Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Women's Role in Ministry | New Testament | Luke 8

Episode Date: March 29, 2023

If you've felt hurt by a "biblical" view or are wary of women in ministry, this episode is for you. Jensen unpacks Luke 8 and discusses what the Bible has to say about women, their role in ministry and how Jesus interacts with them. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Luke 8

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. The Freedom from Religion Foundation is a political group working to keep politics free from the interference of religious beliefs, among other things. And on their website, you can find a number of resources and publications defending and explaining why people need freedom from religion. One particular article outlined specifically why women need freedom. from religion, stating that organized religion always has been and remains the greatest enemy of women's rights. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a well-known feminist in the 18th century, is quoted saying,

The Bible and the Church have been the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of women's emancipation. As a professing Christian, she believed that the Bible and Christianity itself needed to be revised in order to uplift rather than subjugate women, leading her to eventually write the women's Bible, an alternative and controversial work attempting to reinterpret the Bible's message. Foundations have arisen to free people from the bondage of religion, and specifically women. Stanton gave her life to reinterpret and redefine Christianity in the Bible so that women could live free within the religion. And today, all you have to do is look at social media, or the political arena to realize that certain religious beliefs are held responsible for the

oppression of women, stripping them of their rights. Now, maybe you agree. Maybe you're sitting in your car shaking your head at these crazy people with their liberal agendas. Maybe you read portions of the Bible and they make you uncomfortable. Maybe you've become comfortable or even benefit from the portions of scripture you believe rightfully reinforce the belief that men were created to lead and rule over women. I am sure, with a podcast audience as diverse as this one, there are people who have been told things and have come to believe different interpretations of scripture that led them to a false understanding of what the Bible has to say about women. And here's the thing. In 10 minutes, I cannot possibly go through every passage that has ever been

misused, abused, and misinterpreted to the benefit of those in power. We can't examine every way the church has indeed taken part in the subjugation and oppression of women. What I can do is say that first, any time that scripture has been used to put down oppress, abuse, mistreat, demean, or injure any human being created in the image of God is evil and wrong. And second, if we want to know the heart of God towards women, we have to look at how Jesus saw and treated women. Now this may seem like a small point in the sea of turmoil surrounding the Bible's view of women, but it isn't. You see, Jesus wasn't just a good moral teacher. He wasn't just a man. Jesus is Yahweh. He is God. He is the same God who created the universe, who called the Israelites,

who guided them through the wilderness and rescued them from exile. He is the God of the Old Testament become man, fully divine, fully human. And it is that God, a God who is accused of misogyny, sexism, and hatred of women that we see using a large portion of his ministry here on earth to uphold the value and dignity of women in a culture that would have seen them as subordinate to men. The Gospel of Luke is known for highlighting and referencing the many instances in Jesus' ministry where he interacted with and valued partnership with women. It's a great place for you to dive in and study if this topic is of special interest to you. But specifically today, in chapter 8, Luke opens with these three verses.

After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The 12 were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and disease. Mary called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had come out. Joanna, the wife of Chusa, the manager of Herod's household, Susanna, and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means. So we learn that Jesus is on the move. He's teaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. He is doing ministry, valuable, important work, and we learned that his 12 disciples are with him, as we would expect.

They traveled with him, learning from him, partnering with him in ministry. But Luke includes others who are part of this inner group traveling with Jesus. Specifically, he highlights women, Mary, Joanna, Susanna, and many others. In Greek, that phrase, many others, is feminine, implying that though they are not named, there were many other women who were traveling and partnering with Jesus. In fact, it is these women we learn at the end of verse, that are financially supporting the work and ministry of Jesus. So why mention them? Why include them here in this opening of Chapter 8? I think we have to admit to ourselves that these women are included in the gospel narrative because they were of vital importance to the ministry and work of Jesus. Jesus, the God of the universe, created women in his image. And so it should come as no shock that when he came to preach the good news to his creation,

He chose to partner not just with men, but with women in the spreading of his gospel. These verses reveal to us that we follow a God who calls all of creation, not just a better, stronger, smarter half of it, as some would believe, no, all of creation to partner with him in ministry. See, men and women alike, both created in the image of God, both given dignity, both called to rule over creation in Genesis, are both also. called to work in ministry alongside their God. For some like Mary, that meant traveling with Jesus, learning from him. For others like Lydia, we learn from Paul that it meant working in their own trades to financially support the church. Still others like Phoebe, it meant holding a place of

leadership within the church, serving God with her talents. For Priscilla, it meant teaching and explaining the ways of Jesus to those within the church. You see, for those within the early church, those Those who had spent time with Jesus, encountered his ministry, learned firsthand from his disciples. It was not odd for women to play a vital part in the life of the church. It would have been odd to the world that they lived in, one that believed women to be inferior to men. But those shaped by the church, by the teachings and examples of Jesus, knew that women have a vital role to play in the spreading and building of the kingdom of God.

how opposite that feels to our modern ears. But it's the truth we see laid out in scripture again and again. Jesus valued women. He met them. He spoke to them. He challenged a worldly order that oppressed women and flipped it on its head. The early church was flooded with those in society who were outcasts and oppressed because they saw a community that modeled itself after Jesus, not the world around them.

It saw a group of people who followed in the footsteps of their king, building a kingdom that was inclusive to those who were excluded, uplifted those who were oppressed, and valued those who were seen of little value. And of course, that included women. How I wish, when the world looked in on the church today, it saw the same thing. I wish it saw a church united around the truth of Scripture, around the example of Jesus our king. Instead, far too often, blinded by our own traditions and cultural narratives, we ignore the example of Jesus and continue to build structures that hold women back from using their gifts and skills and voices for the glory of God. The church should always be the place that people are welcomed into to find freedom.

There is freedom in Christ, and instead, the world looks in and believes, that we need freedom from it. That truth is heartbreaking. If there is any part of your heart that believes women to be of lesser value, lesser ability, of a lesser calling than men, I would ask you to submit yourselves to the example of Jesus Christ, king and creator of all creation. If there is any part of your heart that is angry at the sexist God you believe permeates the pages of scripture, I would humbly ask you to submit yourselves to the example of Jesus Christ, king and creator of all creation. You see, the call is the same for all of us.

To submit ourselves to scripture and scripture alone. But to do that we have to know, to study, to understand the history, the nuance, the original language and context involved in each passage, whether it's about women or not. All of Scripture is painting the picture of a God who loves his creation so much that while they reject him, deny him, slander him, and murder him, he freely sacrifices himself so that he can rescue all of his creation and restore it. A God who is building a kingdom that values the dignity of all human life, a kingdom where love, justice, and mercy reign, where all of humanity can live

for the purpose they were created to live, to work in the areas they were created to work, to flourish in the freedom of God's kingdom. The church today should reflect that vision, as we fight to bring God's kingdom into this broken world today. Men and women working alongside each other to share the good news of the gospel, be that in vocational ministry or on the front lines of any workplace. May we be a church. May we be a church. united in God's view of men and women, both created in his image to rule over creation, bringing glory to their creator in the lives they live as they partner with him in building his kingdom.

Before you forget, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talks newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes and you'll get an email every Wednesday that will help encourage you in the middle of the work week and bring you deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.