It all changed with Jesus

Luke 24:8-12

Since the time Jesus walked on planet earth things have changed, and women, especially Jewish and women who have lived where Christianity has been taught and lived out, have been freed from many of the customs still practiced in many parts of our world.  The following is a good account of what Jesus did for women: Women's status and freedoms were severely limited by Jewish law and custom in ancient Israel, as they were in essentially all other cultures at the time. Generally speaking:

	Most women were restricted to roles of little or no authority,
	They were largely confined to their father's or husband's home,
	They were considered to be inferior to men, and under the authority of men -- either their father before marriage, or their husband afterwards.

From the Second Temple period, women were not allowed to testify in court trials. They could not go out in public, or talk to strangers. When outside of their homes, they were to be doubly veiled. "They had become second-class Jews, excluded from the worship and teaching of God, with status scarcely above that of slaves." ₁ Their position in society was defined in the Hebrew Scriptures and in the interpretation of those scriptures.

Change in status: Jesus' radical treatment of women:

Christ overthrew many centuries of Jewish law and custom. He consistently treated women and men as equals. He violated numerous Old Testament regulations, which specified gender inequality. He refused to follow the behavioral rules established by the three main Jewish religious groups of the day: the Essenes, Pharisees and Sadducees. "The actions of Jesus of Nazareth towards women were therefore revolutionary." (Author: B.A. Robinson)

When these women who had been with the disciples and Jesus came back with what the angels had said and what they had seen, “it seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.”  And you and I say what is wrong with these guys?  It’s simple, they have been molded by the culture much like you and I have in this present darkness we live in.  Where the culture is more alarmed about a lion being killed in a place in Africa, than the harvest of parts from unborn children by Planned Parenthood.

Peter often gets a bad report, in that he is often quick to speak, but he is also quick to take action and Dr. Luke reports that Peter ran to the tomb and witnessed what the women had said on Friday.  Peter was a coward but it’s no longer Friday it’s Sunday and the debt is paid for sin, the grave and death are conquered, and Christ Jesus is alive.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice