Have you ever noticed that at the heart of the Christian faith lies the historic testimony of women. The gospel of Jesus Christ requires us to believe the word of women. Bear in mind the broader context of the ancient world in the time of Jesus, where women’s testimony was regarded as being of lesser value than that of men. Josephus the Jewish writer who lived in the first century wrote: “But let not the testimony of women be admitted, on account of the frivolousness and gullibility of their sex.” This was the mindset of the era. Yet at the centre of the historic claims of the Christian faith the question echoes: “will we believe the testimony of women?”
It is really quite striking that the main facts of the Christian faith, including the creeds of the church, were all primarily witnessed by women. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary (the doctrine of the incarnation was witnessed first and foremost by Mary the mother of Jesus), he suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified died and was buried (the doctrine of the atonement was observed and witnessed in all four gospels primarily by Jesus’ female disciples) and on the 3rd day he rose again (the resurrection of Christ is witnessed first in every gospel account by women.) The central truths of the Christian faith stand or fall on the testimony of female eyewitnesses.
If we won’t listen to women, we don’t have access to the central facts of the Christian faith. Of all people in the world Christians should be those who value women’s voices. This matters. Faith in Christ is not wish fulfilment or cultural superstition, it is historically rooted. If it matters that these things actually happened, it is also hugely significant that women played such a prominent role in observing and then testifying to these events. If we believe the gospel accounts about Jesus of Nazareth, we will need to listen to the female witnesses that they rely so heavily upon.
Their testimony about the risen Christ was personal “I have seen the Lord” (John 20:18), it was detailed – they went to Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb as he was burying Jesus and “they saw how the body was laid in it” (Luke 23:55), their testimony was self-deprecating they are described as “trembling and bewildered” (Mark 16:8). The women witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection were humble and honest about their own insufficiencies being included in the accounts “they have taken my Lord away and I don’t know where they have put him” (John 20:2), they experienced telling their stories and not being believed “they did not believe the women” (Luke 24:11) and they were genuinely fearful and yet joyful “the women hurried away from the tomb afraid yet filled with joy” (Matthew 28:8).
That tells us quite a bit about what testimony about the risen Christ should and will be like today too. Perhaps our Christian witness could more consciously follow this pattern shown by Jesus’ women disciples as well as the convincing, powerful, popular apologetic arguments for the resurrection we often hear put forward. Could we be more personal, detailed, self-deprecating and humble in our apologetics? Might we also learn from the women in the gospels and better prepare ourselves and others for the common experiences of being rejected or feeling fearful as we share Christ in this world?
In her essay Are Women Human? written in 1938 and published in 1947, Dorothy L. Sayers wrote: “Perhaps it is no wonder that the women were first at the Cradle and last at the Cross. They had never known a man like this Man – there never has been such another.” The magnetic attraction of Jesus of Nazareth is as real today as it was in the first century and in the last century – if those women who were first at the cradle and last at the cross were right about him, that same Jesus is alive right now.
Bio
Dr Amy Orr-Ewing is an international author, speaker and theologian with a doctorate from the University of Oxford and over 25 years in ministry. Her new book Lead like the Real You is available for preorder.
