Jesus Listened to Women; Why Don’t We?
This one is going out to all those who’ve told me they would never listen to a woman or follow a woman because it’s unbiblical, unseemly, or because women’s voices are too high-pitched.
Take a breath, folks.
Look at what Jesus did.
Go and do likewise…
When Jesus walked the earth, gender inequality was so entrenched in Jewish society that an adulteress could be stoned without trial and men could divorce their wives for virtually any reason.
In a nation of God-fearing and moral men, women were considered little more than property. They were servants whose place was in the kitchen or the field.
Some of the religious leaders taught that women were ignorant, yet there was no point teaching them because they had weak minds. Since women were untrustworthy chatterboxes, their testimony had little value in a court of law.
Then along came Jesus.
Jesus encountered all sorts of women, good and bad. Yet unlike the rabbis and the philosophers, he never diminished their humanity. Instead, he treated them with respect and kindness.
By including women in all that he did, Jesus provided us with a prophetic picture of the kingdom come. He showed us the world as it was always meant to be.
As Gene Edwards has said, “To see how Jesus treated women is to understand what God thinks of women.”
Have you ever noticed how Jesus began his earthly ministry by listening to a woman? The woman was his mother Mary and all she said was five words:
“They have no more wine.”
Mary and Jesus were at a wedding and their hosts had run out of wine. Mary knew that her son could do something about it.
At first, Jesus seemed reluctant to help.
“Woman, why do you involve me? My hour has not yet come.”
But Mary turned to the servants with a smile and said, “Do whatever he says” (John 2:1–11).
Jesus told the servants to fill some jars with water, wine came out, and that was the first time Jesus publicly revealed his glory.
It’s a great story. But if all you see is the wine and the wedding, you have missed the significance of the woman.
Look again at how Jesus responds to Mary.
He does not say, “I was already planning to make wine,” for that would diminish Mary’s part in the story. Instead, he chooses words that draw attention to both her lowly status and influence. He calls her woman, tells her this is not the right time, and then he does what she suggests.
We are left with the impression that the miracle at Cana was entirely her idea.
It’s like Jesus was saying, “Woman, because you said it, I’m going to do it.”
And this at a time when men did not listen to women.
Do you see? By choosing to reveal himself in response to her words, the Son of God effectively made Mary a partner in his ministry. He heeded her. He followed her lead. Then he made sure that John recorded the story so that we would never forget it.
It’s almost like Jesus was trying to tell us something about the new role of women in the church.
Extracted from The Silent Queen: Why the Church Needs Women to Find their Voice.
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Escape to Reality 
Hello Paul , i don’t see how women preachers or women speaking in the church is wrong”. do we live by the freedom and grace that is provided by our Lord or do we go back and follow the letter of law when something or some issue becomes uncomfortable for us”. we have a choice to make. accept our sisters in Christ and allow them to speak what the Lord has put on their hearts and allow them the freedom in Christ that they and “we” have to express themselves and if this bothers some, we also have this same freedom in Christ to not listen.”.
I never saw that before, and have always wondered how to view Jesus saying “Woman, why do you involve me? My hour has not yet come.” Beautiful, and so simple once you see it! Thanks for pointing it out. Love it!
Andrew Farley spoke up for women in the Church recently too in a sermon.
A bloke at my Dads church very recently was telling the Pastor he was a false teacher etc for allowing women to teach/speak in church and threatening to stand up in church and expose this and other supposed false teachings. The Pastor has a major heart attack and the guy still keeps sending emails etc carrying on about it!
We were taught to obey your parents. Jesus did. by obeying your parents does that give women permission to teach or preach ect? Both elders (also called pastors or bishops) and deacons are noted as official leaders of local churches in the New Testament. What are their qualifications?
NO MENTION OF WOMEN IN THESES ROLLS???…
Hi Mario, no need to shout. I have written here and here about Paul’s qualification lists for elders. You may wish to comment on those posts directly.
