Scripture Reading: Luke 8.1-3 Today's inspiration: I have come to bring life, abundant life. John 10.10

Good Morning.

Yesterday, an immoral woman washed Jesus' feet with her hair--rather than Him becoming 'defiled' by her touch, she was the one who went away transformed. Jesus shattered all the mores of His time in His treatment of women~~yet another thing I love about Him! You see, the rabbis of Jesus' time had no use for women. The Talmud says, "It was taught: Do not speak excessively with a woman lest this ultimately lead you to adultery." In first-century Israel, men were not allowed to talk to women in public, even in the market to their own wives, because it could be misinterpreted. Jesus' interactions with women were in direct violation of Jewish rules and authority in the strong patriarchal society in which they lived--the society structured by a religious faith that shaped every aspect of their lives. At synagogue services, Jewish men prayed, "Blessed art thou, O Lord, who hast not made me a woman."

Yes, Jesus was modeling a new way, raising respect for women, who after all were made in the image of God just like men (Genesis 1.27)--He was restoring what had been lost since life in the Garden. To Jesus, there was no double standard, no exclusion, and no limits on their God-given destiny. Here in Luke 8, a picture of Jesus is painted--creative teacher and compassionate minister, traveling from town-to-town with His disciples AND some women. . . . women? (Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Susanna, and many others) In light of what I just told you about the station of women, you can see how controversial this would be--but they were women who had been set free, women who had been forgiven much. As such, it was their driving passion to love Him much. For goodness sakes, Luke says that they were helping to support Jesus out of their own pockets! Radical.

Perhaps it is no wonder that the women were first at the Cradle and last at the Cross. They had never known a man like this Man--there had never been such another. A prophet and teacher who never nagged at them, who never flattered or coaxes or patronized; who never made arch jokes about them, never treated them either as 'The women, God help us!' or 'The ladies, God bless them!'; who rebuked without querulousness and praised without condescension; who took their questions and arguments seriously, who never mapped out their sphere for them, never urged them to be feminine or jeered at them for being female; who had no ax to grind and no uneasy male dignity to defend; who took them as He found them and was completely unselfconscious. There is no act, no sermon, no parable in the whole Gospel that borrows its pungency from female perversity; nobody could possibly guess from the words and deeds of Jesus that there was anything "funny" about woman's nature.1

Consider this scene in John chapter 8 that illustrates several of the values Jesus taught. 'Remember hearing about the woman caught in adultery, dragged to stand in front of Jesus? Well, if she was caught in adultery, clearly she wasn't alone, so why wasn't the man brought to face punishment as well? Double standard. But there was more to this. . . the Pharisees and Jewish teachers were trying to trap Jesus. The Law of Moses required she be stoned to death; however, the Romans did not allow the Jews to carry out death sentences. I can just imagine their smug faces as they stood around Him in a circle, with arms crossed and smug expressions on their faces, looking first at Jesus, then at the terrified woman, believing they had Jesus right where they wanted Him. Jesus bends down and writes something in the dirt. . . they continued to pepper Him with their questions. . . Jesus stands up, looks from face to face, and says, "If anyone of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." He kneels down again, and writes more. What was He writing? Was it their names? their sins? What do you think Jesus wrote in the dirt? I guess we'll never know, but one by one, the men dropped their rocks and left. "Jesus asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" "No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin." There it was. . . Grace. . . forgiveness. . . new life. . . another chance.

Some of you are thinking, "well then, I'm confused; if Jesus taught and lived as though women are equal to men, where did all the 'submission' and 'keeping women silent' in the church come from?" A fair question. These concepts came out of several verses written by Paul, but after doing extensive reading on the subject by well-trained, Godly, biblical scholars, I am firmly convinced that these cannot be extricated from their cultural setting. They were written in Paul's letters to the young Christian churches, BUT it must be remembered that for Greeks, Romans and Jews of the day, the world was strictly a patriarchy. This is not the case now. Once again, some of you are reading this through denominational glasses, so if this issue stumbles you, I would urge you to search the Scriptures yourself. But, if you decide women 'should keep silent in the church', be certain that you apply the same first-century rules across the board. Men, do not talk to a woman in public--any woman. Wives, don't sit next to your husband at church--women have their own area in the back.

Oh, and one more thing. . . it was women that discovered the empty tomb. God used women to go and tell the eleven disciples that Jesus had done what He said He would do. I'm so glad they didn't keep silent, aren't you?

So that you may know,

Christine 1 Dorothy Sayers, Are Women Human? might also read Why Not Women? David Hamilton--second in command at YWAM--the book was amazing, and sound.