Neither Do I, Part 1

“O taste and see that the Lord is good!” Psalm 34:8.  

This woman had tasted an apple before; the forbidden fruits of several male lovers.  For less than an hour she would be held, kissed and wanted.  Her soul was in need of such wanting.  There seemed to be nowhere else to find it except deep inside this lifestyle of sin.  She never actually experienced the love she desperately longed for, but this was better than nothing.  She settled.  Her heart had to have a little food and a little clothing even if it was barely enough to fill a quarter of her hunger and the clothing left her soul primarily exposed.  In time, indifferent shrouds enveloped the heart in a light coating of dust dulling the initial sting of agony that pleaded with her desire to live joyfully.  It was just a matter of surviving now.  

The old remorse was replaced by the triumph of seduction and the sound of cold coins in her purse.  She had stopped caring how the sin affected the life of her customer.  She had developed little regard for life at all.  She buried her heart deeply beneath this wasteland.

When they came to get her, she was fully engrossed in her work and they were happy to find her that way.  They all knew what she did for a living but hadn’t bothered saying anything until now.  She was barely given enough time to put on her robe.  This band of Pharisitical leaders grabbed her away with a theatrical display of pomp and circumstance and her shameful appearance was paraded through Jerusalem streets into the temple court…

“Rabbi!” The white robbed witness presented the bait, “This woman was found committing one of the grossest sins against the command of Moses!”

The busy square pressed sweaty bodies against the courtroom drama and a slow silence tip-toed over the rising realization that this woman could be put to death.  Several ashen-faced men excused themselves stealthily from the scene.  There came low groans from the empathetic and fistfuls of stoney anticipation from the zealous.  The accusers waited.  This was just too perfect!   They poised themselves quite favorably against the backdrop of their own supposed success.