Jesus & Women

February!!!!!!!!!! Wow, this year is passing quickly! A year ago today we visited the mall in Damascus, Cham City Center, and met Samer's mom, sister and twin brother for lunch there. Such lovely memories from that time in our lives.

I have greatly enjoyed Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes by Kenneth Bailey. Yesterday I read in the section on Jesus and his treatment of women. In the introduction the author shared how the rabbis thought of women during this time by quoting from "the writings of Ben Sirach the aristocratic scholar of Jerusalem who lived and wrote in the early second century B.C." (pg. 189). A couple gems from this creep, "a daughter was a total loss and constant potential source of shame," "there is no discussion of women apart from their relationship to men" and Ben Sirach writes,

Do not sit down with the women;

for moth comes out of clothes,
and a woman's spite out of a woman.
A man's spite is preferable to a woman's kindness;
Women give rise to shame and reproach. (Sir 42:12-14)

I think today's Islamic scholars get more of their thoughts on shameful women and are influenced more than they think from intolerant Jewish men of past centuries! Not as much mention of shameful men, eh? Yeah, well, prostitutes wouldn't have business if it weren't for MEN in the world. But somehow it's fine for men to be immoral, part of being a man, whereas for women it's shameful and slut-worthy. Grrrr, don't get me started.

This was supposed to be a nice post about Jesus dealing with the woman at the well and something that took my attention from this chapter.

Remember when Jesus asked the Samaritan woman for a drink of water? The author writes, "Jesus so totally humbles himself that he needs her services. Jesus does not establish his initial relationship with her by explaining how she needs him and his message. That will come later. Rather his opening line means, 'I am weak and need help! Can you help me?'"

The author then quotes Sri Lankan theologian Daniel T. Niles as he writes about Jesus:

"He was a true servant because He was at the mercy of those whom He came to serve. . . . This weakness of Jesus, we His disciples must share. To serve from a position of power is not true service but beneficence."

Both Niles and Bailey then explain that often the Christians will bring in hospitals, schools, orphanages, agricultural farms and so forth, and while those are good we don't realize they are also sources of jealousy, fear and sometimes suspicion by the native peoples. Also westerners go into other lands with their great technology "which often is the point of our greatest strength and often reflects the developing world's greatest weakness. This tends to stimulate pride in the giver and humiliation in the receiver." (pg. 204)

Bailey claims "Jesus understands profoundly the need to be a receiver." Remember Jesus asked Peter for his boating skills when Jesus used a boat as a platform for his preaching in Luke 5. And here he asks this woman for a drink of water.

D.T. Niles believes, "The only way to build love between two people or two groups of people is to be so related to each other as to stand in need of each other. The Christian community must serve. It must also be in a position where it needs to be served."

Also Jesus elevated this woman's self worth and dignity by asking to drink from her bucket. Jewish men did not speak to women, much less Samaritan women. These two groups hated each other and Jews considered Samaritans unclean. But Jesus knew defilement came from within, not from drinking from someone's water cup or going to their house (e.g. Jesus invited himself to the "unclean" Zacchaeus' house to stay the night and brought salvation to Zacchaeus' house!).

The more I read in this book, the more I am reminded why Jesus is superior to all who ever walked this earth and why he alone is worthy to follow.