A surgeon and his wife were invited to dinner at the home of friends. The surgeon was enjoying a drink in the kitchen as his host was about to carve the roast.
“Would you like to do the honors, Doc?” his friend said.
The surgeon politely declined.
As he carved the roast, his friend teased, “So how’s my technique, Doc? I think I’d make a pretty good surgeon, huh, Doc? It’s all in the wrist. You know, I might take your job.”
The doctor laughed good-naturedly, having endured this kind of humor many times before - an “occupational hazard” in his field of medicine.
When he finished, the host proudly displayed the tray of beautifully sliced roast beef. “So what d’ya think, Doc?”
“Not bad,” the surgeon replied. “Now - lets see you put them all back together.”
Most of us are pretty good at taking things apart - especially other people. Like the Pharisees and scribes in today’s Gospel, we are able, with surgical precision, to point to evil, to sin, to failure in others - but Jesus asks “What about the evil and sin and failure within yourselves?” We are well practiced in criticizing and condemning - but Jesus challenges us to the much harder work of healing and transforming evil into good, of bringing into the light the things of God that remain unseen in the darkness of fear and ignorance. In today’s Gospel, Jesus asks both the woman’s accusers and the woman herself to move beyond their standards and expectations, to go deeper than the rules and law, to see beyond what is readily apparent. He challenges them - and us - to look beyond our disappointments in our mutual failures and lift one another up when we stumble; he asks us to look within our own hearts to confront the sins and evil that are part of every life and find within ourselves the compassion and love of God that leads to true and lasting joy, healing and life.
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