10 things Jesus taught About women And a few things He didn’t teach

Susan C. Hyatt Psalm 67:1-2 A Publication of INT’L CHRISTIAN WOMEN’S HISTORY PROJECT & HALL OF FAME AN IMPRINT OF HYATT PRESS 2009 TEN THINGS JESUS TAUGHT ABOUT WOMEN AND A FEW THINGS HE DIDN’T TEACH By Susan C. Hyatt © 2009 by Hyatt International Ministries, Incorporated ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Published by Int’l Christian Women’s History Project & Hall of Fame An Imprint of Hyatt Press and Hyatt Int’l Ministries, Inc. Mailing Address (2009) 9933 S. 108th East Avenue Tulsa, OK 76133 USA Internet Addresses Email: DrSueHyatt@aol.com or DrSueHyatt@gmail.com Web Site: www.icwhp.org Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the HOLY BIBLE NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society First published in Great Britain 1979 Inclusive language version 1995, 1996 Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton, a member of the Hodder Headline Group. All rights reserved. Book Design: Susan C. Hyatt ISBN 978-1-888435-13-9 Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Control Number Pending CONTENTS Preface Surprised by Jesus 4 What Jesus Taught #1 Women & Women Are Equal. 9 What Jesus Taught #2 Women Are Not Property. 13 What Jesus Taught #3 Women Are More Important than Religion. 16 What Jesus Taught #4 Women Are Equal Partners in Marriage. 18 What Jesus Taught #5 Women Have Equal Authority in Ministry. 21 What Jesus Taught #6 Women Can Represent God. 24 What Jesus Taught #7 Women Are Equal in God’s Family Values. 27 What Jesus Taught #8 Women Are Not Confined to the Kitchen. 31 What Jesus Taught #9 Women Are Not Measured by Child-Bearing. 33 What Jesus Taught #10 Women Can Be Apostles. 35 About the Author 39 Resources 40 Preface SURPRISED BY JESUS This little book is a Bible study that explores what Jesus taught about women. It provides insights that bring understanding to what Jesus said and didn’t say, and to what He did and didn’t do in His encounters with women. As these truths unfold, they bring new hope, new joy in living for Jesus, and confidence in doing His will. This is liberty! Jesus was woman’s best friend. As a result of these truths, I believe that Mary’s command to the servants at the wedding feast in Canaan: Whatever He says to you, do it! (Jn. 2:5 NKJV), will be met with fresh enthusiasm on our part: ‚Yes, Lord! I can do it! By your grace, I will be what you want me to be and do whatever you want me to do. The purpose of this book is not to answer all the questions about women in the Bible and the church. Instead, it is the starting point—what Jesus taught. The right starting point is necessary if we are to get an accurate understanding of God’s will for women. Starting with Jesus gives us His view of the entire landscape, that is, of what the whole Bible really teaches about women. This is especially important when it comes to those parts of the Bible that have been called ‚the difficult passages.‛ As Christian believers, what we believe about women is to be in line with what Jesus taught. May it be so! Unfortunately, traditional Christian teaching begins with the idea that woman is inferior, unequal, evil, and unclean, and this starting point perverts the message that Jesus taught. If you would like to see the evidence for this, read John Alvin’s Schmidt amazing book, Veiled and Silenced. The negative starting point has brought about terrible distortions of Scripture, resulting in the silencing, subordination, submission of women, and domestic abuse within the church and Christian homes. Jesus did not teach any of these things, or even imply them. For Him, women were no more inferior, unequal, evil, and unclean— if you like—than men! The truth is that men and women have equal need of a Savior! But gender is not the issue. So then, Jesus did not treat women as secondary or subordinate. It is helpful to consider it this way: Jesus taught that women are equal with men in terms of SUBSTANCE/IMAGE (what constitutes the female in creation) VALUE (what women are worth) PRIVILEGE (opportunities and freedoms for women) RESPONSIBILITY (what women are accountable for) FUNCTION (tasks and roles women can fulfill) AUTHORITY (rights, power, and influence for women). The things that Jesus did not teach about women shatter the traditional teachings, removing all excuses for control and domination. He did not teach or even allude to the idea of male headship or leadership and female submission or subordination. There is no indication that Jesus ever promoted or suggested a male hierarchy in the home, the church, or the society-at-large. He had opportunities to do so in his many personal dealings with both single and married women (e.g., Lk. 8:1-3; Jn. 4:4-42). Instead, Jesus was always helping women to get God’s picture of themselves—a picture that is opposite to the picture that shows women in female roles dictated by religious culture. He was always doing things to dislodge the comfortable mindset of the men on His team, often shocking them by His dealings with women! Jesus was a teacher of change, not a conformist who reinforced the wrong around Him. Because He loved people, He took every opportunity to correct the wrong thinking that held them in bondage. The Gospels tell us that women, as well as the Twelve men, travelled with Jesus in His ‚inner circle.