In honour of International Women's Day
'Daughter, your faith has healed you.'
Jesus was the indisputable champion of women's rights. There is no other figure in the world who has brought more peace and comfort to the women who encounter him, nor any other figure who inspires men (men like me) to reevaluate and transform their view of women and how they should treat them. The ultimate pinnacle of harmony and love between the sexes begins and ends with Jesus.
To you, my young female reader, I dedicate this blurb as a sinful man transformed by the limitless love of Christ. It is an effort to help you see through the lies and propaganda tacked on to his character - and quite possibly the evils committed against you in his name - and understand the simple Truth that he loves you, and that he is the source of peace, strength and courage you are seeking. God bless you.
Meet God's mother
At the beating heart of the Christian faith lies the ultimate exaltation and celebration of motherhood. Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit within a woman's womb. For the first nine months of his life, God Himself was as vitally dependent on the warmth and protection of his mother's body as you or I.
Mary was a simple teenage girl, who willingly accepted the most profound and sacred responsibility any human has ever been given: carrying, birthing and raising the Son of God. She cast aside her own plans for her life and dedicated it to the single greatest honour ever bestowed to anyone.
She was there for his entire life, teaching and protecting and guiding her blessed Son… and was so faithful in her love for him that she stood before him as he hung in agony on the cross, taking her sins and the world's onto his shoulders. And Jesus' love for his mother was so tremendous that in the midst of his agony he made sure she would be provided for after he was gone.
Without Mary, the legacies of Peter, Paul and John are unthinkable. The very sharpest tip of the spearhead of the Church Age was a woman. It was Mary's faith, courage, sacrifice and love that God used above all other human beings to defeat death itself and achieve the greatest triumph in the history of the world.
And as you will see, she is far from the only woman whom God used to bring glory to his Son.
Before I delve into the beautiful world of Jesus and the women he encountered, I feel like you might like to know something about the Church: the Church is female.
Throughout the New Testament, the Church is referred to as the Bride of Christ. There is intense theology behind this concept, much of which I do not yet understand. But what I do understand is that the Church is very explicitly not a he nor an it, but a she. And she is the mightiest force on earth, a living, breathing entity of men and women and children, through whom Jesus has waged war upon evil for over two thousand years.
And one day, the bride will meet her bridegroom, and live in his presence for all eternity.
The Woman at the Well
Jesus began his public ministry in Samaria. And the gateway to that ministry was opened by an unnamed woman. This woman is revealed through the story as a deeply sinful and socially shunned outcast.
Here is the first verse of the story:
There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, 'Give me a drink.'
John 4:7
Stop right there.
This single verse, even leaving out the wonders that follow, is nothing short of revolutionary.
Jewish men did not talk to women in public. Jesus committed a massive breach of protocol in uttering this one simple statement. In addition, Jesus was a religious teacher (a rabbi), and it was equally taboo for a rabbi to associate with a woman known to live a sinful lifestyle.
With one fell swoop, Jesus twice makes a public fool of himself by speaking to this woman. Why?
Because God had chosen her to open the floodgate of the earthshattering ministry of his Son.
Not only does Jesus speak to this sad, sinful woman, but he then proceeds to engage her in one of the most intense theological discussions of the entire Bible (See John 4:8-26).
This is not some entitled princess or rich heiress we're dealing with here. This is a simple peasant woman. She would have had little to no education. The odds of her even being able to read are slim. And yet Jesus took her intellect and her courage for granted, trusting her to hold her own in a deeply theological discussion which revealed himself as the Messiah and her Saviour.
Their conversation complete and her life changed forever, she runs back into town, telling everyone she meets about Jesus, and as a result, From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, 'He told me all the things that I have done.' (John 4:39)
The very first missionary was a woman. It was she who first felt such Joy and thankfulness at Jesus' impact on her life that she knew she had to tell others about it. It was this incredible woman, poor, sinful and socially insignificant, whom I as a missionary joyously salute as the absolute pioneer of what I do.
