Jesus loved women!!
Who is a woman in your life who has greatly impacted you?
The cultural attitudes toward women in Jesus’ day were deplorable. Jewish culture in the first century was decidedly patriarchal. The daily prayers of Jewish men included this prayer of thanksgiving: “Praised be to God that He has not created me a woman.”
A woman’s place was thought to be in the home. Women were responsible for bearing the children, rearing them and maintaining a hospitable home. There was no such thing as equal rights. Women were treated as second class citizens. They had no identity apart from the men in their lives.
And then JESUS came along!! Jesus refused to treat women as inferior. He restored value to women and treated them with honor, respect, and compassion.
Let’s talk specifically about three women:
1) Mary, mother of Jesus
Read Luke 2:51. Jesus always showed respect, love, and kindness to the woman that gave him birth. Jesus was obedient. He respected his mama.
Read John 2:4. Even when He got annoyed with her, He had a sweet tone. At the wedding in Cana, where He performed His first miracle, He called her “my dear woman.” Behind this miracle we see how Jesus literally obeyed his mother, even though, he probably knew that it wasn’t his time yet. But his love and respect for his mother was that big.
Read John 19:26-27. When Jesus looked down from the cross to Mary, it was clear how much He loved and cared for her.
2) Woman at the Well – READ John 4:1-42.
No self-respecting Jewish Rabbi would give a woman, let alone a Samaritan woman with a nasty past like this one, the time of day. But Jesus did. He held out to her hope and help as He gave her the water of life – Himself. He showed to her kindness, even when she saw no value in herself. AND Jesus revealed himself for the first time, as the Son of God, to a woman!!
3) Mary Magdalene
Read Luke 8:10. Jesus’ dearest friends, other than the 12 and Lazarus, were Lazarus’s sisters Mary & Martha, and Mary Magdalene. He healed her.
READ John 20:11–18 – Mary, alone in the garden outside the tomb, saw two angels sitting where Jesus's body had been. Then the risen Jesus approached her. The Gospel of John portrays Mary Magdalene as the first apostle, the apostle sent to the apostles.
He appeared first to the women! He chose the women to be the first evangelists to spread the Gospel message!
