Women in the Life and Teachings of Jesus
Mark 16:9
Woodlawn Baptist Church
May 8, 2005
Introduction
(see footnote for credit)
“Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.”
I find it interesting and very revealing that of all the people to whom Jesus could have appeared first, He chose to reveal Himself to the women in His following. I am going to begin today a short series that will deal with women and what the Bible teaches about them in the church. It is my intent to demonstrate that Jesus placed a very high value on women through His life and teachings.
The place of women in the first-century Roman world and in the Jewish culture is well known. Most frequently, women were regarded as second class citizens: property even. Both Old and New Testaments present situations where women were demoralized and depersonalized, but I want you to know that these presentations of women in the Scripture don’t mean that God endorsed that treatment. Just because you find something in the Bible doesn’t mean God endorses it. He never authorized or approved of behavior that put a woman down, just as He doesn’t condone other practices in the Scriptures like child sacrifice, polygamy, the sex cults and other such things.
Jesus’ regard for women was much different from that of His contemporaries. He treated them with high regard, and there are at least three ways He did it.
Jesus Demonstrated the High Value He Placed on Women by Recognizing Their Value as Persons
Did you know women are people too? It took me a long time to realize that my mom wasn’t always my mother! She had a life before I came along, wanted to enjoy one while she was raising me that didn’t revolve around me, and would enjoy one after I left. When you think of the women in your life, you probably think of them in terms of the roles they play. She is your wife, your mother, your daughter, or whatever, but what we very often fail to recognize is that they are people with great value without any of those roles.
Jesus recognized the value of women first by making them equal with men before God. Jesus quoted Genesis 1:27 when He said in Matthew 19:4 that God made them male and female. Women are created in the image of god just as men are. They have free will, self-awareness, conscience, personal responsibility, and all the other traits of humanity that any man has.
Think about it: Jesus didn’t come to earth primarily as a man, but as a person. He didn’t treat women as females so much as He treated them as human beings. I can assure you that when you hear the word disciple you think of a man. You may think of Peter, James or John. You may think of any one of the twelve, but listen, according to Jesus disciples come in two sexes: male and female. What is a disciple? It is someone who learns and follows the teachings of another.
Examples of the even handed treatment of Christ are found throughout the Gospels. He regularly addressed women in public. Men didn’t do this in Jesus’ day. Remember how the men were amazed at the Samaritan well? He was in public and He was speaking to a woman. He spoke freely with the woman caught in adultery, with the widow of Nain, the woman with the bleeding disorder, and many others.
Not only did Jesus speak with these women, He spoke to them in a thoughtful, caring manner. When He spoke to the woman with the bleeding disorder He called her “daughter.” He referred to another as the daughter of Abraham, again giving this woman equal spiritual status as the men who called themselves the sons of Abraham.
He showed their value as persons in the way He held them responsible for their sins. Not once did He condone the sins of any woman. He confronted them as people with personal freedom and personal responsibility. He didn’t go soft on them, nor did He treat them too harshly.
He showed a woman’s value in His treatment of divorce and lust. Remember that Jesus said a woman is not just a sex object, someone to use and discard. He said that to even think lustfully about a woman was to commit adultery. He taught that women had rights as individuals and that they were to be respected. They weren’t to be avoided, they weren’t to be shunned either. Instead of avoiding women, Jesus taught His followers to discipline their thoughts, and in doing so created an environment where men and women were allowed to work in harmony with one another in the church setting.
Jesus Demonstrated the High Value He Placed on Women by Ministering to Women
Jesus showed the high value He placed on women by ministering to them in a vital and practical manner, both physically and spiritually. He healed many women and cast demons out of others displaying His care for them. Some are only briefly recorded; others are given in more detail.
He healed Peter’s mother-in-law. He met a widow lady who was burying her only son, and He raised that son for her. He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and in front of the religious leaders He defended and helped a woman who was hopelessly bent over for 18 years. He spoke to her, put His hands on her and caused her to stand erect.
On another occasion He met a poor woman who had been ceremonially unclean for 12 long years by a bleeding disorder. This woman came up and touched Jesus in a large crowd, making Him unclean as well. He didn’t rebuke her, but bragged about her great faith, addressing her as daughter, then publicly strengthened her faith which had healed her. He then went on to the house of Jairus, who, with his wife had just lost a 12 year old daughter to death. In addition to being ceremonially unclean from the woman, He went in and touched the young dead girl and restored her to life.
