Editor's Note: What follows is the transcript of a spoken
message Frank Viola delivered to a church in Chile. Keep in mind that the
Chilean culture tends to have a very low view of women.
After tonight's message, if this
recording gets out of this room and someone hears it in your country, I will be
declared a heretic. I may even be in danger of my life.
Further, after tonight's message,
some of the men in this room may not want me to come back. The women, however,
will want me to move here!
Note the following passages:
"And
the women also, which came with Him from
Galilee, followed after, and beheld the tomb, and how His body was laid"
(Luke 23:55, KJV, emphasis added).
"These
all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and
with His brethren" (Acts 1:14,
emphasis added).
Let's take a trip back to ancient
Israel and look at how women were viewed before Jesus came. Generally speaking,
the Jews had a dim view of women. Jewish women were not allowed to receive an
education. Hence, they were largely uneducated. Their only training was in how
to raise children and keep house.
Women were also largely excluded
from worshipping God. In Herod's temple, there was a special court that stood
on the very outside. It was called the Court of the Gentiles. The Gentiles
could go into that court, but they were limited to that area alone.
Five steps above the Gentiles
court was the women's court. The women were limited to that one area. Fifteen
steps above that was the Jewish men's court. Thus men were given far more
privileges to worship God than were women.
A woman had no voice in her marriage.
Her father decided whom she would marry, when she would marry and why she would
marry. A woman couldn't divorce her husband under any condition. Only a man
could initiate a divorce.
Jewish women were to be seen as
little as possible in public. In fact, young men were warned about talking to
women in public - so much so that it was a shame in ancient Israel for a man to
talk to a woman in public. Consequently, most women stayed out of the streets.
Women were Inferior
Women were regarded as inferior
to men. They were regarded as property, just like cattle and slaves. Jewish
males prayed a daily prayer of thanksgiving. This prayer shows how poorly the
Jews looked upon women. It goes like this:
Praise be to God. He has not
created me a Gentile.
Praise be to God. He has not
created me a woman.
Praise be to God. He has not
created me an ignorant man.
This was man's view of a woman in
first-century Israel. It was not much better in other cultures. In fact, ever
since the Fall of humanity, women have been regarded as second-class citizens -
inferior to men. But something happened that changed all that.
Jesus came.
Take Your High Place
In Jesus Christ we find God's
view of a woman. Not man's view. Not the American view. Not the European view.
Not the Asian view. Not the African view. Not the South American view. Not even
the Chilean view. But God's view.
Jesus Christ is God made flesh.
As such, He embodies all of God's opinions. In His earthly life, Jesus was the
visible expression of God Himself. By His actions and His words, we discover
God's view of a woman. And that view was utterly contrary to the prevailing
view of His day.
Consider this. When God decided
to make His entrance upon this planet, He visited a woman. He chose a woman to
bring forth the eternal Son, the Messiah - the Anointed One for whom Israel had
waited thousands of years.
The life of God was first placed
in the womb of a woman before it got to you and to me. And God was not ashamed.
Sisters in Christ, this is your
Lord's view of a woman. Take your high place.
But that's not all. As Jesus
ministered, He ripped down all social conventions that were pitted against
women. On one occasion, He rose to the defense of a woman caught in adultery.
He became her attorney and saved her life. And God was not ashamed.
Jesus was noted for palling
around with sinners. He supped with prostitutes and tax collectors. We are told
in John 4 that He met a woman, and He did something that shocked the disciples:
He talked to her in public. And He was not ashamed.
Not only was she a woman, but she
was a divorcee. But not only was she a divorcee, she was actively living in
immorality. Yet not only was she a woman, a divorcee, an adulteress living in
sin, she was worse than a Gentile. She was a Samaritan - a half-breed. (A
Samaritan was a person with whom Jews were never to talk.)
Your Lord talked to this
divorced, adulterous, Samaritan woman in public, and He forgave her of her
sins. And He was not ashamed.
Sisters, take your high place.
This is God's view of a woman.
Women are Heroes
But that's not all. Jesus Christ
had a custom of using women in His parables and making them heroes. He talked
about the woman who searched and found her lost coin.
He spoke of the woman who was
unrelenting in the presence of the unjust judge who honored her for her persistence.
He spoke of the widow who dropped all the money she had into the temple
treasury and praised her for doing so. And He was not ashamed.
Sisters, take your high place.
This is God's view of a woman.
Once Jesus was dining with a
self-righteous Pharisee. And in walked a woman. But this was not just any
woman. She was a woman of the streets-a prostitute. Upon seeing the Lord, she
dropped down to her knees and did something unsettling.