‛ The significance of this tends to elude us because of the emphasis in the church that men were the dominant ones in Jesus’ life. But women were a very much a part of the picture—even as equal players on the team, in Jesus’ eyes. This becomes clear by His choice of a woman disciple—instead of one of the Twelve—to be the first apostle after His resurrection, at which point He is totally free of the expectations and restrictions of human culture. David Scholer, an eminent, evangelical Bible scholar, writes, It is important to stress the inclusion of women in the group of Jesus’ disciples, since the Twelve have often been used in the history of the church to argue that only men can exercise authority and leadership in the church. Jesus indicated clearly that discipleship was a higher priority than gender roles. Both Luke 8:19-21(Mark 3:31-35; Matthew 12:46-50) and 11:27-28 place obedience to the word of God above the role of mother/motherhood. Thus it is not surprising that Jesus’ group of disciples included women (‘Patterns of Authority in the Early Church,‛ 1993, p. 47). Some examples of women in the Gospels remind us of Jesus’ female disciples. Luke 8:1-3 tells us that women were with Him, providing of their substance to support Him. At least one of the women was married: Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward. Most church leaders today would probably insist that these women return home and look after their husbands. But Jesus did not do that! The fact that He allowed the women to travel with Him is evidence that He was not promoting a traditional role for women that confined them to the home. He honored their right to make decisions that took them outside the home. This one example signals how far traditional teaching on women has moved from the message of Jesus. The Gospel writers tell us that Jesus related on a personal level to other women, such as, the woman at the well (Jn. 4:4- 26), Mary and Martha (Lk. 10:38-42), Mary Magdalene (Mt.27:55-56) and the many women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him (Mt. 27:55). NEVER do we find Jesus telling these women to submit to men. Instead, He apparently related to them on the same level as He did the men. He allowed women to make their own choices and set their own priorities. The Holy Spirit continues to teach the truths that Jesus taught, and He continues not to teach the things that Jesus did not teach! This is important because the Holy Spirit is everything to us that Jesus would be if He were here in the flesh, so the Holy Spirit, who now lives in us, continues to teach us what Jesus taught and didn’t teach. Because the church, for the most part, has not followed Jesus’ teaching in this matter, it has often created an unhealthy tension within God’s women. The church teaches one thing; the Holy Spirit, another. This conflict causes emotional problems such as depression, anger, and frustration, as well as behavior such as aggression, passivity, or manipulation in relationships. The Good News is that, as we get the truth in our minds from the Bible, it confirms what the Holy Spirit has been telling us all along in our hearts. It doesn’t confirm what the church has taught us! That is because The Word of God and the Spirit of God agree! And as we embrace the truth, the conflict within us subsides. A wonderful peace fills our whole being! The truth makes us whole! It sets us free! This ongoing work of Jesus through the Holy Spirit on behalf of women is evident in the New Testament, the Early Church, and church history. It is especially obvious during times of revival–those times when God breaks in and disrupts human culture and church tradition with His ways. At such times, the Spirit of God always elevates women toward equality with men to the extent that the culture has been changed by the revival to accommodate the ongoing ways of God. For our own sake as consecrated believers in the Lord Jesus, we need to let Him teach us in this vital area. For the sake of evangelism and discipleship, and the sake of hurting people everywhere, it’s important that we get it right—that we teach what Jesus taught about women. My prayer for you, the reader, is David’s prayer in Psalm 119: 17-19. 17 Do good to your servant, and I will live; I will obey your word. 18 Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. 19 I am a stranger on earth; do not hide your commands from me.