Printer Friendly VersionIt was not until after class that I discovered why Jennifer,
one of our pre-ministerial majors, had been so distracted and red-eyed during
the hour. The pastor of the church where she had been contracted to spend
the summer as a youth intern had called the night before. Upon learning that
their new youth leader was a female, several newly elected members of the
church board called for a special board meeting. Arguing that this was ‘going
against Scripture,’ they voted to rescind the previous board’s action.
The pastor apologized profusely but said that his hands were tied.
This sad episode tragically reminds us that the church is the
last bastion of institutionalized bigotry against women in our day. Women
have constituted the most discriminated-against majority in every civilization,
culture, race, nation, and religion throughout recorded history. They have
been relegated to a second-class status and treated as a sub-human species.
They have been regarded as property to be bought, sold, or cast aside when
they no longer serve men’s purposes. It gives us pause to recall that
in the United States of America, where freedom and equality have been prized
national values, women did not gain the right to vote until 1920!
In a recent gathering bringing together over 3,000 evangelical
pastors, Anne Graham Lutz—Billy Graham’s daughter—was introduced
to speak. Immediately, well over 200 conferees got up and noisily walked out.
Several dozen others sitting close to the front turned their chairs around
and sat in them backwards as a form of protest.
If we are going to appreciate how counter-cultural Jesus’ teachings and
relations with women were, we need first of all to assess
I. The Demeaning Face of Patriarchy
New Testament scholars have reconstructed a detailed portrait of how women
were viewed and treated in Jesus’ day. They were to remain in their houses
and devote themselves solely to domestic duties. It was preferable for women,
especially the unmarried, to avoid going out at all. When a woman ventured
out, the Mishna (Traditions of the Elders) forbade a man to give her a greeting
or even to look at her. Of course, when she went out in public, her head had
to be covered and her face veiled. To appear in public without her face covering
was sufficient cause for her husband to divorce her. It is difficult to imagine
any social custom more dehumanizing and depersonalizing. Men did not treat
their donkeys like that!
According to the tenth commandment, “You shall not covet
your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or his maidservant, or his ox
or donkey” (Exodus 20:17), it was clear to the rabbis that women had
been ascribed by God the status of a slave, an ox, or a donkey. She was denied
an education. She could not receive an inheritance or keep any money she earned.
A father could sell his daughter into slavery until she was twelve. Daughters
were valued primarily as a source of profit and cheap labor. A father arranged
for his daughter’s marriage and retained the dowry which her fiancé
had to pay. Wives were considered the acquisition of their husbands, as were
slaves and animals. While a woman could have only one husband, a man could
have as many wives as he could afford. Her sole reason for existence was to
bear him children and to meet his every need. Her only hope of gaining any
respect was to give birth to a son. If her husband died without a male heir,
she was bound by Moses’ Levirate law of marriage to her husband’s
brothers until she conceived a son to carry on her deceased husband’s
name and inheritance (Deuteronomy 25:5-10; cf. Mark 12:18-27).
Wives prepared the meals but were not permitted to eat with their husbands.
Other duties included clothing him, bathing him, preparing his bed, and caring
for him when he grew old. She turned over to him all money earned from manual
work. She rendered to her husband absolute obedience in all things.
Women were forbidden to pray aloud over a meal at their own
table. They could not offer sacrifices, or go into the inner courts of the
Temple. They could attend the first part of synagogue worship called the Sabbateon,
as long as they went in and out by the back door and sat in a balcony or behind
a latticework at the back of the sanctuary, hidden from the view of the male
worshipers. They were not permitted to participate in singing, prayers, or
responses in deference to “the dignity of the congregation.” They
were dismissed before the second part of the service, called the Andron (male),
where the Torah was read, taught, and discussed. The rationale for this exclusion
was that since Eve was deceived and thus was responsible for bringing sin
into the world, all her daughters were thereby bound under a curse which rendered
them unworthy to hear, much less discuss, or teach the word of God. One rabbi
said, “It would be better that the Torah be burnt than spoken from the
lips of a woman.” This exclusion continues to the present day in Orthodox
Jewish synagogues. Mothers cannot even attend their own son’s Bar Mitzvah.
Jewish literature is full of expressions of joy over the birth
of a son and sorrow over the birth of a daughter. The Genesis Rabbah, a rabbinic
verse-by-verse commentary, describes women as “greedy, eavesdroppers,
lazy, jealous, querulous, and garrulous.” Rabbi Hillel taught that wherever
many women were gathered together, there was much witchcraft. The Shabbath,
which dates from around the time of Christ, describes woman as being “a
pitcher full of filth with its mouth full of blood.” Rabbi Judah encouraged
Jewish males to utter three thanksgivings daily: “Blessed be He who did
not make me a Gentile, a dog, or a woman,” in that order. The Gospel
of Thomas, a second century Gnostic letter widely circulated among the churches,
contains this supposedly secret teaching of Jesus:
Simon Peter said to them, “Let Mary leave us, because women
are not worthy of life.” Jesus said, “Behold, I shall guide her
so as to make her male, that she too may become a living spirit like you men.
