Women and sinners
Introduction
In the bible, women and sinners have received a significant amount of attention as was seen in the life and times of Jesus and more so in the Gospel of St. Luke. In the readings, women were expected to be submissive, lead simple lives and perform traditional tasks around their homes. Because of this, they tended to be seen as lesser compared to men and relied on them. Their opinion was not highly regarded which often forced them to keep to themselves. Despite this, Jesus often engaged with women, using them as examples of what being a devout Christian required and also the power that God had through the miracles that Jesus performed on women. Despite being considered as lesser people, women played an important role in helping people to understand Jesus’ teachings. Their importance is demonstrated in the lessons Jesus taught based on women’s experience, the miracles he performed on women considered to be unclean and the way women are portrayed by Luke.
Part 1
Luke may be considered to have been supportive of women and could be regarded as a Christian feminist in his time. This is especially because of the various stories about women that are featured in the Gospel of Luke as compared to other gospels in the bible (Ringe, 1995 p10). His tendency to focus on women in his gospel may be seen as a result of being influenced by his traditional society where the community was led by women. However, despite the frequency in which the women are featured, they are described as having engaged in the basic traditional roles meant for women. Their major responsibilities were to keep houses tidy, serve at tables and bear children. Even though Luke cast a spotlight on women, he still portrayed them as common people who were in a way lesser people than men. Since they mainly engaged in household chores, the women were forced to rely on the men since they were the providers.
Women’s roles mainly revolved around the homes and it was the duty of the men to provide for the needs of the family. The men therefore had control over them since women relied on their husbands for food and security. The women did not have a say especially in matters where men were involved and often had to remain silent because their opinion was considered to be of little or no importance. Even though they got a lot of attention in Luke’s Gospel, it did not take away from the traditional belief of the roles and position given to women. Even when Mary gave birth to Jesus, the son of God, she slowly faded to the background and seized to be of importance (Ringe, 1995 p11). Her crucial role of giving birth to the savior did not raise her into higher standards in the community. She is seen as just another woman not only by the community but by Jesus himself. This is seen when Jesus told a crowd that his family is anyone who obeys the word of God after he was informed that his mother and brothers wanted to talk to him (Brown, Green and Perrin, 2013 p1005).
The various occasions where women were mentioned indicate that, despite women being regarded as lesser than men, they were better at receiving the gospel and were better at understanding what Jesus taught. Even though they were assigned to traditional duties and their opinion was rarely considered, they served a big role in helping people to understand Jesus’ teachings and what was expected of Christians. In the case of Mary and Martha, the two were used to explain both what is expected of women and the role they play in the spread of Christianity (Ringe, 1995 p11). In the story of Mary and Martha, the two women were expected to abide to their traditional roles and serve Jesus and the rest of the men in the house. Though this is what Martha did, Mary decided to listen to Jesus instead. This can be seen as an indication that, even though performing their duties was important, the gospel that Jesus was teaching was more important than house chores, and this led to Mary being praised despite abandoning her womanly duties. However, despite the praise, she is still described as being different from men who received Jesus’ teachings. Unlike cases where men listen to Jesus’ teachings for the purpose of preaching to others, Mary is said to have sat and listened like a mouse at a corner, her intentions not being to spread the message received but to only listen (Ringe, 1995 p11).
Though this may be the case, the sitting and listening is of great importance and this further strengthens the role that women played in Luke’s Gospel. Even though they rarely became prophets or spread Jesus’ teachings, women served important roles in strengthening the belief in Jesus Christ and his teachings on Christianity. They are used as themes that help create a better understanding of what Jesus was teaching and this is seen through his interaction with them. Even though the women remain in the background, they help to spread the gospel and create a better understanding of Christianity and this is seen in the manner in which Jesus associates with them (Ringe, 1995 p11).
In the times of Jesus, sinners were considered to be inferior people who were looked down upon and were not considered as worthy members of the community. As a result, they were banished from society and described as being unclean. Those in society considered themselves clean and free form sin and anyone seen associated with the sinners would be shunned and believed to be contaminated with sin. Despite this, Jesus had no issue associating with sinners and he often engaged with them either when delivering his teachings, when performing miracles or on his way through a crowd. Women played both positive roles where they were either used to show true devotion or to show that even sinners could be saved.
Part 2
Women were used in parables to show the impact that the word of God would have on the people. Since women’s main duty comprised of house chores, the parable of the baker in the gospel of Luke narrated how a baker used a small amount of yeast to knead flour that would eventually bake bread to feed an entire village (Brown, Green and Perrin, 2013 p1006). Other than indicating the role that women play in doing God’s work, the baking of the bread could be interpreted and seen as a representation as the word of god and its ability to change the lives of a lot of people even if it originally came from a single individual. Another example is where Jesus used the example of the window who gave offerings at a temple. While the rich gave what they thought was appropriate of them, it had little meaning because it had little effect on their financial status. They had a lot of money to give and they could easily give offerings without feeling any stress (Brown, Green and Perrin, 2013 p1006). However, there was a poor widow who gave two coins as offerings because it was all she had (Luke, 1991). This is another scenario where Jesus used Women as a tool for teaching and what it meant to be a true Christian. By giving the two coins, the widow was giving everything she had. The act showed that the woman was willing to give everything she had and surrender all earthly possessions in the service of God (Brown, Green and Perrin, 2013 p1006). For one to be a Christian, they had to abandon all worldly things and abide by Jesus’ teachings. Even though the rich men were giving offerings as required, the offering from the widow was more than what they gave because it was all she had.
