One of the great mysteries of Christianity is the relationship of Mary, the mother of Jesus, to her first and greatest son. She knew more than anyone else that He was virgin-born. Everyone else, including her husband Joseph, had to take it on faith. On the night of the Savior’s birth, and the days that followed, many strange and wonderful events took place. Mary “pondered all these things in her heart.” She must have wanted to share some of them with others, but we can be certain that she was discreet.
Approximately thirty years later she saw the mission of her Son take a turn that, in all likelihood, she never expected or even dreamed would happen. Watching Him die on a Roman cross had to be a very difficult experience. With a broken heart, and with tears undoubtedly streaming down her cheeks, she heard Him say to John, “Behold your mother.” Mary perhaps thought, “Is this all? Or is there more?” Her fears, frustrations, and disappointments received a glorious reversal three days after He was buried when He arose from the grave to be the ever-living Lord.
Few people today stop to think about the position that women held in the non-Biblical world or in the Jewish world of the Old Testament. Although Mosaic Law in certain ways protected women, we must be honest in recognizing that women had far fewer rights than they do in the western world today. But when Jesus came, He immediately identified Himself with the downcast and the outcast, including women who were considered “second class.” This is nowhere more clearly seen than in His relationship with His mother.
The story of the Samaritan woman in the fourth chapter of John’s Gospel illustrates just how far Jesus has elevated the role and importance of women in the world. John tells us that the disciples marveled to find Jesus talking with a woman – especially to a Samaritan woman! It was not supposed to happen in that day.
Women today should ask themselves some questions. Who has done more than Jesus to challenge the idea that women were less important than men in any way? Who has lifted and transformed women from being man’s plaything to becoming his beloved companion? Who has elevated women more from being man’s personal property to the level of being his friend, his equal, and his inspirer? Who in all of history has done more or given more attention and affection to a mother’s children?
In spite of all that Jesus did and still does to emancipate women from a subservient role in society, the United States has been slow to learn. It took far too many years for our country, founded on Christian principles, to recognize that women should play a role in society as important as that of men. In 1797 Charles Fox said, “It has never been suggested in all theories and projects of the most absurd speculation that it would be advisable to extend the right to vote to the female sex?” Many decades passed before women could vote. It was not until 1850 that the first woman was admitted to the Harvard Medical School, and she was forced out.
Throughout the world the importance given to the role of women in society is shameful. Jesus cared for womanhood. He saw the grief of his mother from the cross and made provision for her. He told his disciple John to care for her. In that hour of unutterable agony, He saw not only the weak men but the weeping women, especially the one woman who cared more for Him than any other, His mother.
Jesus refused to adopt the traditional attitude of the world toward women. He was the pioneer of our faith in every way, but especially in His attitude toward womanhood. How slow the world has been to catch up with Jesus. How slow men have been to let His mind be in us. Shame on us!
The Paper Pulpit 
Leave a Reply