Sunday, April 21, 2019

Revisiting Mary Magdalene


I found this insightful article that talked about how women have been misrepresented in Scripture: https://www.thelily.com/claims-of-sexual-immorality-have-been-used-to-diminish-or-discredit-female-religious-figures-for-ages-heres-how-and-why/ It’s a bit of a long read, so if you aren’t up for a long read, here’s the takeaway: we don’t always have accurate context for the lives of women in the Bible. We are sometimes still taught through a patriarchal lens.
Women are central to the Easter story: it was women who were at the cross when Jesus died. It was women who anticipated the resurrection and visited the tomb. It was Mary Magdalene who first saw Christ risen. Author Rachel Held Evans shared powerful ideas about how Jesus needed a woman to come into the world (read more here: https://rachelheldevans.com/blog/god-women-incarnation)
Jesus was born to a woman. God could have had him just appear or be born in egg or something. He was fully human and had the vulnerability of an infant.
As we celebrate the Resurrection, let us remember how central women were in the Gospel. Let us remember that both men and women were made in the image of God and are equally valuable. Let us strive to be a church that honors, ministers to, and is ministered by, women.
Beth Kropf

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