It was she who broke the dam for the Gospel.
Mary and Martha
There is another way in which Jesus treats women as equal to men: he corrects them when they are wrong. Women in the Bible are not insignificant bystanders nor fragile china dolls: they are sinners, and Jesus cares every bit as much for them as for men in terms of keeping them on the proper path to his Father.
Mary and Martha were two sisters, devoted followers and good friends of Jesus. In Luke chapter 10, when Jesus is staying at Martha's home, Martha is hard at work preparing a feast for her guests. Her sister Mary, however, sits at Jesus' feet and listens intently to his teaching.
Her sister grows irritated and gripes to Jesus, Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.
Jesus gently but firmly responds, Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
There are many stories in the Bible involving the clashing choices of two individuals. But here we see Jesus making it clear to Martha that she is wrong, and her sister is right. He does not coddle or condescend, but very openly corrects her on her choice to ignore the teachings of her Saviour in favour of hospitality.
And every man, woman and child can be taught a lesson by Martha's… well I don't know that it was a sin, but most definitely a bad choice. We are to put Jesus first. Before food, before manners, before reputation.
The sins and transgressions of women are in the Bible, in black and white, right alongside their male counterparts. It is an odd thing, but women should find strength in the fact that Jesus sees them as equal to men not only in goodness and virtue, but also in depravity as sinners. Read the story of Jezebel in 1 Kings to see just how wicked the heart of a woman can be.
Your sins, as much as mine, sent Christ to the cross.
You.
Jesus interacts so very powerfully with the women he encounters. He heals their sickness, he brings them comfort in their pain, he nourishes their minds and spirits with his teaching. But there is one crucial thing which Jesus does not do.
In all his many, many interactions with women, he never once draws attention to the fact that he is interacting with a woman. Not a single female whose life he changes is set up as some kind of public figurehead for women's rights. At no point in his ministry does Jesus turn to the following crowds and portentously declare, 'Look at the way I'm blessing this woman! She is just as important as you men! You'd better take note of this.'
Jesus takes gender equality for granted. He forgoes puffed-up speeches and lets the obviousness of a woman's value shine through his love and devotion to each and every woman he encounters.
Yet it goes deeper still. He knew that to make any woman he helped into some kind of political symbol would have destroyed the spiritual significance of his miracles and teachings (which he intended for everybody) and defiled her dignity as an individual human being. And Jesus never exalts the collective at the expense of the individual.
Through his ministry, he wanted to demonstrate to each and every woman who ever encounters him that she matters to him. It is at the individual level that Jesus exalts womanhood.
That he exalts you.
Faithful to the End…
The Gospels give us a quite complete summary of who was present at Christ's crucifixion, which Christians celebrate on Good Friday. Obviously his Roman executioners were there, and the Jewish leaders made an appearance to decry him (so they thought) one last time. There were also plenty of anonymous passers-by, who jeered and scoffed at God himself as he took their sins upon his shoulders. Very notably, two common thieves were crucified on either side of him, and their story as told in Luke's gospel is simply stunning.
But what about his followers and supporters? Who among them had the faith and devotion to stand before the cross as their Saviour suffered?
Almost exclusively women.
Of all the twelve disciples, only John could be found at Golgotha on that darkest moment in human history. However, Jesus' mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, Salome, and a host of faithful female mourners overcame their fear and grief and gave Jesus what support they could as he hung on the cross. Their love for the man who brought them such immeasurable purpose and healing and dignity was stronger than their pain.
And as a result…
The New Beginning
When Jesus was dead, he was put in a tomb, which was put under armed guard by the Jewish leaders to prevent it being snuck away by his disciples, and a gigantic stone rolled in front of the entrance for good measure.
