There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).

‘The question before us then is “How does Jesus minister to women?” The most striking thing about the role of women in the life and teaching of Jesus is the simple fact that they are there.31 He ministered to women and treated each one as a person.32

With great insight Dorothy Sayers said about Jesus: “They [women] had never known a man like this Man—there never has been such another. A prophet and teacher who never nagged at them, never flattered or coaxed or patronized…who took their questions and arguments seriously; who never mapped out their sphere for the, never urged them to be feminine or jeered at them for being female; who had no axe to grind and no uneasy male dignity to defend; who took them as he found them and was completely unself-conscious.”33 Both in his teaching and in his activities, Jesus reached out to women as persons who were equally worthy as men in his saving activity.

We see in the gospels that Jesus treated women with incredible respect. A classic passage in this regard is Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman.34 This is a remarkable exchange, since Jesus was not only interacting with a Samaritan, a member of a race that was despised by Jews,35 but also a woman. And Jesus’ conversation with this woman is probably the most profound discussion of theology in the gospels. Women were not encouraged to have interaction with male strangers.36

But Jesus went beyond the cultural ethnic and gender barriers and treated her as a person who was worth his offer of the living water of eternal life.37 He didn’t treat her in reference to what others said about her, her accomplishments or possessions, and he didn’t deal with her based on her appearance. He establishes through this woman that whoever accepts his offer of living water, that person will receive it. The woman saw the barrier as ethnic,38 whereas the disciples returned and made an issue of gender.39 But for Jesus, gender and ethnicity are irrelevant in his offer of salvation.

She comes to the well at noonday, the hottest hour of the day, which whispers a rumor of her reputation. The other women come at dusk, a cooler, more comfortable hour. They come not only to draw water, but to take off their veils and slip out from under the thumb of a male-dominated society. They come for companionship, to talk, to laugh, and to barter gossip—much of which centers around this woman. So shunned by these women, she braves the sun’s scorn. Accusing thoughts are her only companions as she ponders the futile road her life has traveled. She’s looked for love in all the wrong places, going from one dead-end relationship to another. For her, marriage has been a retreating mirage. Again and again she has returned to the matrimonial well, hoping to draw from it something to quench her thirst for love and happiness. But again and again, she has left that well disappointed.

And so, under the weight of such thoughts she comes to Jacob’s well, her empty water jar a telling symbol of her life. As her eyes meet the Savior’s, he sees within her a cavernous aching, a cistern in her soul that will forever remain empty unless he fills it. And there she meets Jesus.40

This encounter shows to all women that regardless of past mistakes, hurts, pain, and failures Jesus wants to fill women with his love because women are people intrinsically whom he values. Every woman is created in his image, a daughter of Eve, and he offers the greatest ministry ever; cleansing, forgiveness, hope, meaning, significance, and a life of power and purpose.

During another encounter with a woman, Jesus made a radical statement of value to the hypocritical religious leaders that were standing around. Luke recounts a narrative in which, in a synagogue one Sabbath, Jesus heals a woman crippled for eighteen years by a demonic spirit.41 The head of the synagogue protests Jesus’ performance of a healing on the Sabbath, but neither the woman’s presence is the synagogue nor her subsequent praise of God in response to her cure evokes any comment. Jesus showed his regard for her by calling her a “daughter of Abraham,” a term which is paralleled to Zacchaeus, who later will be called a “son of Abraham.”42 Both are God’s chosen people and heirs of the promises to Abraham, so both equally deserve the spiritual status and salvation guaranteed Abraham’s descendants. As Jesus offered salvation and healing to the people, women were equally worthy of his full-orbed ministry.

It has already been expressed that as people we have a need to belong, to feel worthy and to feel competent.43 Observe how these needs are satisfied in the manner in which Jesus dealt with women in the New Testament.44

1. Jesus Appreciated Women’s Spiritual Capabilities

He engaged in spiritual conversation. He talked to women about God, reality, and issues that count for eternity. To the woman at the well Jesus gives the most profound discourse in Scripture on the subject of worship. That God is spirit and that worship is not an approach of the body to a church, but an approach of the soul to the spirit of God. That was a cutting revelation to one who has lived so much of her life in the realm of the physical rather than the spiritual. In their spiritual conversation this stranger (Jesus) was first simply “a Jew”…then “Sir”…then “a prophet.” Finally she sees him for who he really is—”Messiah.” And in that moment of spiritual perception, she lives to tell his good news to the city that has both shared her and shunned her.

When Jesus was teaching about discipleship Matthew recalls, “And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, he said, “Behold, my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.”45 Women are here included as disciples. Obedience to the will of the Father was the hallmark of Jesus’ disciples, whatever the gender. Women are granted the status of being active full-fledged followers of Christ.46

In the Judaism of Jesus’ day, discipleship was oriented toward acquiring particular skills in the religious arena and therefore was primarily restricted to men.47 But Jesus’ form of discipleship is instead oriented toward transformation of the person’s life to be like him.

