Jesus spent time with women. He delivered them, served them, equipped them, and used them in His ministry. He used women who approached Him as examples of bold faith. He counted women worthy of His deliverance from demonic possession. He went purposefully to meet the woman at the well who would be the first to reveal and proclaim His identity to many. He walked with women who financed His counter-cultural ministry. He chose women to be the first to know of His miraculous resurrection from the grave as they arrived at the empty tomb.
Jesus could have come into the world in any way He wanted, but He chose to come through a generational line of women. He chose specific women to be a part of His geneology all the way up to the virgin Mary, who He chose to submit to as His earthly mother.
Jesus’ choices and actions were no accident. He ordained and predestined these women to be exactly where they were at the exact right time to be recorded in His Word as historical encounters to be heard for generations to come.
He didn’t want them to be forgotten. He wanted to be connected with them.
It’s the hard-hearted self-righteous religious crowd who insisted on oppressing women and hated Him for the love He showed them, but what they projected as confidence was really just a mask for fleshly pride and insecurity. Faithful and competent women were a threat to their image, but Jesus didn’t need to compete with women. He knew who He was and where He was headed. He knew no one could take His crown.
If you think Christianity is about silencing, suppressing, and oppressing women and putting them in their place, my friend, you are missing it.
You’re missing the hierarchy and humble exaltation. You’re missing the soil for the seed and the identity of salvation. You’re missing the heart and its recipe of transformation.
You have the formula, but you’re missing the bread. You’re missing the water. You’re missing the oil. You’re missing the King.
This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. – Matthew 15:8-9
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. – Matthew 23:12
Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 18:3-4
Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.’ – John 6:35
Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’ – John 4:13-14
Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means. – Luke 8:1-3
And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased…But Jesus said, ‘Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.’ And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.’ – Luke 8:43-44,46-48
But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, ‘Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.’ – Matthew 26:10-13
The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments…But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. – Luke 23:55-56, 24:1-9
