Today’s Scripture Reading (October
24, 2014): Mark 16
The
Christian Church has had, and continues to have, a bad reputation with regard
to Women’s Rights issues. We have been way too slow to take action on wage
equality, job security and a myriad of other issues that primarily concern women.
We have also developed this quaint belief that women should only be allowed to
come alongside men in ministry rather than believing that women have the
ability to lead in their own right. This latter idea I have had some struggles
with. The reality is that if it wasn’t for the wonderful leadership of certain women
in the early days of almost every Christian denomination, the church as it
stands today just wouldn’t be here. We owe a debt of thanks to the women who
have led us to where we are, but more than that, we need to recognize their
value in leading the Christian Church to the place that it needs to be in the
future.
But we also
need to recognize the Bible as being a revolutionary book with regard to
women’s rights. The Bible, written in an extreme patriarchal society where
women did not count and were never asked their opinion about anything, tells
the story of the ministry of the Church both before and after Jesus and the
unique countercultural ways that women led throughout our shared
Judeo-Christian history. And as we get to the end of the story of Jesus and the
incarnation, the Bible stresses in an amazing way the role of women. It was a
group of women who stood with John at the Crucifixion (the men had all run
off.) And on the Sunday following the death of Jesus, it was a group of women
who have the courage to go to the tomb, which was being guarded by Roman guards,
and see the lifeless body of Jesus and perform the needed burial rites on the
teacher that they had loved. This mention of the female followers of Jesus is
an unprecedented occurrence according to the cultural beliefs at the time.
So Mark
notes that these women are invited into the tomb. This is the moment that they
personally witness the fact that Jesus is gone. Mark then notes that they were
trembling and bewildered, and that they fled from the tomb. Mark, whose whole
gospel has centered on action, continues that motif with this image of a group
of women who are confused as they enter the tomb, and then quickly leave in
fear.
Interestingly,
Mark also says that the angel told them specifically to go and tell Peter and
the disciples everything that they had seen and heard. But apparently, the
women were too much a product of their culture and were too scared of how the
men of this patriarchal culture might react, to say a word. Mark simply states
that they remained silent.
But there is
no way around the fact that it is these women who were at the forefront of the ministry
of Jesus. And it was the women who first experienced the news of the resurrection.
It was the women who had the courage to support the fledgling church then, and
they are the ones that God wants to use to shape the church today.
Note: It is likely that this verse is real
end of the book of Mark. What follows after these words have the appearance of
being added later, and were most likely added to battle early church heresy. If
that is true, then Mark ends his gospel with a vague question about Jesus.
There are no resurrection appearances, just the promise that Jesus had gone
ahead of the disciples to Galilee and that he would meet with them there.
Amazingly, Mark ends with these words of the angel to a group of women who
would not have been even allowed to testify in court because of their sex
(women of that day were not thought to be able to be witnesses of anything –
that was another job of the man.) And yet these women are the ones that the
angel trusts with the resurrection message – that they can know that Jesus has
risen just like he said.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Luke 24
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