Post #15 of my critique of the Women's Ordination video

Post #15 of my critique of the Women's Ordination video listed below: POINT #12 from the video: Although Jesus desired that women share the good news of salvation, He only called men to serve in the capacity of apostles. 

Using this fact against women’s ordination, I can actually understand. Although I would still say Pastors are still not quite the same as Apostles, Apostles are much closer to the job description than any other occupation mentioned in this video so far.  So if women can be pastors, why didn’t Jesus choose women to be part of his special group of twelve?  To this I have to say, I don’t know.  We do know however, that Jesus did not just have twelve disciples. Were there any women in the larger group?  Quite possibly!!  “³⁸ Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.

³⁹ And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. ⁴⁰ But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.

⁴¹ And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:

⁴² But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:38-42.  I used to think this story was about Jesus coming to visit and Mary delightedly sitting down at Jesus feet to listen to him, while Martha prepared all the food. Martha gets upset that Mary is not helping and asks Jesus to make her come and help. However, I’m now convinced I’ve been missing something all of these years.  For example, why does the text state where Mary was sitting?  The more I study the bible the more convinced I am, that the bible does not give any extra details for literary effect.  And why does it say, “ALSO sat at Jesus’ feet”?  Who else was sitting there?

Well the whole story changes radically when you know a little bit about Jewish discipleship.  I am indebted to Lois Tverberg and Ray Vanderlaan for this knowledge, although I am not quoting them.  “Sitting at a Rabbi so and so’s feet” is a Jewish idiom that means you are the disciple of the said Rabbi, which means that the other people sitting at Jesus’ feet would be his disciples. That “also” could definitely be important. Now look at the story again.  Jesus has come to Martha’s house. Martha asks Jesus to tell Mary come and help her fill the traditional woman’s role.  And Jesus chides Martha for being so worried and troubled.  I have to say, the thought used to cross my mind when I listened to this story, “here Martha is trying to make her guests comfortable and feed them”, something that is highly praised and exemplified throughout the bible, think Abraham and Sarah feeding the three visitors for one example, “and yet it almost seems that Jesus is scolding her for her sense of hospitality.”  In all honesty I used to wonder why.  But what if you look at it through a new lens, the story could look a bit different.  Mary has possibly been following Jesus for some time, whether she came home before Jesus got there or arrived with him doesn’t really matter.  Maybe Martha has been handling all of the home management for some time. Maybe there a lot of worries and troubles that go along with this management.  Martha’s complaint could be much more about Mary’s choice of being Jesus’ disciple rather than staying home and helping her manage the home. But Jesus affirms that Mary has made the correct choice.

I love this!!  While I would say Jewish women were esteemed in their culture far beyond that of women in the Roman or Greek cultures, I would also point out that women were specifically treasured in their traditional roles of womanhood.  Although it certainly was not the universal view, some Rabbis felt women should not even study Torah simply because it might take them away from their duties of raising a family.  Nevertheless even with these Rabbis, this was not because women were thought incapable of understanding God or following him, in fact Jewish thought from 2^nd temple period onward seems to believe that women are more spiritually minded than men.  Instead this was because Jewish culture, correctly I believe, puts such a high emphasis and importance on Motherhood and raising a family.  However, I do not accept as true that women cannot effectively do both. Apparently Jesus affirms the fact that studying God’s word and following him are just as important for a woman as it is for a man.

That being said, the fact remains women are not included in the twelve and I do not know why. This certainly could be interpreted as a reason to establish male headship in the church, although not in the home, a place in which women of this time were thought to be equal with their husbands. But I also would also point out these facts: Women followed Jesus and financed his ministry.  Mary and Martha’s devotion to Jesus is mentioned more often than that of their brother Lazarus’s. They must have been awesome women.  The resurrection was announced to women first, and it was their job to go and tell the 12.  We know of at least one woman apostle later in the bible named Junia. “Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was” Romans 16:7.  Women are the only ones mentioned in Acts 16:13-15 as meeting for prayer on Sabbath in Philippi. All of these facts seem to point so some other reason that the twelve specially set aside by Jesus were male, other than Jesus establishing male headship of the church.