In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus signals His opposition to the death penalty

As the Church's liturgical readings recall Jesus’ encounter with the woman caught in adultery, the Director of the US-based Catholic Mobilizing Network explores the Lord’s rejection of capital punishment.

This Sunday’s Gospel reading for Year C describes the event traditionally called the story of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11). My friends have helped to give it new relevance for me this year.

In our work at Catholic Mobilizing Network, we strive to end the death penalty, advance justice, and begin healing.

From the start, we have learned from the witness of those individuals who have been personally impacted by the scourge of capital punishment. I have the honor of working with people like Syl and Vicki Schieber, who responded to the murder of their daughter by working to abolish capital punishment and uphold the dignity of every human person.

The Schiebers, nearly in their 80’s now, have often shared with me how they have never heard a homily that relates this story of the woman caught in adultery to the death penalty. Yet, for these deeply faithful murder victim family members, it is glaringly apparent.

A former Catholic social justice teacher and friend from my local parish, Tom Faletti, shared with me such a take on this week’s Gospel passage. 

In John 8:1-11, the central characters, other than Jesus, are the scribes and Pharisees. They initiate the action. Drawing on the Law of Moses (Deut. 22:22-24), they ask Jesus whether a woman caught in adultery should be executed by stoning. John 18:31 tells us that the Romans did not allow Jewish leaders to execute people. 

Jesus avoids their trap, saying, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7b, NABRE).

Since we don’t stone people in our day, we miss the import of His words. We use the phrase “throwing stones” as a metaphor for casting criticism or judgment.

Although Jesus often used metaphors, here the phrase is not just a metaphor. The discussion is about capital punishment. Jesus is being asked whether real stones should be used to literally execute the woman. He answers by saying that there is only one kind of person authorized to literally pick up a stone and hurl it at the woman to kill her: one who is sinless.

To fully appreciate the meaning of Jesus’s words, it helps to translate them into the language of modern-day executions. Modern governments don’t execute people by stoning. They inject people with a deadly drug, or poison with lethal gas, or kill with the bullets of a firing squad.

If we apply Jesus’s words to our modern context, He is saying:

- “Let the one who is without sin administer the deadly drug.”

- “Let the one who is without sin release the poisonous gas.”

- “Let the one who is without sin pull the trigger of the gun.”

This helps us see how the story relates to the death penalty.

The background in the Law of Moses makes it even clearer. According to the Law, two witnesses are required to establish guilt (Deut. 17:6 and 19:15). Those witnesses must be the first to cast the stones of execution (Deut. 17:7), and if they testify falsely, they must receive the penalty that would have been administered to the accused (Deut. 19:16-19).

Because John 8:1-11 is about men seeking to impose the death penalty, we are led to ask: Where is the man with whom the woman committed the act of adultery? Where are the witnesses ready to cast the first stones of execution or die if they are lying?

Jesus recognizes the trap of the situation. His response is that only a sinless person has the authority to execute another person.

When the men have left, Jesus asks the woman, “Has no one condemned you?” (John 8:10b)– i.e., has no one condemned you to death?

“No one,” she says (John 8:11a).

Jesus, who is sinless, rejects the death penalty for the woman: “Neither do I condemn you” (John 8:11b).

None of us are sinless, so there is only one, inescapable conclusion. Do we have the right to impose the death penalty on other people? In John 8:1-11, Jesus gives a clear answer: No, we do not. Even He, the Sinless One, rejects the death penalty.

This story is often described as merely a story about a sinful woman — but it is much more than that.

As my dear friends have pointed out to me, this is a story about Jesus who, when confronted with the opportunity to support the death penalty, refused to do so.

The Church has embraced Jesus’s approach and chosen to reject the death penalty, in light of Jesus’s teachings and Catholic social teaching.

“The Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that ‘the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,’ and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.” (CCC 2267)

May our faithful education, catechesis, and formation efforts proclaim the defense of life and human dignity at every age and every stage—and include ending the death penalty.

And thank God for friends that bear witness to Jesus’ reconciling way and lift up the Gospel’s more perfect vision of justice.

Source: vaticannews.va, Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, April 4, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde