God’s Heart for Women: Why Jesus Chose a Woman to Proclaim His Resurrection
Excerpted from God’s Heart for Women.
During Jesus’ lifetime, one of the things He came to do was to reveal again the character and heart of the Father.
By this time in history they had reduced humanity’s relationship with God to a list of religious dos and don’ts that were required by a seemingly impersonal God. We know in the Old Testament that the Spirit of God only came on the priest, the prophet, and the king, but the ordinary people had no personal relationship with God.
Jesus clearly tells us that He is a reflection of the Father. When you have seen Jesus, you have seen the Father.
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” (John 14:8-9 NIV)
I and the Father are one (John 10:30 NIV).
Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father (John 10:37-38 NIV).
“I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.” They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father. So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me” (John 8:26-28 NIV).
Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does” (John 5:19 NIV).
By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me (John 5:30 NIV).
Jesus clearly tells us that He didn’t do anything on His own but He only said and did what His Father instructed Him to say and do. Because of that, when we look at Jesus’ life and how He interacted with women, we can know with surety Jesus’ behavior reflected not only Jesus’ heart but also the heart of Father God toward women.
Let’s look at Jesus and see how He interacted with women during His lifetime.
1. The Woman at the Well
Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth” (John 4:4-24 NIV).
This is a remarkable thing Jesus was doing.
God’s Heart for Women
Rhonda Garver
Number one: This was a woman. Men did not talk to women they did not know in that day. It was very much against their culture.
Number two: She was a Samaritan. The Jewish people of His day despised the Samaritans due to many factors, not the least of which was their ethnicity as they were only partially Jewish.
Number three: She was actively living in sin.
Each one of those things should have kept Him from talking to her. But they didn’t.
Beyond those things, Jesus was showing respect for her as a person and her intellectual ability and spiritual understanding by imparting into just her these great spiritual truths about worship.
He wasn’t teaching His disciples. He wasn’t teaching a crowd
of Jewish men. He was having a private conversation with one Samaritan woman who was living in sin. He took the time to teach her, and He knew she could grasp it. But it gets even better! Let’s read on.
The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he” (John 4:25-26 NIV).
When I was reading this portion of scripture while studying on this subject, the Holy Spirit arrested me and said to me that she was the very first person to whom Jesus openly revealed His true identity, that He was the Messiah. I had to research it to make sure I had heard accurately, and it is true!
The very first person to whom Jesus entrusted Himself and revealed His true identity was to a woman. Not the disciples He was with 24/7, not to the Jews nor the Jewish leaders, but He entrusted Himself to this woman with whom society would say He never should have been speaking.
This is the longest personal conversation of Jesus’ that is recorded in the Bible.
Amazing!
Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” (John 4:27 NIV)
When His disciples returned, they were surprised to see Him talking with a woman, let alone engaging her in deep, meaningful conversation.
Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me every- thing I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him (John 4:28-30 NIV).
Let’s pick up with verse 39.
Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers.
They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world” (John 4:39-42 NIV).
This woman ended up being a very effective evangelist and brought many to belief in Christ as the Messiah, and beyond all of that, I love the respect and dignity Jesus showed to her despite it being totally against the culture of His day.
2. The Woman Caught in Adultery
Jesus resisted the pressure put on Him by the teachers of the law and the Pharisees who wanted to stone the woman caught in adultery and instead Jesus decided to show her mercy. Really by the letter of the law she should have been stoned, but they knew Jesus would want to show her mercy. So they brought her to Jesus hoping to trap Him so they could accuse Him of not following the Law if He didn’t side with them and stone her.
The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group (John 8:3 NIV).
For someone to be caught in the very act of adultery, there had to be more than one person involved. Where was the man? Him they let go, but they dragged her out into the street to be publicly judged. Hmmm, how interesting!
And said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them,“Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin” (John 8:4-11 NIV).
Jesus was really the only one there who could have been “the first to throw a stone at her” because He was the only one present who truly was without sin. As Jesus’ words convicted the hearts of her accusers about their own sin, one by one they left. With no accusers remaining, Jesus was the only one there who could have condemned her, but He chose to show her mercy instead, which was totally against the culture of the day.
3. Mary, The Sister of Martha
Jesus the rabbi, or teacher, validated Mary’s desire to learn and to be taught over serving the men.
In a time when women were not allowed to be educated, Jesus validated Mary’s decision to sit at His feet and be taught about ministry and the Kingdom over her “womanly duties.” This was extremely radical for His day.
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.
But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:38-42 NIV).
When we see Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus, we don’t really understand the cultural implications of what she was doing. We imagine her sitting at Jesus’ feet, looking up at Him adoringly while He taught; but to “sit at a teacher’s feet” was the position of a disciple, one who was being trained to be like the teacher.
Paul used that same terminology to describe his own religious training.
I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia but reared in this city. At the feet of Gamaliel I was educated according to the strictest care in the Law of our fathers, being ardent [even a zealot] for God, as all of you are today (Acts 22:3 AMPC).
Notice the verbiage Paul used here. He said he sat at the feet of Gamaliel, and by that he means Gamaliel educated and trained him for service to God. When we read this, we don’t think of Paul sitting at the feet of Gamaliel and looking up at him all goo-goo eyed. No, that is normal first-century phraseology for someone being discipled and trained up by someone else in the ministry.
