Chapter 9 - Women! Know your place!

Sisters are doing it for themselves

 Disney’s 2013 movie Frozen was exceptional in many ways.  Not only was it a great film, with an unforgettable soundtrack (seriously, I defy you to forget those songs), this was also one of the House of Mouse’s highest grossing movies ever (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs still holds that record, adjusted for inflation).  However, what is most remarkable about this motion picture is that the heroes of this Disney Princess movie, that mainstay of the corporation, are all women.  The heroes are heroines.  All the men in the film are in supporting roles, as either antagonists or sidekicks, of the more bumbling variety I would even suggest.  In Frozen, a film about two royal sisters, these sisters are doing it for themselves.

 This signalled a departure from the faithful and fruitful formula of the damsel in distress who embarks on a journey of self-discovery, often inadvertently, before ultimately being rescued by her Prince, often throwing true love’s kiss into the bargain.  She is helpless, powerless, passive, an object.

 But not in Frozen.  In Frozen, that spell is broken.  The women help themselves.  They make their own way.  They are valid and powerful, they contribute.

Behind every good man…

 This is what women did for Jesus.  In Luke 8:1-3, we read of Jesus and his disciples on their travels, and part of the entourage is a group of women, some of whom were women of some means, and they resourced Jesus’ mission and ministry.  They contributed.  They used their connections or wealth to support Jesus and the disciples.  In a sense, they were the breadwinners in this group.  The men had all given up their jobs, their means of income, and had to rely on the generosity of others, like these women.  Some offered money, or food.  Some offered shelter, like Martha (Luke 10:38).

 Of course, Mary Magdalene is included in this group, and she is defined here by what Jesus did for her.  However, this is different to the way women have often been defined by or in relation to men.  It is not necessary that a woman’s identity be found in ‘her man’.  In this case, Mary is defined as having been powerfully changed by Jesus.  And this is how anyone could be defined.  My identity comes from Jesus and his transforming work in my life.  Mary, then, is not who she is because of a man.  In fact, her story is one of liberation, as a woman who has been used by men, as a prostitute, but has now been set free by Jesus, and not just a man.

 And now, Mary contributes, with these other women, to Jesus’ work.  They made it possible.

Our Mother, who art in heaven…

 Jesus had a refreshing respect for women.  Not only did he admit them to his social circle, even allowing them to resource and support him; he also appreciated traditionally feminine roles and characteristics.  Jesus looked in love at the holy city of Jerusalem, longing to gather ‘her’ children as a hen gathers her chicks (Matthew 23:37).  Jesus had no qualms about owning this female image.  In fact, God did something similar in Isaiah 49:15, to compare or contrast his care for his people with a nursing mother’s for her baby.

 Maternal love is a good image of divine love, and so Jesus is not afraid to cast women as the God figure in some of his parables.  For example, in his kingdom parables of Matthew 13, Jesus says the “kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened” (13:33).  Note that the yeast (representing the kingdom) is mixed by a woman (God, to whom the kingdom belongs and who alone can bring it into the world).  It could be argued that this image would only work with a woman in that cultural context.  A further thought occurs, with the detail of three measures of flour.  The proportions in Jesus’ parable here are exactly the same as those in Genesis 18:6.  There, Abraham instructs Sarah to make cakes for the mysterious three visitors (often assumed to be God and two angels, or God as Trinity).  The occasion of the visit is for God’s message about Sarah’s impending pregnancy with Isaac, the child of the promise.  This is a key moment in salvation history.  And so, perhaps Jesus uses the image expecting his audience to think of that incident with Sarah.

 In any case, the woman is undoubtedly the main character of Jesus’ parable, whether as Sarah, or an image of God.  This is often overlooked.  The gender-transcendence of God is further supported by the parable of the lost coin in Luke 15.  The female protagonist here is unmistakably a figure for God.  The idea of God as a woman is probably controversial in the church, where the male God strengthens the male-dominated status quo.

A woman’s place

 It is a sad fact that women have been, at best, second class citizens for the majority of Christian history.  But I get the sense that this was never how it should have been.  A famous story from Luke’s Gospel is crucial in this connection.  Jesus was welcomed into the home of two sisters, Mary and Martha.  Martha, the elder sister, spends the whole time fussing, cooking, cleaning, making sure that everything is just right for their guest.  And she grows increasingly frustrated that her sister Mary is just sitting there, listening to Jesus.  Some might say that Martha is doing women’s work, that a woman’s place is in the kitchen, at home, behind the scenes, looking after the men, who get on with the real work.

 But look again at what’s really going on here.  Mary “sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying…” (Luke 10:39).  She sat at Jesus’ feet.  That’s another way of saying she was a disciple.  In Luke’s other volume, Acts, he records Paul using the same language of his own education as a student, a disciple, of the great rabbi Gamaliel.  And now, Mary learns at the feet of the great rabbi Jesus.  She is his disciple.

 Some may say that Martha was doing women’s work, thata woman’s place is in the kitchen.  But Jesus says that Mary has chosen the better part and it won’t be taken from her (10:42).  A woman’s place, says Jesus, is at his feet.

 But, although the text ends here, the story doesn’t.  A disciple was training to be a rabbi.  They were being shaped to carry on the teachings, the work, of their master.  That’s what the Twelve were doing, and what they did.  It’s what all disciples of Jesus are called to do: to follow Him, to learn from Him, and be shaped by Him, to become like Him; and, to carry on His teaching, and His work, among others.  Jesus’ call to discipleship is a call to mission and ministry.  And Jesus says women are included in this too.  A woman’s place is in any of the ministries to which they are called and for which they are gifted, in His service, by His Spirit.