the good news is… rooted in justice, mercy, & faithfulness
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Epilogue | T. Denise Anderson
14″x18″ Acrylic on canvas
COMMENTARY
I often wonder about the backstory of the woman from John 8:2-11. What were her circumstances? How did they “catch” her in the act of adultery? In flagrante delicto?20 Was it less graphic than that? Was she allowed to explain herself? Did she protest? If she was about to be stoned, what happened to the person with whom she was accused? Was this a loving relationship? Was it even consensual?
Whatever her story, the Pharisees bring her to Jesus expecting him to uphold the law’s punitive prescription. Jesus knows it’s a trap. If he concurs with the law, he initiates and must bear witness to an act of extreme brutality that would traumatize anyone who had to watch. If he counters the law, he’s a heretic and should probably be stoned himself. But he outsmarts them and turns their self-righteousness and rage back onto them.
In what should have been the end of her life’s story, this woman now finds herself standing. Whole. Alive. Freed to a new future. And through it all, Jesus is just drawing on the ground—like you do!
I wanted to show this woman standing in her wholeness, right after the crowds have dispersed and right before Jesus rises to meet her as an equal. She’s backlit in a way that suggests the sun has set, indicating the end of a saga. What will she do at the end of a nightmare with a new life ahead of her? What decisions do we face at the dawn of a second chance?
Written by Rev. T. Denise Anderson
LOOK
Contemplate the woman in the image. What do you imagine is her backstory? What do you dream for her future?
20 This is a Latin phrase often used in legal contexts that can be translated to: “in the very act of committing an offense.”