Killing with Certainty: John 8 and the Church’s Call Beyond Either/Or
Lendy Bartlett
John’s Gospel presents a striking portrait of the Pharisees’ manipulative use of Scripture—weaponizing the law to condemn a woman and undermine Jesus’ ministry.
They are not interested in truth, nor do they care about the woman herself. Their thinking is rigidly binary: either/or, all or nothing. As Richard Rohr observes, “the dualistic mind is essentially binary…[it] knows by comparison, opposition, and differentiation…the dualistic mind cannot process things like infinity, mystery, God, grace, suffering, sexuality, death, or love.”1 Which, one would think leaders in Israel would have cultivated. They have not, and the kind of thinking they demonstrate in this story distorts both truth and justice. It becomes violently impulsive. In contrast, Jesus refuses their framework. He stoops down, creating space for a third, transformative way forward—one that holds truth and grace together for everyone present.