But a small group of women, including Mary Magdalene and Salome, went to visit the tomb on Sunday morning. The guards had fainted in terror, and the stone had been rolled away. When they peered into the tomb, they saw a radiant angel, who informed them that Jesus had risen from the dead. The angel instructed them to immediately go and tell the disciples what they had seen.
Now.
Jesus could have chosen anyone to be the first witnesses to his resurrection. He could have chosen a powerful Roman officer, or an influential Jewish leader, or most obviously the disciples themselves. But he chose the very women who had watched him die.
Let me put this in context.
Women were completely irrelevant in the prevailing Jewish legal system. A woman's testimony was not considered valid in a court of law. It was utterly illogical for Jesus to choose women as the harbingers of his resurrection.
But Jesus does not measure by the status quo. He measures by faith. And he had seen with his own eyes that these women could be trusted with the greatest Good News of all time.
According to Luke's gospel, when they told the disciples that Jesus had risen, they didn't believe them; for our purposes this is utterly irrelevant. It will be remembered for all eternity that it was women who were first told that Christ's mission was accomplished. That their salvation was assured, that death itself had been destroyed, and that a new era of Joy and love and amazing grace had arrived.
Conclusion
You, dear woman, are beautiful in God's eyes. You are an absolutely crucial part of his plan for this world. You have the power to create new and beautiful change.
But you are also a sinner. You are every bit as cut off from God as I was.
And that is why He sent his Son. He sent Jesus to take your sins upon himself in order that you might walk with him in Joy and fulfilment forever, as I am now.
But your relationship with him is different from mine. I am a man, and you are a woman. And I assure you that in Jesus, you as a woman will find something I could never hope to find. You will find a Man who will obliterate oppression and objectification and controversy and leave only love in its place. You will come to see yourself, just as you are, as a soldier, a womanly warrior in a battle of all the ages. Satan quivers in terror at the thought of a young woman, full of the Holy Spirit, and extremely angry at the pain he has caused her sisters and brothers through the dark and murky pages of human history. Go get him.
But first, go to Jesus.
'Daughter, your faith has healed you.'
Jesus was the indisputable champion of women's rights. There is no other figure in the world who has brought more peace and comfort to the women who encounter him, nor any other figure who inspires men (men like me) to reevaluate and transform their view of women and how they should treat them. The ultimate pinnacle of harmony and love between the sexes begins and ends with Jesus.
To you, my young female reader, I dedicate this blurb as a sinful man transformed by the limitless love of Christ. It is an effort to help you see through the lies and propaganda tacked on to his character - and quite possibly the evils committed against you in his name - and understand the simple Truth that he loves you, and that he is the source of peace, strength and courage you are seeking. God bless you.
Meet God's mother
At the beating heart of the Christian faith lies the ultimate exaltation and celebration of motherhood. Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit within a woman's womb. For the first nine months of his life, God Himself was as vitally dependent on the warmth and protection of his mother's body as you or I.
Mary was a simple teenage girl, who willingly accepted the most profound and sacred responsibility any human has ever been given: carrying, birthing and raising the Son of God. She cast aside her own plans for her life and dedicated it to the single greatest honour ever bestowed to anyone.
She was there for his entire life, teaching and protecting and guiding her blessed Son… and was so faithful in her love for him that she stood before him as he hung in agony on the cross, taking her sins and the world's onto his shoulders. And Jesus' love for his mother was so tremendous that in the midst of his agony he made sure she would be provided for after he was gone.
Without Mary, the legacies of Peter, Paul and John are unthinkable. The very sharpest tip of the spearhead of the Church Age was a woman. It was Mary's faith, courage, sacrifice and love that God used above all other human beings to defeat death itself and achieve the greatest triumph in the history of the world.
And as you will see, she is far from the only woman whom God used to bring glory to his Son.
Before I delve into the beautiful world of Jesus and the women he encountered, I feel like you might like to know something about the Church: the Church is female.