Maybe his PC audio went suddenly low. 🙂
When Jesus was 12 He was teaching in the temple and His parents had spent days looking for Him. When they found Him they said, “why did you do this to us?” Jesus was baffled that they did not know He would be about His Father’s business. Years later at the Cana wedding, Mary approaches Jesus with the issue of running out of wine. Jesus sees Mary is starting to get it now, so He’s having a little fun and making a point with her; “what does this have to do with Me?” She confirms that she now understands He must be about His Father’s business and she responds, “do whatever He says”. The point still stands that Mary initiated this miracle, but I just wanted to share what I see happening. Thanks
Nice observation, LJP.
Hi sorry about caps now I know it means SHOUTING?
What happened when Adam listened to the first women?
Are we all “equal” there are kings, pastors, prophets,men, women, unsaved and saved?
Galatians 3:28 tells us that gender distinctions are irrelevant in the new covenant. This is why Peter, Paul, etc. repeatedly say “all may prophecy” or “each of you” can bring a word of instruction, etc. Men and women alike are called to proclaim the praises of God however the Spirit moves them. This was radical 2000 years ago. Sadly, it’s still radical in some circles today.
The first women was perfect what God made was very Good yet she fell taking Adam with her. Therefore today in the Spirit women still fall and can take men and women down with their preaching and teaching.
Dear Lord. It’s hard to tell whether you’re serious for saying such a ridiculous thing!
Blaming Eve for the Fall is what Adam did. Since you seem to have learned little from Adam’s many mistakes, let us review them: Adam failed to keep the serpent out of the garden; Adam failed to teach Eve what God had taught him; Adam failed to speak up with the serpent spoke his lies. At least Eve tried to confront the Liar. Adam stayed silent.
But I don’t blame Adam any more than I blame Eve. We can blame the Fall on their partnership which failed in the moment of crisis. God blessed them in their togetherness, but they did not stand together against the enemy. And we, the Body of Christ, will never stand for as long as one half views the other as inferior or subordinate.
Jesus was quoted as saying there is no male or female in the spirit and Paul went on to say that we are to regard no one according to the flesh, but by the spirit which is the image and likeness of God. If Jesus said that there is no male or female in the spirit then why is God always referred to as Father when the bible clearly states that God is spirit? The answer is clear, the Bible was scribbed by men and as it was stated earlier, woman were considered property,nothing more than slaves. Jesus never treated women that way. We are to be imitaors of Christ, not men.
if Jesus was tempted in every way like we are. Jesus was never married and never had children.
Great article and thank you for writing the Silent Queen book. I think the exclusion of women is why the church is impotent, and we look forward to women rising up in the Body.
All are Equal From God’s view We are made Equal as Woman was made this way from Adams’s rob, side by side Help-Mate
Thanks
Something that seems to go largely missed is that God created man in His own image (“They” actually said, “Let Us make man in Our own image; see Gen 1:26-27) and THEN separated the female form from the male (see Gen 2:18-25). So what does that say about God? For one thing, it implies that the perfectly unified triune Godhead is equally represented by masculine and feminine attributes in harmony. Although I acknowledge His identity as both a Father and a Son (even Holy Spirit is referred to as a “He” in 1 Corinthians 12:11), there is clearly something else to account for in the first two chapters of Genesis. I’m not calling God a woman. But I’m not, not saying He is either. If this incites anyone, let it. Being freaked out by this is only due to conditioning, but we are both commanded and empowered to repent of whatever sets our hearts at odds with our Father’s heart by His divine grace. He is neither offended nor ashamed to identify with His beautiful, powerful and blessed daughters! Why would He be? He’s the One who empowers us, blesses us and has made us beautiful! May we emulate Him well by blessing, empowering and calling out each other’s beauty, too, men and women alike. Amen.
