“No, but they continued to press him for an answer, so he finally looked up and said, ‘He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone,’ and then he wrote on the ground again. I was furious with him, certain that he had sealed my fate and that I would now be taken outside the city and put to death. I covered my eyes with my hands so that I could not see the faces of those who mocked me in my shame, and I waited to be taken away, but soon I could hear no more laughter or insults and when I opened my eyes I saw that all the scribes and Pharisees had departed.”

“What did you do?”

“I rose to my feet, certain that these men and Jesus were playing some sort of cruel game with me. He asked me, ‘Woman, where are your accusers? Has no man condemned you?’ and I replied, ‘No man, Lord,’ and Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more.’ Then he turned to the crowd who had watched from a distance and said, ‘I am the light of the world. He that follows me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life,’ and from that day I followed him and tended to his needs when he would allow me—and I loved him.”

“Tell me about that morning when you and the others went to the tomb.”

She reached down into the basket by her side and removed another handful of dried pea pods, which she dropped in the bowl and proceeded to shell as she talked. “With Mary, the mother of James and Joses, I had watched as Joseph, here, and those in his company removed our Lord from the cross. When we saw that they were only taking his body to a nearby tomb, in a small garden, we were relieved and returned here. But on the next day, which was our Sabbath, I began to wonder whether or not our Lord’s body had been prepared properly for burial, in accordance with our law. After our Sabbath ended, at sundown, I went to the marketplace and purchased spices and myrtle and aloe and oil, resolving to go to the tomb early on the following morning to anoint our Lord properly. Mary and John’s mother, Salome, agreed to accompany me to the grave, but when I asked John to come, so that he might help us move the heavy stone that is usually placed at the mouth of tombs, he refused, saying that he dared not leave Peter, nor did he have any strength to walk such a distance.”

“The three of you went anyway?”