Jesus publicly taught women when women were excluded from religious education at that time. There is a "religion" growing exponitally here in the US, claiming to be a "religion of love." Yet nothing could be further from the truth especially regarding women and little girls as young as four!
Jesus spoke openly with the Samartian woman at Jabob's well ( John 4: 4-42) even when His own discipes were shocked that He was talking with that woman. Jesus allowed women to travel with Him, learn from Him, follow Him, etc. Jesus actually touched the woman everyone thought was unclean (Matthew 9:20-22, Mark 5: 25-34, Luke 8:43-48). Ceremonially, religious, unclean. He defended the woman everyone else threw in the dirt in her shame in John 7:53 thru :11. They reasoned amoung themselves, "we should stone this woman. (sounds like that religion of "love").
But Jesus? Jesus lifted her head, lifted her dignity. And then in the most important moment in human history, when Jesus rose from the dead, HE CHOSE WOMEN TO BE THE FIRST TO BE THE WITNESSES OF THE RESURRECTION even though a woman's testimony didn't hold up in a court of law during that time (sounds like that same religion of "love"). Jesus entrusted women with the first proclaimation that He Is Risen.
Jesus didn't treat women as property (though the religion of "love" does).
Jesus didn't treat them as temptations to be covered up (but the religion of "love" does)
Jesus didn't treat them as spiritually inferior (there we go again, just like the so-called religion of "love").
Jesus treated women as image bearers of God .. worthy of dignity, worthy of discipleship, and essential to the mission of the Kingdom of God. You cannot understand how Jesus treated women without understanding how radical it was in the world He entered in that time.
Jesus dignified women in a time women were cast aside like dogs and treated as 2nd class citizens. Jesus disrupted that culture to show the value and the virtue and the dignity and how important these women were to the Kingdom He was ushering into the world. Christianity IS THE MOST PRO-WOMAN religion in the world. So ladies, I want you to know Jesus loves and respects you. Your worth is not up for debate. Your worth is a solid fact, not an opinion according to Jesus. You don't need to be perfect, (none of us are) to be incredibly valuable. You just have to be you. God only made one of you which declares how special, a one-of-a-kind, you are. You are capable. You are valuable. And JESUS LOVES YOU!
Until He Comes,
-Pat-