Throughout the New Testament, the Church is referred to as the Bride of Christ. There is intense theology behind this concept, much of which I do not yet understand. But what I do understand is that the Church is very explicitly not a he nor an it, but a she. And she is the mightiest force on earth, a living, breathing entity of men and women and children, through whom Jesus has waged war upon evil for over two thousand years.
And one day, the bride will meet her bridegroom, and live in his presence for all eternity.
The Woman at the Well
Jesus began his public ministry in Samaria. And the gateway to that ministry was opened by an unnamed woman. This woman is revealed through the story as a deeply sinful and socially shunned outcast.
Here is the first verse of the story:
There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, 'Give me a drink.'
John 4:7
Stop right there.
This single verse, even leaving out the wonders that follow, is nothing short of revolutionary.
Jewish men did not talk to women in public. Jesus committed a massive breach of protocol in uttering this one simple statement. In addition, Jesus was a religious teacher (a rabbi), and it was equally taboo for a rabbi to associate with a woman known to live a sinful lifestyle.
With one fell swoop, Jesus twice makes a public fool of himself by speaking to this woman. Why?
Because God had chosen her to open the floodgate of the earthshattering ministry of his Son.
Not only does Jesus speak to this sad, sinful woman, but he then proceeds to engage her in one of the most intense theological discussions of the entire Bible (See John 4:8-26).
This is not some entitled princess or rich heiress we're dealing with here. This is a simple peasant woman. She would have had little to no education. The odds of her even being able to read are slim. And yet Jesus took her intellect and her courage for granted, trusting her to hold her own in a deeply theological discussion which revealed himself as the Messiah and her Saviour.
Their conversation complete and her life changed forever, she runs back into town, telling everyone she meets about Jesus, and as a result, From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, 'He told me all the things that I have done.' (John 4:39)
The very first missionary was a woman. It was she who first felt such Joy and thankfulness at Jesus' impact on her life that she knew she had to tell others about it. It was this incredible woman, poor, sinful and socially insignificant, whom I as a missionary joyously salute as the absolute pioneer of what I do.
It was she who broke the dam for the Gospel.
Mary and Martha
There is another way in which Jesus treats women as equal to men: he corrects them when they are wrong. Women in the Bible are not insignificant bystanders nor fragile china dolls: they are sinners, and Jesus cares every bit as much for them as for men in terms of keeping them on the proper path to his Father.
Mary and Martha were two sisters, devoted followers and good friends of Jesus. In Luke chapter 10, when Jesus is staying at Martha's home, Martha is hard at work preparing a feast for her guests. Her sister Mary, however, sits at Jesus' feet and listens intently to his teaching.
Her sister grows irritated and gripes to Jesus, Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.
Jesus gently but firmly responds, Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
There are many stories in the Bible involving the clashing choices of two individuals. But here we see Jesus making it clear to Martha that she is wrong, and her sister is right. He does not coddle or condescend, but very openly corrects her on her choice to ignore the teachings of her Saviour in favour of hospitality.
And every man, woman and child can be taught a lesson by Martha's… well I don't know that it was a sin, but most definitely a bad choice. We are to put Jesus first. Before food, before manners, before reputation.
The sins and transgressions of women are in the Bible, in black and white, right alongside their male counterparts. It is an odd thing, but women should find strength in the fact that Jesus sees them as equal to men not only in goodness and virtue, but also in depravity as sinners. Read the story of Jezebel in 1 Kings to see just how wicked the heart of a woman can be.
Your sins, as much as mine, sent Christ to the cross.
You.
Jesus interacts so very powerfully with the women he encounters. He heals their sickness, he brings them comfort in their pain, he nourishes their minds and spirits with his teaching. But there is one crucial thing which Jesus does not do.
In all his many, many interactions with women, he never once draws attention to the fact that he is interacting with a woman. Not a single female whose life he changes is set up as some kind of public figurehead for women's rights. At no point in his ministry does Jesus turn to the following crowds and portentously declare, 'Look at the way I'm blessing this woman! She is just as important as you men! You'd better take note of this.'
