in a loud and complex world.
But today I like to think that Jesus drew a few questions in the sand as if to invite nuance back into the conversation. Perhaps he wrote down questions like those Tanya Denise Anderson poses in her artist statement in our Lenten devotional. How was she “caught” in the act? Was she allowed to explain herself? Was this a loving relationship? Was it even consensual? Or, perhaps most damning of all: if she was, in fact, caught in the act, as her accusers say, then where on God’s good green earth is man? As the saying goes, it takes two to tango!
Whether he wrote those questions in the sand or not, Jesus’s intentional choice to pause and invite space into a tense and charged situation adds nuance to the discussion. That’s good news for those caught in the crossfire of whatever current hot-button issue is. Jesus is calling us to hold the law in one hand and justice, mercy, and faithfulness in the other. One of the biblical mandates Jesus knew well was the threefold command of Micah 6:8: do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. He also knew all too well that we often unintentionally let our zeal for the first part of that equation to diminish our focus on the other two.
Jesus is calling us to hold the law in one hand and justice, mercy, and faithfulness in the other.
Now, neighbors, hear me on this important note. While Jesus is condemning the harsh legalism of the scribes and Pharisees, we must never cast all Jewish law as inherently legalistic or rigid. As my friend Rev. Lisle Gwynn Garrity reminded me this week, Judaism has a rich history of holding Written and Oral Torah together to interpret and reevaluate the law. In this passage, Jesus isn’t telling the scribes and the Pharisees to abandon their Jewish beliefs. In fact, one could argue that Jesus is actually calling them to return to their Jewish beliefs. Because Judaism is built on a deep appreciation for the law of God, the Torah, and the intentional and faithful interpretations of that law that protect the most vulnerable among us. And that’s not just good news; that’s great news.
It’s great news because, as the Church of Jesus Christ, we have the opportunity to model a different way of living where we invite nuance to guide us toward discipleship. This leads us to a place where we are more aware of the stones we cast: stones like shame, certainty, social media contempt, political caricatures, church gossip, the need to win, or always be right. Because following Jesus means letting go of the stones we have come to hold dear. When we lay down those stones, we might discover that in a world that turns people into issues, Jesus restores personhood. In a world eager to condemn, Jesus creates space for repentance without humiliation. And in a world that loves spectacle, Jesus chooses mercy, and so should we.
Concluding Invitation
Perhaps a good way to start this work is to put down stones and pick up hymnals! What Jesus reveals in this story is what we are about to sing: there is a wideness in God’s mercy, and there is a kindness in God’s justice. I invite you to turn to hymn number 435 as together we conclude this sermon by rising in song:
[sing “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy"]
In the name of God the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, may all of us, God’s children, say: Amen.