Lenten Poems – Throwing Stones (19)

“Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery,” Pieter Brueghel the Elder, public domain

Not everyone thought this moving story of who has the right to throw stones should be included in the Bible. For centuries it wasn’t, partly, historians think, because of a reticence over including such a story that concerns illicit sex (and note how the teachers of the law didn’t bring the man caught in the act of adultery to be judged). Most biblical commentators agree that the story should be part of the canon of the Bible, although some wonder if it was perhaps written by Luke and not John. Either way, it’s a powerful reminder that God is God and we are not.