Jesus takes gender equality for granted. He forgoes puffed-up speeches and lets the obviousness of a woman's value shine through his love and devotion to each and every woman he encounters.
Yet it goes deeper still. He knew that to make any woman he helped into some kind of political symbol would have destroyed the spiritual significance of his miracles and teachings (which he intended for everybody) and defiled her dignity as an individual human being. And Jesus never exalts the collective at the expense of the individual.
Through his ministry, he wanted to demonstrate to each and every woman who ever encounters him that she matters to him. It is at the individual level that Jesus exalts womanhood.
That he exalts you.
Faithful to the End…
The Gospels give us a quite complete summary of who was present at Christ's crucifixion, which Christians celebrate on Good Friday. Obviously his Roman executioners were there, and the Jewish leaders made an appearance to decry him (so they thought) one last time. There were also plenty of anonymous passers-by, who jeered and scoffed at God himself as he took their sins upon his shoulders. Very notably, two common thieves were crucified on either side of him, and their story as told in Luke's gospel is simply stunning.
But what about his followers and supporters? Who among them had the faith and devotion to stand before the cross as their Saviour suffered?
Almost exclusively women.
Of all the twelve disciples, only John could be found at Golgotha on that darkest moment in human history. However, Jesus' mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, Salome, and a host of faithful female mourners overcame their fear and grief and gave Jesus what support they could as he hung on the cross. Their love for the man who brought them such immeasurable purpose and healing and dignity was stronger than their pain.
And as a result…
The New Beginning
When Jesus was dead, he was put in a tomb, which was put under armed guard by the Jewish leaders to prevent it being snuck away by his disciples, and a gigantic stone rolled in front of the entrance for good measure.
But a small group of women, including Mary Magdalene and Salome, went to visit the tomb on Sunday morning. The guards had fainted in terror, and the stone had been rolled away. When they peered into the tomb, they saw a radiant angel, who informed them that Jesus had risen from the dead. The angel instructed them to immediately go and tell the disciples what they had seen.
Now.
Jesus could have chosen anyone to be the first witnesses to his resurrection. He could have chosen a powerful Roman officer, or an influential Jewish leader, or most obviously the disciples themselves. But he chose the very women who had watched him die.
Let me put this in context.
Women were completely irrelevant in the prevailing Jewish legal system. A woman's testimony was not considered valid in a court of law. It was utterly illogical for Jesus to choose women as the harbingers of his resurrection.
But Jesus does not measure by the status quo. He measures by faith. And he had seen with his own eyes that these women could be trusted with the greatest Good News of all time.
According to Luke's gospel, when they told the disciples that Jesus had risen, they didn't believe them; for our purposes this is utterly irrelevant. It will be remembered for all eternity that it was women who were first told that Christ's mission was accomplished. That their salvation was assured, that death itself had been destroyed, and that a new era of Joy and love and amazing grace had arrived.
Conclusion
You, dear woman, are beautiful in God's eyes. You are an absolutely crucial part of his plan for this world. You have the power to create new and beautiful change.
But you are also a sinner. You are every bit as cut off from God as I was.
And that is why He sent his Son. He sent Jesus to take your sins upon himself in order that you might walk with him in Joy and fulfilment forever, as I am now.
But your relationship with him is different from mine. I am a man, and you are a woman. And I assure you that in Jesus, you as a woman will find something I could never hope to find. You will find a Man who will obliterate oppression and objectification and controversy and leave only love in its place. You will come to see yourself, just as you are, as a soldier, a womanly warrior in a battle of all the ages. Satan quivers in terror at the thought of a young woman, full of the Holy Spirit, and extremely angry at the pain he has caused her sisters and brothers through the dark and murky pages of human history. Go get him.
But first, go to Jesus.
