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Female Friendly: Part Two
One of the more recent attempts to downgrade the life transforming
message inherent in the Christian faith has been to suggest that the
gospel was made up by men to enhance the position of men. In the last
Looking for Answers (*) we saw how women openly embraced Christianity
from the outset, recognising that the new faith was designed to set
them free. Now it is time to turn to the words and actions of Jesus,
which prove beyond any reasonable doubt that the Messiah was
revolutionary in the way he approached females.
At the time Jesus was on the earth, women were second-class citizens in
every way. Females were not even allowed to testify in a court of law,
yet all the Gospels report that it was women who were first to discover
the empty tomb after Jesus’ resurrection. This is actually one of
the strongest arguments for seeing this event as an historical truth.
After all, would the male writers have put this detail in unless it was
true, knowing that almost all contemporary men would automatically
dismiss the evidence of women?
The fact that the Bible tells us that Peter and the other male
disciples had actually run away in fear for their lives adds further
weight to the argument. Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Jesus,
also stand out for their moral courage as they accompany Christ to his
crucifixion. And there is no mistaking the message that Jesus appeared
to a woman after his resurrection before any of the apostles.
We shouldn’t be surprised, however, that it was the female
followers of Jesus who are given this crucial role. Jesus had made a
point of honouring women among his followers throughout his ministry,
and the Gospels regularly refer to women as disciples who shared in his
mission. There are also several distinctive stories that reveal how
Jesus was determined to change the position of women for ever in
society.
The Gospel of John (4: 1-15) reveals how Jesus completely rejected the
prevailing social structures that looked down on public contact with
women. By asking the Samarian woman at the well for a drink of water he
breaks many taboos – a rabbi being alone with a female non-Jew
would have been unthinkable at the time. The fact that this woman was
also ‘living in sin’ must have amazed those who heard of
this meeting. Jesus was more interested in spreading his message of
grace.
Another heart-warming story is the Gospel of Mark (5:25-32). Again, all
sorts of legalistic prohibitions are blown out the water when Jesus
heals a woman who has been bleeding for 12 years. Women were considered
unclean and untouchable during their normal menstruation so it is hard
to imagine how terrible life must have been for this woman, who had
exhausted all her finances trying to find a cure from doctors. Jesus
breaks through centuries of tradition, healing the woman in front of a
crowd of onlookers. What’s more, he uses her as an example of
true faith.
There are many more instances in the Bible and one might easily argue
that Jesus was the first ‘feminist’. His radical message
called on women to take their place in society and become daughters of
God. It is a message that is no less relevant today… |
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The
story in Mark 5 was explained far more eloquently by Gerald Kelly in a
talk earlier this year. Treat yourself to some female-friendly words of
wisdom by downloading ‘Touching the Untouchable’ via
www.xrds.nl/: Click interactive and date 6/8/2006. |
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