Jesus and Women

Jesus and Women

John 4:1-42

            Jesus was constantly breaking rules.  When we read the accounts of his life we applaud his individuality, the way he stood up to authority, his willingness to defy the leaders of his day and put them in their reactionary place.  Then we turn around and construct rules that are every bit as binding as those Jesus fought against.  Worse yet, we use Scripture to justify those rules, just as the Pharisees used their interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures to justify their binding, smothering rules in Jesus’ day.

            Nowhere is Jesus’ rule-breaking more evident than in his interactions with women.  Relationships between men and women in first-century Judea were very structured.  Men didn’t talk to women—even their relatives—in public.  While the rules governing women’s movements were not as strict as those Islamic extremists seek to put in place today, females had no status in society other than that of daughter, wife or mother.  They were their father’s daughter until they became their husband’s wife—that is, always under the control of a man.  Only by death—their own or their husband’s—could they be freed from this control.  If her husband was wealthy, a woman might be left well-off by his death.  Usually, however, the husband was from the working class, if not downright poor, and the widow would be destitute.

            Jesus turned all these rules upside down.  Luke tells us that several women followed him as he travelled from place to place.  Some of them provided financial support for his ministry.  Jesus also had women friends who were not his relatives, among them the sisters Mary and Martha.  We’ve heard about them for so long that the relationship doesn’t seem remarkable to us, but in the first century such an association would have been unimaginable—for anyone but Jesus.

            There are many stories in the gospels that give us insight into Jesus’ dealings with women:  the woman with a hemorrhagic condition; the woman caught in adultery; the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet; the Syro-Phoenician woman.  There is speculation that Mary Magdalene might have been a member of his inner circle.  She was, after all, the only woman mentioned by all four gospel writers as being at the tomb on Easter morning.  Perhaps the male disciples, not fully understanding or accepting Jesus’ radical attitude towards women “air brushed” her out of the picture.

            One of the most interesting stories of Jesus’ interaction with a woman took place at a well in Samaria.  Jesus broke many rules that day.  First, he talked with a Samaritan, something a Jew would never do—especially a rabbi, a teacher of the law.  This alone would have been shocking. 

            Second, he broke the cardinal rule against speaking with a woman in public.  Third, he asked her for a drink.  Asking an unrelated woman for anything was just not done—especially this woman.  You see, she came to the well at the wrong hour of the day.  Women went for water early in the morning or at dusk, not in the heat of the afternoon.  Later in the story we are given hints that she came when she would not expect to encounter anyone because of her less-than-acceptable lifestyle.

            Yet Jesus spoke to her, gave her words of life, and offered redemption.  She became the first female evangelist.  When she was given grace, rather than keep it to herself, she ran to the village and told everyone about Jesus and his message of salvation.  She led them to Christ.

            When Paul says God is no respecter of persons, he is recognizing what Jesus taught throughout his ministry.  Gender, race, economic status, political affiliation don’t matter.  We are all valuable in God’s sight, and God wants to have a relationship with all of us.