Jesus Sets Women Free: The Twelve

Perhaps it is no wonder that the women were first at the Cradle and last at the Cross.

Perhaps it is no wonder that the women were first at the Cradle and last at the Cross. They had never known a man like this Man--there never has been such another. A prophet and teacher who never nagged at them, never flattered or coaxed or patronised; who never made arch jokes about them, never treated them either as "The women, God help us!" or "The ladies, God bless them!"; who rebuked without querulousness and praised without condescension; who took their questions and arguments seriously; who never mapped out their sphere for them, never urged them to be feminine or jeered at them for being female; who had no axe to grind and no uneasy male dignity to defend; who took them as he found them and was completely unselfconscious. There is no act, no sermon, no parable in the whole Gospel that borrows its pungency from female perversity; nobody could possibly guess from the words and deed of Jesus that there was anything "funny" about woman's nature.
Dorothy Sayers

Friday, May 13, 2011

The Twelve

Jesus made no distinction between men and women disciples but what about “the Twelve”? First of all they were set apart from all the other disciples, female or male. But they were all male, so doesn’t that mean that church leadership should be all men? Well, if they are to be our only example then the vast majority of churches are out of compliance unless their leadership is all Jewish and they’re all circumcised, unless several are professional fishermen, they’re all uneducated, one is a cheater, another has repeatedly denied the Lord, and another is a betrayer and thief--and let’s not forget the two hot-headed-me-firster “Sons of Thunder”. We don’t know why Jesus chose men for The Twelve (the Bible doesn’t say but he was likely drawing a comparison to the 12 tribes of Israel) but he chose “the Three” out of those twelve, leaving the other nine behind on several occasions.

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In nearly every culture so many myths and prejudices have prevailed against women throughout the ages that it’s hard for even well-meaning people to know what the truth is. It seems that no matter how “equal” a society allows women to be there’s still an underlying current of distrust and even fear of women. Sometimes it comes from men and often women hold these prejudices against each other and even themselves. “But from the beginning, it was not so”, God the Father, has had a better plan for women from the start—a plan reawakened by Jesus.

I’ve created this website to help women and men sort out truth from error or “what we’ve always been taught” and to see the ramifications of false beliefs about women. God intends for women and men to work together to build his kingdom while the devil intends to divide us in order to build his own kingdom. Yes, in the New Testament Paul & Peter gave guidelines to particular women and to husbands and wives about how to interact but many teachers have for their own ends—or from lack of understanding, lifted these from their literary, cultural and historical contexts. I’ve agonized over these issues as I’ve studied the Bible in depth along with international resources, and books by both “Complementarians” or traditionalists (those who say that women are “equal but unequal”) and “Egalitarians” or Biblical Feminists (those who dismiss most of Paul & Peter’s instructions as cultural). Both believe in the inerrancy of the Bible and are probably very sincere (I don’t know them personally, so I can only suppose). I don’t however, “side” with either group; I am simply and unashamedly a follower of Jesus. How could I not? Jesus is my champion. Not that these others aren’t followers of Jesus (see John 8:31, 32) it’s just that they possibly didn’t look deeply enough but only sought to prove their points

This is a growing body of work to which I will continue to add what I’ve learned, so please check back from time to time. I want to glorify Jesus through my studies and writings and to offer them as a resource for you—whether you are a Christian, or are “turned off” by some of the things you’ve heard from Christians—or other faiths, about women. Feel free to comment with your stories and/or questions, even if you don’t agree--I’m willing to work through it with you, always pointing back to the Bible in its original languages (No I’m not an expert but I know how to use the resources; I encourage everyone to not take my word for it but to look it up for themselves). However, I won’t keep any comment that’s disrespectful.

Joan C. Thomson