Answer: The highest possible value! Jesus sent the most valuable of all announcements to the entire universe through women.
- John 20:16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him, “Rabboni!” (which is to say, Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’ ” 18 Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that He had spoken these things to her.
- Luke 24:1 Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. 2 But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. 3 Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. 5 Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, 7 saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’ ”
Truth No. 1: All women, in Christ, are unfathomably BLESSED beyond comprehension and each one has the continuing opportunity to store treasure in heaven every day by simply declaring as did Mary and the other women, “He is risen!’
Truth No. 2: Jesus first words announcing His Messiahship and Ministry was, of course, overwhelmingly important to all people:
- Luke 4:17 And He (Jesus) was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent
Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery
of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; 19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” [Isaiah 61:1-2]
Truth No. 3: What is the acceptable year of the Lord? – 2 Corinthians 6:1-We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For He
says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped
you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
Why must you understand this important truth? All people born into the world are born children of the devil and are CAPTIVES of his evil will which promotes the fallen sin-filled nature to pursue “self-rule”. By exercising the “self-will” of being “their own gods”, all people love themselves first above all else as they try to gain and arrange their own plans attempting to flee Pain and seek Pleasure.
Truth No. 4: Jesus Christ came to set people free! What do we need most to be set free from? Our self-will! Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden caused our separation from God. Our
dead hearts continually want to reject Holy God’s good and best will for our lives. We insist that our happiness is found in being the king or queen of our world. We are so passionate about our self-will that sadly, to our own harm and the harm of all those we touch, we will insist on having our own way regardless of whom we might hurt. In our fallen sin-filled state we look at other people as OBJECTS to be used for our own gain or pleasure.
The world marches to this drumbeat evil thought: “I am stronger than you, thus, I will FORCE you to do what I tell you to do!”
Jesus comes and declares this sinful thinking and behavior is just the opposite of the righteous thinking of Holy God.
- Mark 10:41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be greatly displeased with James and John. 42 But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. 44 And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
Men and women believe success in life is like a pyramid, large at the base with a single point at the top. Whoever has the most power is at the top of the pyramid and the greater the number of people under that person serving him has the most blessed place of all.
Jesus teaches us the opposite is true. The person who possesses true joy, peace and contentment actually INVERTS the pyramid of life as he will SERVE THE GREATEST NUMBER of people possible.
Men were created physically stronger. In their sin-filled thinking, men will tend to abuse their strength and routinely attempt to force others who are weaker, men, women and children, to serve them. The result: Pain, sorrow, tears, suffering, destruction, agony and death.
Jesus came to declare God’s original Perfect Plan of Peace and Harmony. This is why He began His teaching ministry with our beginning passage: To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery
of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; 19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” [Isaiah 61:1-2]
Some 3 years later, Jesus, even though He is Sovereign Creator God who has all power, ended His teaching by voluntarily submitting to the “evil intentions of the strong religious leaders of the day” as He allowed them to arrest, humiliate, torture, spit upon him, blaspheme and nail Him to a cross of crucifixion to bring about His death of the body.
Why, if Jesus had all power, did He allow the mocking, cruelty, and execution to happen? The answer is so simple and yet the most powerful force in all the universe. LOVE!
- John 3:14 . . even so must the Son of Man be lifted up [crucified], 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world [all men, women and children] that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
Jesus allowed His death to be brought about to become the SERVANT OF ALL, dying on the cross for the lost, so He could pay the penalty which we deserve for our sins.
Jesus’ death destroyed the devil’s plan to keep people in bondage to sin and separated from God.
- Hebrews 2:13 And again: “I will put My trust in Him.” And again: “Here am I and the children whom God has given Me.” 14 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Jesus’ death accomplished His prophesied announcement of Isaiah 61: To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim
liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed.
All people fit into these “captive” categories. When Jesus came and declared God’s will for all relationships, women were particularly elevated and freed from the oppression which sin had brought into the world. Jesus clearly declared women to have the same value as men and declared God’s love for all people equally. Furthermore, as Perfect Judge, Jesus declared God’s wrath would be justly poured out on anyone, male or female, who oppresses any
other person.
- Mark 12:30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. 31 And the second,
like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
How does this explain our opening question? What is the value of women in Christianity?
Answer: All people have suffered since the sin of Adam and Eve. But, it does seem like women have been special targets of the devil’s hatred and wrath since God’s judgment was pronounced in Genesis 3.
- Genesis 3:14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done
this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”
This is Jesus’ first pronouncement of God’s Plan of Reconciliation of sin-filled men and women back to Himself as a loving family. This Reconciliation, Redemption and Salvation would be accomplished through a WOMAN’s SEED.
As we know it is the male who is created to have the seed of life. Thus, the Woman’s Seed must be a supernatural creation by God for the God-Man Jesus Christ who would be born of a virgin.
Comment: It seems that the devil understood this clearly and from that point on was determined to destroy not only all mankind, but especially bring the most intense hatred possible towards women. The devil is constantly working this effort in his futile attempt to prevent God’s final judgment upon himself trying to derail God’s Salvation Plan for redeemed humanity.
Jesus came to Free the Captives. All of us are captives to our sinful hearts, and, it seems, the devil’s most horrific onslaught of evil has been poured out upon the physically weaker women
and children as he evilly taught sinful men, that women and children are nothing more than objects to be used or crops to be consumed.
Jesus said [paraphrased]: “No! May it never be!” Then Jesus began to show His love and respect for women by example. One only needs to study the book of Luke [Luke 7:36-50 would be a good place to begin this study] to see example after example of the women who held a special protected valuable place in Jesus’ life and work.
Easily the greatest examples of love poured out upon Jesus is listed by women. The clearest example of Jesus’ freeing the captive and elevating womanhood, might be the fact that it was a handful of women [Luke 24; Matthew 27:55-56, 28:1-10; Mark 15; John 20] who stood with Him around the cross of execution at His death. When all men forsook Jesus, it was the women who stood with Him for comfort. It was a woman who sacrificially poured out costly fragrance for His approaching death and burial. Maybe the most compelling illustration of the high value Jesus places on womanhood would be the fact that the Good News of His resurrection from the dead, which is the very foundation of our own eternal life with Him, was given to women.
From that moment to this very day, there is no possibility to NOT UNDERSTAND how important and valuable women are to Jesus and to all Christianity.
- Galatians 3:27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek [non-Jew], there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
God has no second class children! We are all joint heirs with Jesus Christ over all the universe. We are blessed in Christ whether we are male or female by birth. May we give back to Jesus what He rightly owns and purchased back to Himself and that is, our lives and all that He has placed in our hands which we use to glorify Him.
We suggest you spend some time reviewing our video, Broken Hearts, Costly Perfume and Tears. After viewing you surely will never doubt again of the value Jesus places upon women to Himself and His kingdom.
Watch: Broken Hearts, Costly Perfume and Tears – https://vimeo.com/724044711