For every woman who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Even if there were no other reasons for the early church to
reject the Gospel of Thomas as apostolic, its dismissive attitude toward women
would have been enough.
II. Jesus’ Attitude toward Women
There are few places where the teachings and example of Jesus
are more counter-cultural than in His relationships with women. He always
treated them with utmost dignity and respect, as befitting daughters of the
Most High God. He neither ignored nor patronized them. He did not deal with
them as females but as human beings. Unlike the ‘bleeding Pharisees,’
so named because they closed their eyes at the approach of a woman and thus
kept bumping into things, Jesus conversed and socialized as naturally with
them as with men. Women may have been forbidden to hear the Word of the Lord
in their synagogues, but they were welcome wherever He taught. He was as sensitive
to the needs of an abhorrent, hemorrhaging woman who touched the hem of His
garment as those of a prestigious synagogue ruler whose daughter was sick
unto death (Mark 5). Women were among His closest friends and most devoted
followers. He and the disciples largely depended upon them for their support.
That a rabbi, a teacher, would welcome women disciples and followers was unheard
of in His day.
Jesus not only violated rabbinic tradition but offended Martha’s sense
of propriety when He permitted Mary to hear the Word. When Martha complained
that she was not fulfilling her proper domestic role in the kitchen, He defended
her: “Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from
her” (Luke 10:38-42). In so doing, Jesus affirmed the right of women
to hear and be taught God’s Word! In His gentle rebuke of Martha, Jesus
was stating a new principle that would break the autocracy of women’s
culturally and socially imposed role: namely, it is as important for women
to attend to the Word of God as to fulfill household duties. A woman is greater
than what she does. She has worth and dignity apart from childbearing. Her
status is not dependent upon her relationship to a man but to God.
Jesus broke protocol by freely conversing with women. He scandalized
His own disciples by spending a lunch hour talking to a woman, a despised,
Samaritan woman at that. No self-respecting rabbi would stoop to speak with
any woman in public, much less talk theology! Yet it was to this most unlikely
of all women, that Jesus first disclosed himself as the Messiah of God. He
taught her that God is a spirit and that God is no respecter of persons or
national boundaries. It is ironic that it was not a Jew, not even a male,
but a Gentile woman who became the first preacher of the Gospel. Through this
woman’s witness Samaria was opened up to the ministry of Jesus, which
in turn prepared the way for a great revival under the post-Pentecost preaching
of Philip, Peter, and John (Acts 8:12-17).
Jesus enjoyed a special friendship with Mary and Martha and
their brother Lazarus. It was to Martha that Jesus disclosed himself as “the
resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). John’s Gospel does not
record Peter’s confession of faith but rather Martha’s: “Yes,
Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God” (John 11:27).
Jesus accommodated His teaching to women by referring to objects and situations
with which they were most familiar, such as wedding feasts, lost coins, grinding
corn, putting yeast in bread, and bearing children. By taking children into
His arms and blessing them, He was assuming a more maternal than paternal
role as it was practiced in that day.
Jesus did not recoil in horror when a ceremonially unclean woman
touched the hem of His garment, but healed her. In a religious culture where
Jewish males were regularly identified as “sons of Abraham,” Jesus
spoke of this woman as a “daughter of Abraham” and the synagogue
official was indignant (Luke 13:10-17). On another occasion He shocked his
host, a Pharisee, as well as the male guests, by allowing a woman of disrepute
to anoint His feet with perfume and wipe them with her hair. Rather than rebuke
her, Jesus turned it into an opportunity to teach a wonderful lesson about
the grace of God. It concludes with Jesus saying to this woman what He also
said to the woman who touched the hem of His garment, “Your faith has
saved you; go in peace” (Luke 7:36-50). Women, even the immoral and ritually
unclean, are capable of exercising saving faith and of receiving the unconditional
forgiveness of Christ. In so doing, Jesus struck the chains of social isolation
which had cut them off from respectable society, and gave back to them dignity
and respect as “children of God,” a right that was theirs by creation
and redemption.
III. Jesus Champions Women’s Rights
Nowhere is Jesus’ concern for women more powerfully portrayed
than in His teaching on divorce. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus states,
“But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital
unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress” (Matthew 5:32). How
so? The answer lies in reminding ourselves of the handicaps women faced in
that culture. What was a woman to do to support herself when turned out of
house and home? Denied an education, she was untrained for anything except
domestic duties. In a society that had no teaching, clerical, or industrial
occupations for women, there were only two options open to her if she wished
to survive: one was to sell her body as a prostitute, and the other was to
bind herself into someone else’s household as a bond-slave, which amounted
to the same thing. Masters then, as throughout history, had absolute rights
over the bodies of their female slaves and servants. Consequently, Jesus’
strong and uncompromising teaching on divorce struck a mighty blow on behalf
of women’s rights. No longer would two sets of standards apply. If the
husband forced his wife into a life of immorality, he was likewise guilty
of an immoral act. Women were no longer to be treated as objects to be used,
abused, and cast aside.
