Who has the right to throw the first stone?
Compassion, forgiveness and redemption: the important precepts in the life of a Christian that our Saviour Jesus Christ preached and commanded us to follow for which he died on the cross to redeem our sins.
Today is the day we all have to examine our conscience and hearts and find out whether we abide by his word and find the answer with honesty. Yes, we all have failed by him.
We are all responsible for putting him upon the cross. How many pause to shed a tear for the sacred blood he shed. No one can answer sincerely because there is guilt in our hearts. In the wake of Lent and forty days that lead up to his supreme sacrifice and the joy of the Ascension at Easter, we are still at square one.
Still sinning and go on regardless.
This is the time to ask who has the right to throw the first stone? Who is above sin? Not me nor you.
As Jesus proved it in his own compassionate way. Let us take a look at the Holy Scriptures from the New Testament how he proved it.
‘Then everyone went home but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early next morning he went back to the temple. All the people gathered around him and he sat down and began to teach them. The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees brought in a woman who had been caught committing adultery and they made her stand before them all. ‘Teacher’ they said ‘This woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. The Law of Moses commanded that such a woman be stoned to death. Now what do you say? They said this to trap Jesus so that they could accuse him. But he bent down and wrote on the ground with his fingers. As they stood there asking questions, he straightened up and said to them. ‘Whichever one of you has committed no sin may throw the first stone at her. Then he bent over again and wrote on the ground. When they heard this, they all left one by one, the older ones first. Jesus was left alone with the woman still standing there. He straightened up and said ‘Where are they. Is there no one left to condemn you’?
‘No one Sir’ she answered. ‘Well then’, Jesus said. ‘I do not condemn you either’ Go but do not sin again’.... John 8, 1-11
Mary Magdalene never left Jesus but followed him keeping her distances. Her life changed spiritually so much so that she became the women that Jesus loved. Her devotion to him never changed as she trailed behind until he died on the cross and appeared to her first and spoke to her first. That was the compassion that Jesus had for her: a sinner condemned to death for adultery. There were seven women named Mary in the Holy Bible including his mother Mary and among all, Jesus’s love for her was spiritually above the rest. Thus our Saviour displayed for us sinners like the ones who were destined to be stoned to death. Mary Magdalene became the symbol of his mission.
The custom of an adulterous women been stoned to death for this particular sin also apply to where a women has to be virgin when she weds. If not she too is stoned to death.
‘But if the charge is true and there is no poof that she was a virgin, then they are to take her out to the entrance of her father’s house where the men of her city are to stone her to death.
If a man is caught having sexual relations with a young women who is engaged to someone else, you are to take them outside the town and stone them to death’....Deuteronomy 8, 20-24.
The list is endless where women are stoned to death for various immoralities and men involved with them.
Whether it is customary or arising from paganism, can be traced in the Old Testament but not in the Law of Moses. Therefore, we have to presume it is man-made-law for punishment in this area of sin mostly confined to women’s chastity. This makes us take a closer look why it has not been abandoned. Cruel as it sounds, who has the right to throw the first stone or to chop off a head. It can be the wrong person who is condemned. The life that God has given no man has the right to take it away. The young woman who was found guilty of so-called adultery in Saudi Arabia, escaped this cruelty by the skin of her teeth. Thanks to the untiring intervention of Ms. Thalatha Athukorale under whose ministry, this falls. The previous ones were not that lucky including a Sri Lankan teenager who was beheaded.
True enough, these customs are handed down by our forefathers, some of which are found in the Old Testament but two thousand years-plus, the world has changed to a civilized one, far removed from paganism, barbarism, witch-craft, sorcery, human and animal sacrifices, etc. Taking away lives as punishment is not found in the Holy Bible, Quran, Buddhist, or Hindu Scriptures etc., where religious leaders advocate only love, compassion and forgiveness. The gift of life is given to us by God.
Instead, the teaching of Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed are violated, misinterpreted both by laity and clergy for worldly gains. This type of inhuman, barbaric killings were not confined to the Mid-East alone but in Germany too during Nazi time when Hitler marched innocent people in their thousands to be torched in burning infernos. They included innocent kids. In my own country, the practice was there among some kings who sat in judgement and confirmed brutal deaths on those found guilty of unsavoury acts. In public exposure, the guilty ones were torn apart in two by a knotted device using two arecanut trees with the victim slung between them, face downwards. When the noose was released, the trees snap apart tearing the victim in two. They were cold blooded crime. In the West, guillotine was used later to be replaced by the electric chair. Today, it in fairly a painless death with a lethal dose injected to the victim. Beheading still maintained in some countries and in others, death by hanging with a noose tightened around the neck.
They all sound sickening and terrible. In unison, we must pray to our Creator that such things must never be repeated in the civilised world we live. Ash Wednesday is the day we must resolve to be true Christians.
Christians and Muslims have so much in common spirituality and devotionally. We share in reverence Jesus Christ and Prophet Mohammed without reservation as both leaders have inculcated love, compassion and trust in each other. None has led us astray but bound us by their Teachings. They are our teachers, masters redeemers and protectors. None have preached us to harm any mortal, let alone stoning to death. Whatever took place before the New Testament, it was a time that people were ignorant. Meekly they followed their leaders who themselves had been led astray by false prophets. But with the coming of Jesus, many wrong teachings were wiped off by our Lord as he started spreading the WORD OF GOD who sent him to suffer on the cross to save sinners.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
In my life, I have a lot to be thankful because I feel his presence very often which I keep locked in my heart. He healed me through one of his chosen children. At Lovers’ End when I missed a step and would have plunged down to the depths of no return, someone gave me a great push that sent me reeling backwards. I picked up myself and looked around and there was no one but felt the presence of Jesus. He touches my heart ever so often, I feel guilty for denying him for worldly gains. But I know Jesus loves me. He loves me so much so that I saw him in a flash in a high profile priest whom I met for the first time. I saw those kindly eyes and gentle glorious smile. I am still in that feel of spriritual radiance. It is years since it happened and I am convinced I saw the Lord in him just for a second.
At times I wonder, is he that perfect?
These thoughts flash through my mind as Ash Wednesday dawns.
Only time will tell.
