They are two of the most well-known characters in the Bible.  We know them as “The rich young man” and “The woman caught in adultery.”  Like so many people in the Biblical narrative, the spotlight of Biblical history shines brightly on these two individuals for one brief episode and it seems as if all of heaven and history looks on.  Then they move out of the spotlight and disappear, never to be seen or heard from again.

Their times in the spotlight begin and end quite differently.  The young man comes eagerly, the Bible says “running” to Jesus, seeking the last details needed to assure his place in heaven.  The woman, however, is dragged to Jesus, almost surely fighting every step of the way, fearing her imminent death.  Undoubtedly the young man came already in possession of the high esteem of the community.  The woman was most likely a pariah even before she was dragged to Jesus.

At the end their situations are reversed.  The rich young man “goes away sad” seemingly unwilling to follow Jesus’ instructions to sell all that he has.  But the adulterous woman finds her life amazingly spared and leaves with Jesus’ last words in her ears “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.” 

Commentators generally get the lesson right on these stories.  If you bring your own good works but not a heart yielded to Jesus, you will go away sad.  If you cast yourself on the mercy and grace of Jesus you will receive both. 

But my question is what happens next in the lives of these two individuals?  Does the woman, her life transformed by her experience of grace, go on to be a life-long devoted follower of Christ, forever forsaking her wicked ways?  Does the young man, bitter and disappointed, forever place his faith in his good works?  

Or is it possible that the woman, getting back to her old home and friends, still rejected by the “good” people, returns to a life of sin?  And it is possible that the young man, after long and hard reflection, comes to realize that no works are good enough and no riches are worth new life in Christ?

We simply don’t know.  The Bible finishes the point it was making at the end of the story and does not record their future lives, any more than it records ours.  We must always remember that the end of the narrative is not the end of the story, just the end of what God chooses to record.

But for me, the grace-lesson of this silence is easy.  Yogi Berra summed it up this way:  “It ain’t over till it’s over.”  We don’t need to assume that the young man’s point of dismal failure ends God’s interest in him, and we can’t assume that one moment of a shining “spiritual high” for the woman assures her salvation.  In fact, there is no mention whatsoever that she was saved.

Personalizing this, I don’t want to coast through life on moments of spiritual exhilaration and don’t need to be defeated by moments of spiritual failure.  The truth is that we will have both in our walk with God.  Spiritual high points are great and we rejoice in them.  But we need to remember that grace is sufficient even in the everyday plodding of our lives.  And failure, even catastrophic failure, does not need to be the end.  God is always ready to forgive and restore.

Who knows?  Maybe at some point in the eternal fellowship of heaven, you may have an opportunity to sit and talk to both these individuals and marvel with them about the grace of God.