Luke, who is the only Gentile to author biblical books, must
have been especially impressed by Jesus’ extraordinary relationships
with women. In his Gospel he demonstrates the impartiality by which Jesus
dealt with both men and women by consistently linking stories about men with
stories about women. Such pairings can be found in almost every chapter of
his Gospel. He carries on that sensitivity to the role and importance of women
in his account of the early church, where he often links them together with
men. Women waited with the men in Jerusalem for the promised Holy Spirit (Acts
1:12-14). Peter proclaims that the promised Spirit will be poured out upon
men and women and “they will prophesy (preach)” (Acts 2:17-18).
Luke makes it abundantly clear that because of Christ, all walls
separating people by race, social class, or gender are to be torn down within
the body of Christ. Women, as well as men, are recipients of the grace of
God, and equally share in all aspects of life together in the church. So when
Paul wrote, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave
or free, there is no longer male and female; for you are all one in Christ
Jesus” (Gal. 3:28), he was not envisioning an age yet to come but describing
what was already the case in the earliest church, as it lived out the teachings
and example of Jesus. Clearly, women have never had a greater champion, a
mightier “liberationist,” than Jesus of Nazareth. In word and deed,
Jesus struck the chains that had for so long imprisoned women in a demeaning
state of depersonalizing and dehumanizing subordination, and set them free
to claim their inheritance as choice and chosen daughters of the Most High
God.
IV. Women’s Role in the Earliest Church
Women were the last at the cross and the first at the tomb.
Given the lowly status of women in Jesus’ day, it is surely a fact of
inexhaustible significance that the first Christian preachers of the resurrection
were not men but women! It was women who had come to the tomb early on that
historic first day of the week; it was women who were the first to hear the
good news that “Jesus…is not here; he has risen just as he said;”
it was women who first heard and obeyed the Great Commission, “go quickly
and tell his disciples: ‘he has risen from the dead’” (Matthew
28:5-7). Since it would have been just as easy for the divine messengers to
announce Christ’s resurrection to the male disciples huddled behind locked
doors, we can only conclude that these post-resurrection events which focus
so pointedly upon women were divinely ordained. After centuries of being denied
access to the Word of God, it is almost as if God were saying, “These
are my beloved daughters in whom I am well pleased. Listen to them!”
The major objection to women preachers and leaders, cited most
frequently by those who deny them ministerial roles, comes from two isolated
passages in the Pauline letters (1 Corinthians 14:34-35; 1 Timothy 2:11-15).
There are no texts in the Bible that have done greater damage to the church
over so long a period of time as these. Because of a failure to study them
in their immediate ecclesial context, and to take into consideration how warped
was the wider culture of their day in their attitudes toward women, the church
has been deprived of the potential ministry and leadership services of half
its members.
Suffice it to say that a careful study of these texts conclusively
shows that in both instances where Paul tells women to “keep silent in
the church,” he was dealing with local problem situations in the churches
at Corinth and Ephesus. He did not intend that those specific instructions
to two troubled local congregations were to become a universal church law
for all succeeding generations. To the contrary, when we see all that he had
to say about the vital role of women in evangelism and ministry, and observe
his own positive relationships with women, it can be asserted that aside from
Jesus women have never had a greater champion than the Apostle Paul.
The New Testament explodes upon its world as one of the most
egalitarian documents in history in the way it smashes walls and bridges chasms
that have divided people from each other all across the religious, racial,
social, and gender spectrum. The Gospel of Jesus Christ elevates women as
coequal with men in all matters pertaining to the Kingdom of God, and their
life together as fellow members of the body of Christ. It presents us with
the earliest and most compelling vision of what a community of believers can
become when we take Paul’s liberating word seriously: namely, that “we
are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).
There is a sequel to Jennifer’s story. When our local church
heard about the shabby way she had been treated, they offered her a summer
youth intern position that provided her with more remuneration than she would
have had otherwise. In the meantime, the pastor of the church that had reneged
on their original contract with her, walked his church board through all the
New Testament had to say about women in ministry, using my book as a guide,
after which the board reversed itself again. Although it was too late bring
her to their church, they voted to send her a check that was double the amount
they had originally agreed to pay her for her summer’s work. Jennifer
went on to seminary and graduated with distinction. She is presently serving
as a youth minister in a large Nazarene church.