In other words, Mary took the position, in this room full of men, as a disciple, one being trained up in the ministry. Her putting herself in that room at Jesus’ feet was so against the culture of the day, but Jesus validated her choice to be there and to learn.
So, if Jesus validated Mary’s choice to sit at His feet and be trained as a disciple and Jesus was not opposed to women disciples, then why were the original 12 disciples all men? We know that all of us as followers of Christ, both men and women, are now disciples of Christ, but why didn’t Jesus choose any women to be listed among His initial 12 disciples?
I think there are several reasons for this.
I think that since they traveled everywhere together, camping out and staying together in people’s homes, it made sense for all to be male to avoid scandal or even the appearance of evil.
The appointment of 12 Jewish men paralleled the 12 sons of Israel and reenforced the symbolism of the church as the “new Israel.”
I do not believe the exclusion of women from being among the original 12 disciples excludes women from leadership or discipleship in any form. There were no Gentiles among those 12 disciples either, but we obviously have Gentile disciples and leaders today.
In fact, Jesus had many women disciples who followed His ministry.
After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means (Luke 8:1-3 NIV).
Jesus had many women disciples and followers.
So, we saw earlier in Luke 10, Jesus validated Mary’s choice to sit at His feet and be trained as a disciple. Later, we see this same Mary, the sister of Martha, in yet another profound moment with Jesus.
Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
“Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me” (John 12:1-8 NIV).
Jesus defended and protected Mary, but He also said some- thing very interesting. He said, “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.”
Let’s look at it in the Amplified Classic.
But Jesus said, Let her alone. It was [intended] that she should keep it for the time of My preparation for burial. [She has kept it that she might have it for the time of My embalming] (John 12:7 AMPC).
Let’s look at it in the Young’s Literal Translation.
Jesus, therefore, said, “Suffer her; for the day of my embalming she hath kept it” (John 12:7 YLT).
Mary understood what even many of Jesus’ closest followers and disciples did not understand—He was not only going to have to give His life, but the time had come for Him to do so. The Bible said she had kept that perfume back in reserve for the time of His embalming, and she brought it out now when He was days away from being crucified. Equally important, Jesus knew that Mary knew His time had come. I am certain that meant so much to Him. She understood and she was in that moment with Him when so many around Him were totally oblivious to the depth of what He was facing and the weight of it for Him as the time of His crucifixion approached. This was a profound and tender moment between Jesus and Mary that most certainly brought Jesus comfort.
4. Mary Magdalene
After His death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus chose a woman to be the first one to whom He showed Himself alive, and He made her a preacher of the Good News.
He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her (John 20:15-18 NIV).
Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message (John 20:18 NLT).
Within hours of His resurrection, Jesus used Mary to be the first preacher of His resurrection. Really, an apostle is a sent one, and I don’t think it would do harm to the scripture to say she was the first apostle to the apostles.
This is the essence of preaching. God tells you what to say and to whom, and you just deliver His message.
If Jesus had wanted to, He could have simply told Mary, “Go get My disciples, I want to tell them something.” But He didn’t.
He told her to deliver a message for Him, and He told her what to say and to whom to say it. Ladies and gentlemen, that is ministry! You just deliver His messages to whomever He tells you to deliver them.
You go to God and He tells you what to speak to whom.
It was no mistake that God gave Mary, a woman, the honor of being the first person to bear witness of His resurrection and to deliver the message to His male disciples, telling them about His resurrection.
All throughout His life, Jesus showed the value of women even though His doing so was very much against the culture of the day. He respected the women He encountered and taught and trained them when the opportunities to do so arose, even though others around Him didn’t understand or like it. He trusted them to deliver His messages. He even revealed great truths first to some of these women, such as His identity as the Messiah and His resurrection. He resisted the pressure brought to bear on Him by the religious people to be merciless and harsh to them.
In doing all of this, we see not only was Jesus’ heart toward women, but we understand that because Jesus did and said only what He was inspired by the Father to do and say, His life and ministry was an accurate reflection of the tender heart of Father God toward women as well.
Daughter of God, Be set Free from Tradition and Embrace Your Divine Destiny!
For centuries, religion, tradition, and even the devil himself have tried to suppress the role and potential of women. But what does God say about women in life and in the Church? Can women freely embrace God’s call on their lives? Are women esteemed in Scripture and in the eyes of God?
Rhonda Garver, minister and co-pastor of Cornerstone Word of Life Church, reveals the unique power, purpose, and value of women in God’s Kingdom, empowering you to boldly walk in God’s calling and embrace His divine blueprint for your life.
From the Gospels to the Epistles, witness how God liberates and equips women to follow His divine direction for their lives. The question is not where a woman’s place is, but where God is calling her to be!
With comprehensive and encouraging teachings, you’ll learn how:
God doesn’t distinguish between men and women in their ability to serve Him.
God created Adam and Eve as co-rulers since the beginning.
Women held significant positions of authority in the Old Testament.
Jesus was the strongest advocate for the value and worth of women.
God desires every woman to be free to serve Him and fulfill His purposes.
Cast aside the chains of religion and tradition and see women through God’s eyes. Boldly step into your God-given role, igniting a powerful movement ordained by God in this last-day harvest!
