Before responding to those who ask his advice about the obligation to stone adulterous women that is written in the Law of Moses, Jesus bends over toward the ground and writes in the dust with his finger. It is not with the intention of writing, in my opinion, that Jesus bends over. It is rather because he is bent that he writes. He bends over to avoid the gaze of these men with bloodshot eyes. If Jesus returned their looks, these angry men would not see his look as it really is but would transform it into a mirror of their own anger. Their own challenge, their own provocation, is what they
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