Jesus Through the Eyes of Women
Jesus Through the Eyes of Women: How the First Female Disciples Help Us Know and Love the Lord
By: Rebecca McLaughlin
“Through each of these women’s eyes, we see Jesus as the one who brings healing to the sick, life to the dead, welcome to the outcasts, and honor to the scorned.”
Rebecca McLaughlin is the author of several books including The Secular Creed and Confronting Christianity. Most of her books tackle controversial issues or questions that the general public bring against Christianity.
This book is no different.
“Some see Christianity as, at heart, misogynistic: silencing, sidelining, and trampling on women.”
This is a popular belief. But it is unfounded.
McLaughlin has written this book to show us that the way Jesus treated women was revolutionary and counter-cultural. A true reading of Scripture reflects Jesus’ care, love, and respect of women.
“The way that Jesus treated women tore up the belief that women are innately inferior to men: a belief that was pervasive in the ancient world. We should not be surprised, therefore, that women have been flocking to Jesus ever since.”
McLaughlin takes us through many interactions between Jesus and women: Mary (his mother), Mary Magdalene, Mary and Martha (Mary was the most common name during that time if you haven’t noticed), Elizabeth, the Samaritan woman at the well, Joanna, the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years, and more.
And when we try to see Jesus from their perspective we see a deeper picture of the heart of Jesus.
One of the first things McLaughlin does is talk about the reliability of Scripture. If we’re looking at eyewitness testimony, can we trust the source we are basing our belief on? She compares the Bible to the Gospel of Mary, and gives other evidence for why we can believe these biblical accounts. (For further reading on this aspect, check out Taking God at His Word or Surviving Religion 101.)
A theme we see as we go through these accounts is that God has used women in a fundamental way for his kingdom. And I say ‘use’ not in way that denotes ‘takes advantage of’ but in a sense of respect; women were valuable and vital in God’s plan for his Son and his Gospel message.
McLaughlin points out some things I had never realized:
“Hannah is the first to prophesy directly about the Lord’s anointed King. Mary is the first to find out his identity.”
“Anna is the first person in the Bible officially called a prophet since the death of the last Old Testament prophet, Malachi, some four centuries before. “
“In a culture where women were often silenced, Jesus commissions a female disciple to announce his resurrection to his male disciples. Strikingly, Mary Magdalene is the first person in John’s Gospel to call Jesus ‘the Lord.’"
Jesus could have first shown his resurrected self to Peter who came to the tomb, but instead he came to Mary.
Jesus’s life and resurrection on earth are book-ended with women!
“Much of what we know about Jesus’s conception, infancy, and childhood we only know because the women who surrounded him passed on their testimony.”
Something that is important to touch on in this discussion is ‘sexual freedom.’ This is one of the main tenets of the most recent wave of feminism. Many view the Bible’s teachings on sex as unfair or stifling. But when you look at the sexual climate during these ancient times, you will see that the laws God made around sex were to protect women and children, not harm them.
Women were extremely vulnerable and easily exploited.
“The sexual revolution that was triggered by the rise of Christianity within the Roman Empire cut out men’s sexual freedom and called them to the kind of faithfulness in marriage that had previously only been expected of wives. This meant that women could no longer be seen as expendable objects of male lust.”
Boundaries are necessary for human flourishing. The Bible’s boundaries surrounding sex and limiting it to a male and female within the covenant of marriage protects all parties and creates a safe and healthy environment for everyone to thrive. Among many other benefits, it creates financial, emotional, and physical stability.
(For more on the discussion of sex, purity, and how the church can do better at communicating these things in a clear and right way, read Talking Back to Purity Culture or What God Has to Say About Our Bodies)
If we want to talk about sexual freedom in regards to bearing children, that’s a topic for another time.
McLaughlin does caution this:
“When it comes to women’s unique ability to bear children, it’s easy to make one of two mistakes: to overvalue childbearing, as if it’s the primary reason why women exist, or to undervalue it, as if creating new life doesn’t matter.”
And I’ll just add one thing— God chose women to bring life into the world— that is pretty significant and honoring. God creates life inside our bodies! That’s incredible to me. Even though it comes with pain, I am thankful to be part of that amazing process.
Each chapter highlights characteristics of Jesus. We see prophecy, discipleship, nourishment, healing, forgiveness, and life.
We see a God whose concept of power and worth counters cultures at large. We see a God who defends, who knows all but still loves us, forgives us, and offers us refuge. We see a God of redemption who transforms lives. A God who suffers with us, who is near to us and wants to spend time with us. A God who defends a woman’s right to learn. A God who gives us identity, mercy, affirmation, and hope.
If you’ve been told the Bible is anti-women, or you’ve experienced inferiority as a woman from a Christian or church, this book is for you. This book will set the record straight.
If you stand secure in your biblical womanhood, this book will affirm that you are in a safe place. Jesus is for us and teaches love, dignity, and respect for us. It will also help you see these events through new eyes.
As usual, Rebecca McLaughlin brings the truth, and I would highly recommend this book!
“How do we see Jesus through these women’s eyes? We see him as the one who heals our hurts and meets our needs. We see him as the one who takes our sin upon himself and welcomes us with unimaginable love. We see him as the one who sees us, even when others turn away, and as the one who welcomes us to learn from him and pour our meager love out at his feet. We see him as the one who is the Savior of the world and yet knows us each by name— even if we answer to the most common name in town. We see him as the one who gathers up our broken hearts and bodies in his arms, and as the only who who has the power to make us whole.”
If you want further reading on women’s role in the church and an exegetical look at what specific verses mean, I would recommend Evangelical Feminism by Wayne Grudem or Men and Women in the Church by Kevin DeYoung.
If you want further reading on biblical womanhood as it relates to feminism, I would check out Radical Womanhood by Carolyn McCulley or Eve in Exile by Rebekah Merkle.
More Quotes:
“As we look at Jesus through his mother’s eyes, we see how God grabs ordinary folk to be his chosen agents in this world. When you and I let Jesus in, our humdrum lives become the buzzing center of a miracle— however little it may feel that way at times.”
“As we look through Mary’s eyes, we also see the cost of letting Jesus in. Birth itself is intensely costly. Nursing an infant day and night is an ongoing act of sacrifice love… Mary risked much more with Jesus than she would have with another child. She risked her reputation, her marriage prospects, her community, even her life when she replied to Gabriel, ‘Behold, I am the servant of the Lord: let it be to me according to your word.”
“So often in our modern life, we see service and freedom as opposites… We humans thrive when serving with a grateful heart, while endlessly self-realizing ‘freedom’ makes us miserable.”
“If you have been a Christian for a while, my guess is you can think of times when you’ve cried to God for help and felt like you got nothing back. You’ve prayed for healing and it hasn’t come. You’ve sent for Jesus and felt quite alone. But when, at long last, Jesus comes to Mary, he sheds tears with her. He hadn’t stayed away because he didn’t care. He stayed away because he did care. The best thing he could give these siblings, whom he profoundly loved, was not immediate answer to their prayers, but revelation of himself.”
This book just released in July, 2022. You may purchase a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.
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