Adapted from The Bible Explainer by Michael Wittmer
Have you ever wondered if Jesus was a feminist? This is a loaded question and means different things to different people. Let’s start with the simplest and most important meaning of the question: Did Jesus believe women were equal in value to men? Absolutely. Jesus honored women in ways that jarred His patriarchal world.
He struck up a conversation with a Samaritan woman with a past. Jews didn’t talk to Samaritans, and men didn’t talk to women, especially alone. Yet Jesus engaged this woman in personal banter, asking increasingly probing questions about her marital history. His disciples were surprised by the attention He gave her (John 4:1–27).
Jesus defended a sinful woman who anointed His feet with perfume and washedthem with her tears. At dinner. Hosted by an uptight, religious leader who despised the woman, as well as Jesus for allowing her to touch Him. Jesus told the man He could learn a thing or two from her tender caresses (Luke 7:36–50).
He was also touched by a desperately ill and unclean woman as He jostled through a crowd. Jesus stopped everyone and called on the woman to show herself. When she came forward and fell at His feet, trembling in fear and gratitude, He spoke kindly: “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace” (Luke 8:48).
Jesus had female disciples. The inner circle of twelve were men, but Jesus was also followed by “some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases,” women who supported Him financially from “out of their own means” (Luke 8:2–3). He encouraged a friend named Mary to sit as His feet as a disciple; when her sister grumbled that Mary wasn’t helping enough with the women’s work of preparing dinner, Jesus told Martha to leave her alone. “Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:42).
Jesus compared God to a woman who had lost one of her silver coins and swept the house searching for it. God is like that woman, urgently seeking every lost sinner. She will not give up until she finds him (Luke 15:8–10).
When Jesus rose from the dead, guess who He looked for first? Not Peter, James, or John, His closest three disciples, but Mary Magdalene, a woman from whom He had cast out seven demons. The resurrected Christ lingered by the tomb, knowing that Mary and the other women disciples would be coming to anoint His body with spices to mask the stench of its decay. Mary mistook Him for the gardener and asked where He had moved the body. Jesus said, “Mary.” That’s right. He announced His resurrection to the world by saying the name of a woman (see John 20:11–16).
Mary melted in Jesus’ arms. She clung to Him, afraid to lose Him again. But Jesus told her and the other women to go tell His male disciples that He had risen from the dead. The disciples didn’t believe the women because a resurrection is unbelievable—and because the reporters were women. A woman’s word was inadmissible in first-century Jewish courts. But Jesus valued women and their word, and He trusted them with the message that brings hope to the world (Matthew 28:1–10; Luke 24:11).
Jesus seems to believe in male headship—His twelve disciples were men, and He did not disagree with Scripture’s depiction of men’s and women’s roles in the temple and in the home. If you find that distasteful, remember that no one has done more to elevate women than Jesus, and no book more than the Bible. Paul’s epistles countered the tendency of Roman men to dominate their wives. He commanded husbands to sacrificially love their wives, as Jesus gave His life for the church (Ephesians 5:25–33). The early Christians rescued infant girls who were left outside and exposed to die just because they were girls.
What religion has a higher view of women? Do women flourish better in Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, or Christianity? Where else are women treated with the dignity they deserve? You might think women fare better in nonreligious circles, until you consider the logical end of the sexual revolution. When everyone asserts their right to be and do whatever they wish, no one is safe—especially women. Radical individualism inspired sexual freedom, which produced radical feminism, which inevitably led to the transgender movement. Now the very meaning of a woman—including her hard-won rights and even her safety—is at risk.
It’s true that Christians have not always treated women well. We are fallen people who commit both willful sins and foolish mistakes. Whether from malice or ignorance, we have not always lived up to the high standards of our Lord. And yet, Christianity is history’s leading supporter of female dignity and equality. This may partly explain why most churches attract more women than men. If you rounded up all the people in the world, the person most likely to be a Christian is a woman of color. Women vote with their feet—they run to the Lord who loves them.