The readings today cause us to look back to the past. Specifically, we are to be reminded of the ways in which God has saved us in the past. It is common to find the movie “The Ten Commandments” on TV during this time of year. Each year at Passover, the Jewish people continue to recall this most important way in which God saved us from slavery in Egypt and brought us through the Red Sea.

Yet we are not meant to look only backward in history. The same God that saved Israel thousands of years ago wants to save us today. Perhaps one of the biggest obstacles to our being saved is not knowing how much we need saving. In the gospel today we read of the woman caught in adultery. There is much we can learn from the way Jesus handles this situation. Notice that he does not minimize the seriousness of the sin. Rather, it is precisely because the woman knows that she is rightly condemned that she is then able to experience the joy of the merciful forgiveness of Jesus.

Do we try to minimize our sin, tell ourselves that “its’ not really that bad?” If we do this, not only are we lying to ourselves, but we can’t really experience the mercy of Jesus. To put it succinctly, if sin isn’t bad, then mercy isn’t good. We need not fear to acknowledge the true ugliness of our sin because we have a merciful God who died to take away that guilt. Bring it to him. He will not only forgive you, but then give you the power to do what he told the woman to do, “Go and sin no more.”