In the presence of Pharisees,
this woman unbound her hair and poured costly perfume upon the feet of our
Lord. This unclean woman touched Jesus Christ in public. She wept, washed His
feet with her tears, and dried them with her hair.
This scandalous and improper act
mortified the self-righteous Pharisees. At that moment, these religious leaders
lost all respect for Jesus and doubted that He was a true prophet. But your
Lord was not ashamed.
Sisters, take your high place.
This is God's view of a woman.
But that's not all. Your Lord
allowed an unclean woman to touch the hem of His garment, and He was not
ashamed. In fact, He praised her for it. He also gave a Canaanite woman who was
viewed as a dog in the eyes of Israel one of the highest compliments He ever
gave anyone. He also healed her daughter, and He was not ashamed.
In the Lord's last hours on this
earth, He stayed in a small village called Bethany. It was there that He would
spend His last days before He gave His life on Calvary. In Bethany, two women
whom Jesus loved had their home: Mary and Martha. They were His friends, and
they received Him. And He was not ashamed.
Sisters, take your high place.
This is God's view of a woman.
The Women
When Luke writes his Gospel, he
refers to the 12 disciples with the shorthand phrase "the Twelve."
The Twelve lived with the Lord for three-and-a-half years. And they followed
Him everywhere.
But Jesus also had a group of
female disciples. Luke also used a shorthand phrase to refer to them. He simply
called them "the women" (Luke 23:55; Acts 1:14). Interestingly, Luke
used this phrase the same way that he used "the Twelve."
They were the Lord's disciples
also - the female counterpart to the Twelve. The women followed the Lord
wherever He went, and they tended to His needs. And He was not ashamed.
Sisters, take your high place.
This is God's view of a woman.
But there's more. The greatest
disciples of Jesus Christ were not the Twelve. They were the women. The reason?
Because they were more faithful.
When Jesus Christ was taken to
die, the Twelve fled. They checked out. All the disciples (except John) said,
"See ya!" But the women stayed with Him. They didn't leave.
They followed Him up to Calvary
to do what they had been doing all along - comforting Him, taking care of Him,
tending to His needs. And they watched Him undergo a bloody, gory crucifixion
that lasted six long hours.
To watch a man die a hideous and
horrible death is something that goes against every fiber that lives inside of
a woman. Yet they would not leave Him. They stayed the entire time. And He was
not ashamed.
Sisters, take your high place.
This is God's view of a woman.
Following His death, it was the
women who first visited His burial. Even after His death, they were still
following Him. They were still taking care of Him.
And when He rose again from the
dead, the first faces He met - the first eyes that were laid upon Him - were
the eyes of women. And it was to them that He gave the privilege of announcing
His resurrection, even though their testimony wouldn't hold up in court. And He
was not ashamed.
Sisters, take your high place.
This is God's view of a woman.
On the day of Pentecost, the
women were present in the upper room, waiting for Him to return, along with the
Twelve.
Unlike His male disciples, the
women never left Him. They followed Him to the end. Their passion for and
dedication to Jesus outshined that of the men. And God was not ashamed.
Throughout the Lord's life, it
was the women who tended to His physical needs. It was the women who looked
after Him. It was the women who supported Him financially during His earthly
ministry (Luke 8:1-3).
It was the women who cared for
Him up until the bitter end as well as the glorious climax. Not the men. The
women were simply indispensable to Him. And He was not ashamed.
His Bride
But beyond all these wonderful
things that the Lord did in showing us how beautiful women are in His eyes, He
did something else. He chose you - a woman - to depict that which He came to
earth to die for - His very Bride. And He is not ashamed.
Sisters, rise to your high place.
This is God's view of a woman.
Brothers, honor your sisters in the
kingdom of God. For God honors them. When our Lord pulled Eve out of Adam, He
didn't take her out of his feet below him. Nor did He take her out from his
head above him. He took her out of his side.
Sisters, you are fellow heirs in
the kingdom of God. You are fellow priests in the church of God. You are
honored. You are cherished. You are valuable. You are needed.
You are His friends, His
followers, His daughters, yea, His own kin.
So sisters, take your high place
... this is God's view of you.
Frank Viola has helped thousands
of people around the world to deepen their relationship with Jesus Christ and
enter into a more vibrant and authentic experience of church. He has written
many books on these themes, including God's Favorite Place on Earth and From
Eternity to Here. His blog, Beyond Evangelical, is rated one of the most
popular in Christian circles today.
Frank Viola
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