Category: Women in Leadership

The First Gospel Preacher: The Samaritan Woman at the Well (Red Letter Year: 10/10)

John 4.27-38

27 Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked to find him talking to a woman, but none of them had the nerve to ask, “What do you want with her?” or “Why are you talking to her?” 28 The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could he possibly be the Messiah?” 30 So the people came streaming from the village to see him.

31 Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus, “Rabbi, eat something.”

32 But Jesus replied, “I have a kind of food you know nothing about.”

33 “Did someone bring him food while we were gone?” the disciples asked each other.

34 Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work. 35 You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest. 36 The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! 37 You know the saying, ‘One plants and another harvests.’ And it’s true. 38 I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest.”

Comments

I wrote yesterday about this woman’s marignal status (three times over), so there is no need to do more than mention the disciples’ confirmation of that with the questions they didn’t have the nerve to ask Jesus. John includes everything except the “Eww” and wrinkled up noses that so readily complete this picture.

The woman leaves her jar (indicating she is coming back), runs into town, hurtles her marginalized barrier, and preaches the very first Gospel sermon. Ever. That’s right, the first Christian sermon was preached by a woman, an ethnic minority, and a person cohabitating outside marriage (after being married five times). Think about all the restrictions placed around preaching ministry these days and let this fact sink in. And she doesn’t just preach, her sermon leads to the conversion of her entire town. So she gets to claim the first Christian revival too.

Since she was such an effective preacher, we should see what we can learn from her homelitic technique. Her sermon was invitational (Come and see), affirmed the humanity of Jesus, personal, self-critical, and also affirmed the divine power of Jesus (who told me everything I ever did). She brought her hearers to a moment of decision while also being engagingly honest about her own doubts (You don’t think this could be the Messiah, do you?). Her sermon was full of energy, Christ-centered, and (this is important) brief. She was a very good, very effective preacher.

In preaching the Gospel, this woman brought about what Jesus had just told her could happen. She received the living water Jesus offered her and then immediately she became a well, gushing the living water of Jesus onto everyone in her reach. Jesus reminded his disciples of an old proverb about waiting for the crops to come in – and then shows them that common wisdom does not apply here. Now the sower and the reaper get to celebrate together at the same time. The sower in this analogy is Jesus. The reaper is the Samaritan woman – the first person to partner with Jesus to do the work of the kingdom. The first one to experience the joy of the harvester, the joy of the preacher who delivers God’s word to those thirsty for it, those ready to be harvested. We should all aspire to be preachers like this woman.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale HousePublishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Red Letter Year: 9/20

Luke 24.1-12

1 But very early on Sunday morning the women went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 2 They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. 3 So they went in, but they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes.

5 The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? 6 He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Remember what he told you back in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that he would rise again on the third day.”

8 Then they remembered that he had said this. 9 So they rushed back from the tomb to tell his eleven disciples — and everyone else — what had happened. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and several other women who told the apostles what had happened. 11 But the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it. 12 However, Peter jumped up and ran to the tomb to look. Stooping, he peered in and saw the empty linen wrappings; then he went home again, wondering what had happened.

Comments

One of the things all four Gospels agree on is that women were first to learn about and proclaim the resurrection of Jesus. Mary Magdalene is present in all four tellings. She is alone in John, but goes along with the other Mary in Mark and Matthew. Mark also includes Salome. Luke has both Marys, Joanna, and several other unnamed women. These are likely the same women who supported Jesus’ ministry, who remained at the cross through his crucifixion (unlike his male followers), who then came to care for his body as soon as their Sabbath restriction was lifted. They showed a good deal more concern, care, and initiative than any of the male disciples. They also remember Jesus’ teaching once the angel reminds them, which indicates they were more than submissive servants. They were active participants in Jesus’ ministry, helping inaugurate the kingdom. They are the first preachers of the Gospel. What they preached sounded like so much noise to the men, not because of a defect in their preaching, but because the men had hearts full of doubt (Jesus will say this later in this chapter). Closed minds, hearts, and ears prevented these men from hearing the wonderful message of Jesus’ great news. At least they moved Peter enough to go check out what they were talking about.

It’s sad how this sounds very much like the church in America today, where women are routinely forbidden from fulfilling their calls to preach the Gospel, for no other reason than their gender (and despite often showing more concern, care, and initiative, just as their first century sisters did) . This is done in the name of complimentarianism – the idea that men are suited for some activities while women are suited for others. That’s a nice, nostalgic idea, but in practice it always means denying women from preaching the Gospel, from teaching, from leading – basically from doing any of the things men want to do. Women turn out to be “suited” for the sort of things (some) men don’t like doing: serving in the nursery, teaching kids classes, cleaning, etc. How convenient. Except it’s a lie.

The truth is God made humans in his own image. Both male and female were created in the image and likeness of God. This is how it was in the beginning before our sin screwed things up. Gender inequality is always a sign of sin. Then Jesus came and brought us into the kingdom of God.  In Christ there is no male or female, Gentile or Jew, slave or free. All inequalities cease when the kingdom comes. Throughout his Gospel, Luke consistently showed women in a positive light, even at times as a picture of what God is like (e.g., woman searching for her coin in ch. 15). Here at the end, he completes his theme by giving the entire band of women followers the place of preeminence in preaching the good news of Jesus’ resurrection. If we are going to follow Jesus, if we are going to live biblically, if we are going to participate in the kingdom, then we have to embrace full gender equality in the church. Anything less is a capitulation to sin and a denial of the power of Jesus and his kingdom.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale HousePublishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.