There are several others, but not only did He minister to their physical needs, He addressed their spiritual needs: something unheard of in a day when only boys were allowed to be schooled. Remember His meeting with the woman at the well. He gave her as much or more attention in John 4 as He did to Nicodemus, a highly respected man and ruler among the Pharisees. Remember His occasion with Mary and Martha as He ministered to them at the tomb of Lazarus?
Over and over Jesus placed high value on women as people, and there is a third way He did it…
Jesus Demonstrated the High Value He Placed on Women by According Them Dignity in His Ministry
Jesus did this in three ways. First, Jesus used women frequently in His illustrations. This may not mean much to you, but it was a big thing in His day. He talked about the queen of the south to teach how a foreign queen traveled so far to find the truth. He compared the kingdom of heaven to the leaven worked into bread dough by a woman. He talked about how when He returned there would be two women working in the field. He mentioned a widow to teach a lesson about receiving God’s blessings, and Jesus told a parable about a woman who lost a coin.
We can only wonder how the women of Jesus’ day must have responded to His teachings. They took notice of them, because living in a male-dominated culture as they were here was a refreshing message that appealed to them also.
Jesus didn’t just choose to use women as illustrations, but He was also concerned that women sit under His teachings. Women weren’t allowed to do so in His day. We impose our culture on the Bible, where women and men sit together and hear the teaching and preaching of the Word of God, but it just wasn’t so in that day.
The third way Jesus accorded women dignity in His ministry was by allowing them not only to be used as illustrations, and not only as pupils or disciples, but also by engaging them in their very own places of ministry. Over and over in the gospels the women are mentioned as being active in the life of the church as Jesus traveled from place to place. They were present at the wedding of Cana, when He went to Capernaum, when He was on the cross, and everywhere in between.
It was a woman who anointed Jesus’ feet. It was a woman who anointed His head. Martha is often thought of as a woman who helped to provide meals for the church group, as though that was her ministry. In Luke 8 there are women who supported Jesus financially. When you think of names like Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and Salome, you should think about women who followed and labored right along side of Jesus and the disciples. I’m not saying that their ministries were the same; they were not, but they each had places of service nonetheless.
A final look at the women during the personal ministry of Jesus was at the tomb, going to prepare His body with spices, and then in His appearing to them first after the resurrection.
Conclusion
As we close, there are two thoughts I want to leave you with: two challenges I want to issue. The first is particularly to the women, but it is really for anyone.
Jesus cares about you this morning. Many of you who are mothers know more than anyone here what it means to be underappreciated, unthanked, and undervalued. You know what it means to be overlooked and taken for granted, and while women in America aren’t treated as property or even as second-class citizens, I know that too often you are just not seen as a real person with real individual needs. I want you to know today that Jesus not only knows you have needs; He knows what your needs are. Even better yet Jesus can and will meet your needs.
In the eyes of a loving Savior you have real worth. God sees you as a real person and He wants to have a personal relationship with you. But as I said earlier, you have a free will and are personally responsible to respond to Christ’s invitation today to accept Him as your Savior. No one will ever love and accept you the way He will, and no relationship on this earth will fulfill you the way one with Christ can and will; but you must make the choice.
There is a second challenge I want to give, and it is for our men. The Bible teaches that as disciples we are to be like Christ: we are to be Christ followers. I’m going to ask you to make a special commitment today, but not just for today. Jesus placed a high value on women. He did it by treating them as real people. He treated them as real people who were equal before God with men. He spoke to them tenderly and with loving concern. Jesus gave them high value by ministering to their physical and spiritual needs, by recognizing their need to be taught, and by encouraging them to fulfill their respective places of ministry.
Men, we need to do the same today. Are you treating the women in your life like real people with individual needs? Or are you treating them as women who are only there to meet your needs? Your wife isn’t just your wife and the mother of your children. She is a real person apart from you and them. Do you treat her that way? Do you speak to the women in your life with care and concern? Do you minister to them? Or do you expect them to minister to you? Jesus didn’t come to be served by those women, He came to serve them. Are you allowing them the time they need to get involved in ministry? Are you encouraging it?
I had a lady tell me one time that her husband was encouraging her to get involved in ministry. He had his places of ministry, enjoyed men’s fellowship, working around the church, but although he was encouraging her to do the same, it was in word only. He wouldn’t watch the kids, wouldn’t help her, wouldn’t attend with her, and was just not understanding how hard he was making it for her to get involved, so she just stayed at home and didn’t participate.
Men, I am asking you to love the women in your life like Jesus does. Would you make that commitment today?
Work Cited:
Much of this message was borrowed from an essay written by James A. Borland by the same title in the book "Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood," written by John Piper and Wayne Grudem. (Crossway Books: Wheaton, Illinois: 1991)