Despite their small roles in society, women were also portrayed as the greatest sinners having committed the worst sins. The beheading of John the Baptist, for example, was as a result of a plot planned by two women, a mother and her daughter. Herodias, the wife to Philip hatched a scheme together with her daughter that led to John the Baptist being beheaded. This was after he denounced her marriage to Herod Antipas (Brown, Green and Perrin, 2013 p1006). Another woman that is considered a sinner and unclean is the sinful woman that wiped Jesus’ feet. Jesus had gone to visit the Pharisee who had offered to dine with him. While at his house, a sinful woman came in, knelt at Jesus’ feet and as she started to weep, her tears fell on his feet and she wiped them with her hair before kissing Jesus’ feet.
The Pharisees considered themselves as being clean and free from sin. As a result, any person who had been labeled as being unclean after committing a sinful act was not allowed to enter the house of a Pharisee (Green, 1997 p235). Despite this, the sinful woman not only entered the Pharisee’s house but also went up to where Jesus and his host were seated. When the Pharisee saw the response that Jesus had to the sinful woman’s touching and wiping his feet, he begun to doubt who Jesus claimed to be. According to him, Jesus should have been able to know all the sins that the woman had committed and would have therefore shunned her like other clean men. The Pharisee therefore drew the conclusion that Jesus was not the prophet he claimed to be and that his association with the sinful woman made him just as clean. Jesus however addressed the issue by posing a scenario to them and showing them that a person who owed more debt would show more gratitude than a person with a lower debt if the person to whom the debt was owed decided not to request payment. He compared this to the sinful woman, teaching the Pharisee and others that it is the people who had the most sins that needed forgiveness (Green, 1997 p232).
He also showed that, despite being shunned and considered as not being good enough by the community, the sinful woman had offered Jesus more hospitality than the Pharisee host. While he head on offered a table and the means to wipe his feet, the sinful woman had personally wiped Jesus’ feet with her tears and hair, and had not stopped kissing his feet since she arrived (Green, 1997 p233). While the Pharisee who saw himself as being free of sin was busy questioning Jesus’ claims, the sinful woman demonstrated the highest amount of faith because she believed that Jesus was the son of God and that only he could forgive her sins. She was used as an instrument to teach others that Christianity requires people to fully devote themselves to God and have faith in his teachings.
Like the sinful woman, the bleeding woman was also shunned by the community and considered to be unclean due to her bleeding problem. On his way to Jairus’ house to aid his daughter who had recently passed away, Jesus came across a woman who had bled continuously for 12 years (Brown, Green and Perrin, 2013 p1007). The woman reached out and touched Jesus’ cloak as he made his way through the crowed and her ailment was healed immediately. Jesus felt the woman’s touch and stopped to address the crowd, telling them of the faith that the woman possessed and that it is her faith that had healed her. Once again, a woman is put in an awkward position and is used as a lesson to teach people what Christianity requires of them. The woman, even after trying all other ways to cure her illness, believed that just a touch of Jesus’ clothes would heal her and this is the type of faith that all Christians should possess.
Application
Throughout these readings, women are considered as inferior to men and their duties involve taking care of the home, serving men and their guests and bearing children. Other than that, most of the women mentioned are either considered to be sinners or unclean due to some form of ailment or disease. This led to the women being shunned and forced to live a life of solitude because the clean did not want to associate with them out of fear of being unclean. Despite the low regard that women were held in, Jesus showed that these people who society looked down upon were the best examples of how a true Christian should act. Even though some scenarios painted women as sinners, they were able to overcome all this and embrace Jesus’ teachings.
The lives that the women lived played a significant role in Jesus’ teachings. The widow’s offering for example, taught the importance of abandoning all worldly pleasures while the sinful and bleeding woman taught the importance of having faith. Even though women were considered as being inferior to men, they are the ones that best understood what Jesus was teaching. Though portrayed as passive witnesses, women are used to testify on behalf of Jesus Christ. Even after Jesus was crucified, it is women who saw the empty tomb and remembered that Jesus had told them that he would rise on the third day. In the 21st century, people ought to be like the women that were talked about in Luke’s Gospel. Despite the hardships they went through, they never lost faith in the word of God and this faith led to their redemption.
References
Brown K, Green B and Perrin N. “Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels” Inter Varsity Press, 2013
Green, Joel B. The Gospel of Luke. New International Commentary on the New Testament, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997
Johnson, Luke T. The Gospel of Luke. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 1991
Ringe, Sharon H. Luke. Westminster Bible Companion. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1995.
