MARY AND MARTHA (17 OF 52)
Scripture: Luke 8:40-56, Luke 10:38-41
This content is part of a series.
Mary and Martha (17 of 52)
Series: Discipleship
Christopher B. Harbin
Luke 8:40-56; 10:38-41
Over the centuries, the church has struggled between looking to Scripture for guidance in its theology and practice and looking to the traditions and cultures in which it has lived. Often as not, we are blinded by the influence of culture and fail to even ask the right questions of the very Scriptures we read. We often miss the point of one text of another. At minimum, we do not grasp the implications of what we read to the day to day practices of our lives and the practices of our communities of faith.
Perhaps nowhere is this more apparent than in consideration of issues surrounding women and what we might call a feminine theology. As a culture, we have often decried the fact that certain countries around the world do not allow women to drive or work in the public sphere. Yet a century ago women were often denied those very same rights in our own lands. Often this was backed up by a reading of Scripture designed to prop up social norms, most often without serious and appropriate reflection on what the Scriptures actually had to say.
When we look at Jesus and his treatment of women, it would do us well to recall that he lived in a very male dominated society. His words and actions need to be addressed in the backdrop of a society in which women were viewed as property belonging to a husband, father, or brother. They were not deemed as having full partnership in the day to day life of the society. Often their voices were deemed only half as valuable and reliable as that of men. Yet it is in that very context that we find Jesus so often interacting with women in unexpected ways, in manners that would and should revolutionize our own attitudes.
Here in Luke, we find Jesus traveling from one place to the next. In the process, he is interrupted and even interrupts himself due to the women around him. Jesus had just come from healing a man possessed by evil spiri ...
Series: Discipleship
Christopher B. Harbin
Luke 8:40-56; 10:38-41
Over the centuries, the church has struggled between looking to Scripture for guidance in its theology and practice and looking to the traditions and cultures in which it has lived. Often as not, we are blinded by the influence of culture and fail to even ask the right questions of the very Scriptures we read. We often miss the point of one text of another. At minimum, we do not grasp the implications of what we read to the day to day practices of our lives and the practices of our communities of faith.
Perhaps nowhere is this more apparent than in consideration of issues surrounding women and what we might call a feminine theology. As a culture, we have often decried the fact that certain countries around the world do not allow women to drive or work in the public sphere. Yet a century ago women were often denied those very same rights in our own lands. Often this was backed up by a reading of Scripture designed to prop up social norms, most often without serious and appropriate reflection on what the Scriptures actually had to say.
When we look at Jesus and his treatment of women, it would do us well to recall that he lived in a very male dominated society. His words and actions need to be addressed in the backdrop of a society in which women were viewed as property belonging to a husband, father, or brother. They were not deemed as having full partnership in the day to day life of the society. Often their voices were deemed only half as valuable and reliable as that of men. Yet it is in that very context that we find Jesus so often interacting with women in unexpected ways, in manners that would and should revolutionize our own attitudes.
Here in Luke, we find Jesus traveling from one place to the next. In the process, he is interrupted and even interrupts himself due to the women around him. Jesus had just come from healing a man possessed by evil spiri ...
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