"You’ll notice that Jesus never finds it necessary to show the women his wounds. As far as we can tell from the gospel narratives, they never abandoned Jesus and were never afraid when they met him again after the Resurrection. When Mary Magdalene met him in the garden she wept, but for her supposed loss rather than consciousness of any sin or betrayal. The men do not get off so lightly, especially when they are gathered together in a group. There is consternation when Jesus appears among them, doubt, disbelief, a whole gamut of emotions, including fear. Jesus reassures them and shows them his wounds. This showing not only demonstrates who he is but also what he has done: ‘God in Christ has reconciled the world to himself’.
"Just in case any of my female readers is quietly congratulating herself, I had better point out that we are all among the male disciples now. We are all in need of God’s mercy and forgiveness which come to us through Christ our Lord. Those wounds on his body are there for all eternity as a sign of his love and forgiveness. We are each one of us ‘graven on the palm of his hand’."
2 comments:
It is significant that no woman ever stood against Jesus in his life except, oddly, his mother who tried to take him home as "mentally ill" (something I cannot expect Catholics to concede, even though it is in the Bible).
She needed to be forgiven and clearly had been, as Jesus called her "dear woman". Perhaps she was converted by the raising of Lazarus. She also redeemed herself by being there, to the last....
Having said that it was not all that "heroic" of the women at the Cross- they were regarded as "nobodies" unlike John. A woman could not be touched in public or give testimony in a court case because they were regarded as ignorant, unreliable and unstable, no doubt. Their class had no external life - Mary of Nazareth did not own her own house (probably), but had to be "taken in" by John. Therefore, they were not a threat to Romans and Jews.
I think we may disagree about the faith and love of the mother of Jesus and the faithfulness of the women who accompanied him, Alison! He clearly did not regard women as nobodies, as he chose one to be the first witness to his resurrection. I suspect Mark 3 is a bit more complicated than it first appears. However personally I think this issue is an example of adiaphora, not something for Christians to argue about.
The real good news is "Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me;
Buried, He carried my sins far away;
Rising, He justified freely forever:
One day He's coming—O glorious day." I think that's the message of the original blog, to which I would want to say "Amen".
Post a Comment