Let’s be honest. Women aren’t exactly the star of the show in the Bible.
Minus a few notable exceptions like Esther or Ruth, they’re usually a mere subplot in the lives of the men around them. The species’ biological beast of burden, throughout Scripture and history, women are often despised, castigated and deemed unclean.
Until Jesus.
Women in the Early Church
Post the resurrection, women served in the early church as evangelists and teachers and yes, as pastors and apostles. In fact, this type of co-laboring together in Christ was expected and rejoiced in as long as the church was walking under the power of the Holy Spirit.
It wasn’t really until the church became an institution, and we began to associate power and prestige with holding positions in the church that it began to be offered exclusively to men. We see this same pattern in every movement which eventually transforms into an institution. The eventual exclusion of women, and a desire to collect and restrict access to the text, to understanding, to the ability to speak authoritatively, and the need to hold one gender over the other. And the church of Jesus Christ, unfortunately, is no different.
The same Outcome
We know from experience that anyone who wants to find women lacking, will find a way. In fact, in Genesis, God promised womankind this would be the result of sin. How else could we be convinced that Christianity, a faith set apart by belief in a resurrection, can in this way, and this way only, be similar to every other religion known to humankind?
In the early days, the church fathers argued over whether women even had a soul to save. Eventually and after generations of debate it was decided that women indeed did have a soul, but as can easily be drawn from Paul’s writings, her path to salvation was singular and separate. She was to be saved through literal childbirth and good works. All in direct contradiction to the rest of scripture.
Eventually, this doctrinal anomaly was resolved and women were not only granted a soul, but yes, one saved by grace. However, since sin still existed, women remained relegated by doctrine and by practice to the “temple of the women”, for her protection, of course, but also as proof of her salvation. Today, we don’t spend much time on the doctrine, we simply say that women and men have different roles.
Interesting that the outcome remains the same. Women remain seated and silent.
Free At Last
Now some base their justification for keeping women on the sidelines on the fact that Jesus chose only twelve disciples, and they were all men. This signifying, of course, that only men have the authority to speak the Word of God.
Yes. Jesus chose twelve men as His disciples. But let’s not play games.
Let’s not confuse Jesus at the beginning of His ministry, as God in the flesh and the fulfillment of the law of Moses with Jesus’, the resurrected Son of God, who when the law was fulfilled, “appeared first to Mary”.
With that one act, Jesus completed the redemption of women from the curse of sin. And the fact that He told Mary to “go tell my disciples” is amazingly significant.
The problem is that we live in a sinful world. One where the consequences of sin did not magically disappear with Jesus’ death, burial or resurrection. One in which men have sought desperately to continue the “ruling” God spoke of in Genesis 3. The post-fall desire to rule woman explains why otherwise seemingly decent men will work overtime to prove that Junia, a woman referred to by Paul as an apostle, was really a man. Because if one woman is an apostle, then the whole house of cards comes down.
Break the Paradigm
Bluntly, we’ve chosen to ignore the lived record of Jesus Christ in exchange for an intricately-woven framework of doctrine that keeps men where honestly, they often wish to be. And frankly, where we wish them to be. Because when everything else is already your fault, why take on even more responsibility? Why take the risk?
Unfortunately, our abdication means we settle for Esau’s bowl of pottage, instead of claiming everything represented in Jesus’ redemptive work on Calvary. And the impact on our eternal lives is significant.
At PROJECT2031, we want to break the paradigm. To look at the life of Christ, and realize its revolutionary potential. Jesus represented yes, the fulfillment of the law. But He also represented a violent break with the rule-bound law of Moses that served as a tangible, physical separation between woman and God. Until Jesus, women lived under the law of sin and death. Silenced. Shunned. Segregated. Shamed.
From this to a Christ who wept. Who spoke with women. They touched Him. He touched them, from Mary Magdalene washing His feet with her hair to the woman with an issue of blood.
I don’t think we understand today what a taboo this was. Even when deemed clean, women were required to remain in the outer temple. When unclean, women were not to be touched and were required to remove themselves outside the city walls. Yet when this woman who suffered with an “issue of blood”, touched Him, what was Jesus’ response?
“Your faith has made you whole”.
Jesus didn’t just talk to women. He broke the paradigm. He restored us to wholeness. He elevated us. It is up to us to reclaim that which God has offered in the redemptive work on Calvary.
The problem is too many of us will not do so. Truthfully, it’s easier to conform our lives to the expectations and demands of others. Yet you should know, from Abigail to Mary Magdalene, that the only women who are mentioned in Scripture are those who refused to conform.
All others are relegated to the pages of the unknown.
Vive la revolucion!
