‘There is a difference between feminism and justice’

Luke 24:8-11 says (NLT, with my emphasis added): “So [the women] rushed back from the tomb to tell his eleven disciples – and everyone else – what had happened. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and several other women who told the apostles what had happened. But the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it.”

Over 2,000 years later, as a westernised woman, I feel completely seen by this verse. I’m sure none of us is unfamiliar with the seeming minimisation that can pop up in interactions with the opposite sex. 

I feel blessed to have married my quintessentially masculine husband. As much as I am drawn to his vigour, I can be equally as frustrated by what some might typify as his soft chauvinism. For instance, when I take the wheel of the car, he grips the arm rest and steps on phantom breaks to the extent that I rarely drive with him as passenger. The circle of this type of condescension continues. I was recently shocked reading a message in my teenage daughter’s group chat from a boy stating flatly, “women belong in the kitchen”. 

I think this takes us to the crux of the issue, the dirty word ‘service’. Perhaps women are seen as lesser beings because we traditionally hold serving roles. Mothering Sunday is rife with accolades for the women who’ve laid down their lives for us. We run the home and – for those who work outside of it – these days, often we run the workplace and the home. Forbes, CBS and Psychology Today have all reported that breadwinner wives still do the predominant amount of housework. Even in church, women take on traditional serving roles: childcare, baking, cleaning. We have been imbued with a loving duty of service. To the world, this is sacrilege! We are told our pride as women will be found in kicking off the shackles of servitude, becoming more like men. This will equate to our sweet acceptance and value in the world. But in God’s kingdom, down is up. The Son of God was the ultimate servant. In his own words: “Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves” (Luke 22:27, NLT). 

Is service a dirty word?

I think the world has it backwards. I’ve written before about the insecure pride of the feminist. Women are not less than men because we are different. We have our periods to contend with, children to bare, older family members to care for; all these things take years away from a woman’s personal autonomy. To the feminist, this personal autonomy is the currency of freedom. But we find ourselves perpetually relegated to the work of the home, even when we travel to the workplace. 

There is a difference between feminism and justice. Justice is inherently Christ-like. Modern women have earned equal rights: the right to vote, to work, to divorce and receive alimony and child support. This is just. We even have the right, under unjust laws, to kill our offspring. Nothing under worldly law holds women to the account of servitude any longer. Should we throw off the shackles of service to others so we can better serve ourselves?

We are told our pride as women will be found in kicking off the shackles of servitude

Alternatively, this was the state of women in the Roman world when Jesus walked the earth; in an article for Bible.org, Melanie Newton writes:

“What was it like to be a woman living around the rim of the Mediterranean during Jesus’ time? Imagine a time when a man was commended because he killed his wife for appearing in public without her veil; when a Roman woman’s rights were completely subject to her father’s power. If she married, then those rights, even the power of life and death, were transferred to her husband…In both Greek and Roman cultures, women held a second-rate status. Their legal rights were practically nonexistent.”

God chooses the undervalued and overlooked

When God chose women as the first to discover the resurrection, they were travelling to the tomb of Jesus to anoint his body with spices – ie they were en route to serve. We can see from Newton’s description that God didn’t choose them because they were noteworthy or accomplished, because they had admirable job titles, or homeschooled ten children in three languages. 

So why did God choose to reveal the most important miracle in history, not to the liberated women of today, steeped in just equality, but to women whom he already knew would be disbelieved when they gave their account of his resurrection to the men? In 1 Corinthians 1:27, Paul wrote: “God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God” (NLT). God didn’t choose these women because they had special knowledge, insight or power. He chose them by merit of them being overlooked and undervalued. Their sole claim of recognition was in being chosen by God. 

As women, to be valued we don’t need to join in with men – many of whom are already losing spiritually in the proverbial rat race. A penthouse flat and shiny new cars don’t give our souls value and purpose, even if they do include a husband and 1.4 children. The Bible implores us to run our race well but reminds us, it’s Jesus who is the champion (Hebrews 12:2). If as women we bare the mantle of servants, it’s not a discounted place in the eyes of God. As in the story of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42), our purpose is not found in servanthood alone, but as women who are specifically seeking to serve Jesus. As we do so, we will discover his resurrection power and be blessed – like the women at the tomb.