Surprised by Grace (1): the adulterous woman and Simon Peter

Émile Signolt - La femme adultère (from Wikimedia Commons)

I would love to believe that when on the day I am before God, it would be grace that surprises me.

I have no better alternative to thinking that way, hoping for grace. My life has been littered with acts anyone of which could land me in eternal condemnation. No, I, like many good old Calvinists, already discounted acts prior to my confession of faith.

It’s not just out of necessity that I expect to see grace either.
It is so beautifully laid out in the Bible.

Two persons in the Gospel of John met with grace. Both have committed acts that are irreversible.
That is, if I were an alcoholic, I could reverse that by quitting and become a teetotaller for the rest of my life. That is reversible.
But if I were an alcoholic and while being one, I murdered and divorced. That is irreversible.
Yes, there will be repentance but it will be no going back to the pre-commission state.

One of the two persons we meet is the adulterous woman in John 8. Yes, there are textual reasons to exclude the passage from the Bible and any decent version should indicate in the text or footnotes. But at the same time it is recognised that tradition suggests that it might have independently existed as a genuine record of an event in Jesus life.

John 8:2-11 describes an adulterous woman caught in the act was brought to Jesus as a test to see how he would judge her. The expectation was that Mosaic Law would return a sentence of death. Anything less would be a surprise and counter to the Holy Law. The woman didn’t plead not guilty. She knew she was guilty. She just waited for her death sentence to be handed down by this person Jesus.

“Then neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.” (Jn 8:11)
To her surprise, this was her sentence!
No rebukes, no fines, no jail, no death, no penance, no nothing.
She could go.
She could sin again but was asked not to. Even that was not couched as a condition of her pardon.
What about the harm she did to her husband if she had one? What about apologies to wives of the homes she might have wrecked in her rendezvous?
What she committed was committed, irreversible.
Instead of the harsh though just sentence Moses was expected to hand down, she got grace from Jesus!
Surprised indeed.

Rembrandt - Peter Denying Christ (from Wikimedia Commons)

The second person was even more surprised by grace.
We find him in John 21, another one passage in the Gospel that seems on literary flow, an appendage that the story could do without. For the final verses in the preceding chapter looks convincingly the concluding thrust of the Gospel: Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (Jn 20:30-31)

Be that as it may, there in John 21, we find the apostle Peter, discouraged and disillusioned, probably also disappointed in himself having denied Jesus three times in front of everybody (Jn 18:16-27). The most painful part was that Jesus had predicted that Peter would do so: Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times! (Jn 13:36-38)

Peter knew he had denied three times, publicly.
Everybody knew it.
Words couldn’t become unspoken once uttered, like water poured out.
His reputation was ruined. He would be forever known as a coward who could not keep a promise he himself made. He disappointed his dear master of three years who just died.
His leadership, in whatever career he might have had if the master had not been crucified, evaporated.
He could only returned to the profession he knew by instinct, without even thinking for it might be that he couldn’t even think properly.

So he went fishing that day, and the guys went with him.
Then Jesus appeared on the shore, whom they initially couldn’t recognise. But as soon as they did, hardly anyone dared utter a syllable, during the entire breakfast.

Then Simon Peter got called out by Jesus who asked three times if Peter love Him.

There was no way to describe the excruciating feeling Peter had when he heard once, twice and thrice. He knew full well that Jesus was reminding him, publicly in front of his brethren, that he broke faith, three times on that cold dark night. It was as if his divorced wife would ask him three times, “Do you take this woman to be your wedded wife, to have and to . . . ?”

Nothing could be undone.

Peter was ready to live out the rest of his life as a fisherman that he once was.
Forget about reviving Israel and working for the Kingdom of God. Forget too about seated next to Jesus. Forget everything.

He felt he deserved it. Yes, just lash me, figuratively with the three times “Do you love me?” Peter thought.
Jesus could have pronounced that He would have nothing to do with Peter who couldn’t keep his word, and Peter would have agreed that it was just punishment.
Peter didn’t plead not guilty, like that adulterous woman.
Peter had no expectation.
He was a broken man.
But he still loved Jesus.
Yes he failed to keep a promise. That was irreversible.
But he still loved Jesus.
Jesus had to know, though Jesus knew too Peter denied him three times. “You are all knowing,” Peter said.
So Peter said yes to the three “Do you love me?”
He cherished no leniency. Just expected Jesus’ sentencing.

Instead Peter was surprised by grace.

Jesus didn’t denounce Peter in retaliation to denials.
Jesus didn’t ask Peter to forever leave Him.
Jesus didn’t even give Peter three things to do to prove his love before getting accepted back in the fold again.
No. Jesus did nothing of the sorts that we have by now been conditioned to assume God would have to do.

Instead Jesus served grace.

Three times Jesus commissioned Peter to look after Jesus’ own flock, “Take care of my sheep.” It was as if giving three larger companies to an employee to run who has on three earlier occasions, embezzled.
That is grace in concrete shape and form.

And as if grace needed to be acted out, Jesus told Peter, “Follow me!” (21: 19, 22) Peter remembered Jesus once said Peter couldn’t follow Him (Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” 13:36).
Now Peter is invited to follow, after three denials.

Was Peter surprised!
Was the adulterous woman surprised!

Would we be willing to get on our life and embrace the possibility of being surprised by grace at the exact hour when our sentencing would be announced?
Nothing that the woman and Peter did could be reversed.
Damages done.
Neither could it be mitigated nor compensated by good deeds.
But grace does not dwell on reversing that much.
Grace gives life to broken people.
The woman.
Peter.
Us.

Expect surprise.