Jesus and Women

   I have been reading The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ by James Stalker recently.  It is one of the great meditations on the sufferings of Christ's last day.  (It is available on Amazon for free if you have a Kindle, or for about $10 if you want to hold the book in your hands.)  There have been many valuable insights in the book, and the book itself, as a meditation on our King and His sacrifice for us, is obviously helpful and enriching.

   Speaking of Jesus' words to the "Daughters of Jerusalem," Dr. Stalker comments, "His words show that He had a comprehension of women and a sympathy with them such as had never before existed in the world."  This is a striking comment which seems either unexpected or obvious when you read it, but truly bears some thought.  If you get the book, the context gives even more to chew on.

   I have been planning to seek a deeper understanding of the Bible's teaching on women and men for a while.  It is an issue in our culture and churches, but it is also an issue of daily life.  If we will not be monks or monkettes, we must deal with men and women. And, the above comment suggests a better way to approach the study than leaping immediately into the middle of the definitions-, interpretations-, and presuppositions-debate.  It may be well to first consider the exemplary teaching of Scripture on the topic, the stories of God's interaction with gender and those of His people.  Then, within the greater framework of Scripture, it seems that we will find not only a more accurate, but, quite possibly, a more nuanced understanding of the image of God as it is revealed in male and female.