Fear and a sense of self importance, leads many men in refusing to listen to women. Thank God many do but a good amount of other men do not. The blame is also on fearful women who wants to fit in and appease men. Its a type of worshipping that gender. Many men love it, as it serves their male interest but it takes a special kind of woman, that won’t do such things and won’t worship men, simply because they are men, because they have Christ to worship. God shares his glory with no one. The thing that gets on my nerves is that I have to constantly speak up against this as most women won’t. It does not help any gender to keep ur mouth shut. And in these last days where we have an evil system especially in the UK and we have the government no longer serving the interest of its nation and how satan is trying to bring the tribulation ahead of time, we need both men and women to speak up about it, show forth Christ passion for the world, the gospel of grace and be smart enough to avoid the trap of taking that evil synthetic programme vaccines. It will take the elect to pray together and move towards saving as many for Christ. These days, not just men, but women are going to have to speak up more, to encourage and bring hope to a lost and dying world.
I like this… But then I wonder why he didn’t have and women apostles.. he still shows that he couldn’t trust the gospel with women!! Come on! He did try but the whole bible features women doing only producing and doing the littlest of things🙄
And though they played a key role, preachers today who has caught this revelation still expound little on them.. leaving women in ministry in the same shadow they were in then! Women are still as diminished today as they were then! Still taught to be submissive, and taught to follow, basing on that ridiculous story of creation… The whole bible is an undermining territory for women..
#notafeminist
#justaperson
You seem unacquainted with several biblical facts: Jesus entrusted women with the good news of his resurrection; there were female apostles in the New Testament; no men of old did more for women than Jesus and those who followed him; no ancient documents did more to promote the equality of women than the four gospels and the NT epistles.
Mary saw that the stone was removed from the tomb and went and told Peter and John. They ran there and Peter went in first, then John and they saw the burial cloths laying there. Then they went home.
But Mary stayed there weeping and looked inside and she saw the 2 angels. Then she saw Jesus. If He came 5 minutes earlier, Peter and John would have seen Him, but He didn’t. So the first person to see the resurrected Jesus was a woman. Then He told her to tell the other disciples. So the first person to share the Gospel – the Good News of Jesus’ resurrection – was a woman.
It’s almost as if Jesus was trying to tell us something.
The same point comes through when reading about the woman at the well. After her encounter with Jesus and the resulting awakening inside her (from getting a glimpse of herself from Jesus’ point of view) she couldn’t keep quiet about the encounter and became a walking megaphone pointing people to Jesus. This was brought out beautifully in the last episode of season 1 of The Chosen and the first episode of season 2.
Just to clarify how her womanhood is significant, in my opinion, anyway: In that dysfunctional social structure only a women would be shunned and become an outcast for the reasons she was. Men were not held to the same standards. She was a total looser in the eyes of her community and not worth anyone’s attention or friendship. For this very reason, Jesus picked her. This woman! Jesus picked her to have the high honor of inner revelation to break through her darkness from a one on one sit down conversation (the very thing nobody else wanted to be caught doing as they didn’t want to be associated with her) with no one else around but her and Jesus that would begin the chain reaction of winning over her whole community that had labeled her ‘rejected’ and ‘less than’. Jesus, being the Savior that he is, didn’t come at her with any of the dysfunctional social judgements her peers filtered her through… instead he met her in her pain, helped her to start to let go of the inferior identity she was clinging to and set her on the path to seeing herself through his eyes. She got a peek at the truth and the rejection of her community was suddenly overridden and irrelevant. Her well became a spring running over and even a community of people that totally rejected her couldn’t prevent her from telling them all about this man, Jesus. What a woman! What a model of courage and passion.
Thank you, Sir Paul Ellis, for all your articles, full of teachings, explanations, revealing the Grace of God! Regarding this article, i think that Jesus told to Mary “Woman”, because He is Lord, that’s why He told to that bleeding woman “daughter” and He only said the words of the Father. I want to say also about this word “women”, in 1 Corinthians 14:34, is referring to wives, as i heard an explanation about this, in the sense that they should respect their husbands. Still are countries where can’t see women preaching..i thank God and to the Holy Spirit for guiding me to good teachers! May all of us know and discern the truth as the Spirit of Truth is in us, Amen! God bless you all!