We also see Jesus’ appreciation of women’s spiritual capabilities in that it was a women (Mary Magdalene) who was first to receive news of His resurrection and then she was given the honored position of telling the disciples.48 She is a woman who was once possessed by demons and at the empty tomb she finds herself in the presence of angels. She is despondent and she tells them the reason for her tears. Then, from behind, another voice reaches out to her. Maybe the morning is foggy; maybe tears blur her eyes. Maybe Jesus is the last person she expects to see. Whatever the case, she doesn’t recognize him. That is, until he says, “Mary!” She blinks away the tears and can hardly believe her eyes. She had been there when he suffered at the cross; now he is there when she is suffering. She had stood by him in his darkest hour; now he is standing by her in hers. He had seen her tears; now he is there to wipe them all away.49

Jesus interrupts the embrace to send her on a great commission—to tell the disciples the good news. In his triumph, Jesus could have paraded through the streets of Jerusalem. He could have knocked on Pilate’s door. He could have confronted the high priest. But the first person our resurrected lord appears to is a woman without hope and he gives her a ministry.

2. Jesus Appreciated Women’s Intellectual Capabilities.

While there were conflicting attitudes about the education of women among the rabbis,50 there was no confusion with Jesus. We’ve already seen Him instructing the woman at the well about spiritual truth. Not only did Jesus talk with women, he also taught them. She was the first person to whom he revealed he was the Messiah.

As Jesus and the Twelve disciples were traveling, they were invited into the home of Mary and Martha. While Martha was busy with the preparations for the guests, Mary was “listening to the Lord’s word, seated at his feet.”51 Three times in Scripture, when we observe Mary (sister of Martha and Lazarus) she is sitting at the feet of Jesus.52 This is the traditional posture of a learner, a student, and a disciple.53 What is of critical importance is the fact that Jesus would be willing to sit in conversation with women in such a manner, or that he might have instructed them privately as a rabbi might instruct a promising student. Jesus valued her enough to teach her and her physical posture reflects the posture of her heart — humble, reverent, and teachable — all the qualities of a good disciple. What Martha was cooking in the kitchen will be gone in a meal, but what’s being prepared in the other room with Mary is eternal and will go on forever.54 Jesus doesn’t want food, he wants fellowship. Jesus desires that all believers think, grow, learn and He is an equal opportunity teacher to both men and women. It is interesting to observe that often in his teaching Jesus would use a pairing of men and women and of illustrations from both a man’s world and a woman’s world to communicate the truth being taught.55

3. Jesus Appreciated Women’s Abilities to Serve.

Women participated in the ministry of Jesus, accompanying him in his travels. Luke mentions a number of women by name that were part of the entourage which followed Jesus.56 On a number of occasions they gave public testimony to Jesus’ ministry. A woman who needed healing from a bleeding hemorrhage touched his garment and was healed, and Jesus paid attention to her and Scripture says, “…she came trembling and fell down before him, and declared in the presence of all the people the why she had touched him and how she had been immediately healed.”57

In Luke 7:36-50 and John 12:1-11 Jesus was anointed by women which means he received worship and adoration from them. There is no greater service to Jesus than worship,58 and they served him through their worship.

We see Jesus appreciate one woman’s act of service at the end of a weeklong prelude to His last Passover. He had road into town to the crowd singing hosanna and everything had gone downhill from there. After a lot of confrontation, Jesus was able to lose himself in the holiday crowd and he finds a quiet place on a bench opposite the temple treasury. For a change, all eyes are not on him. Instead, they are on the 12 trumpet-shaped coffers where people are filing by to deposit their offerings. Standing among them is a woman who is a widow.59 There is a place for widows in the ancient Jewish world, but it is not a place of importance, like the priest’s. It is not a place of influence, like the merchant’s. It is a place with orphans and transients.60 A dependent place with little income and barely surviving. The place she’s at now is the treasury, where she’s standing in line with the little she has left palmed in her hand; two copper coins. The smallest offering the temple allowed. And there she waits, quietly, patiently, until it is her time to give.

Jesus sees her standing there and he waves over his disciples so they can see her, too. The coins in her hand are so small and thin that when she drops them in the coffers, they don’t even clink. Heaven heard the sound, but on earth it fell on deaf ears…even the disciples, but this day Jesus makes sure they hear. And 2000 years later the service of this poor widow is still being talked about in lessons, lectures and literature.61 What a remarkable thing! Jesus stopped and noticed this act of service. He took such pleasure in so small a gesture. She served by giving. All that she had she gave. Her gift may not have meant a lot to the ministry of the temple, but it meant a lot to God. That is why the Savior, on his way to the costliest of sacrifices, stopped to honor this woman’s sacrificial act of service.

Whenever ministry is spoken of in the New Testament as being rendered directly to Jesus, it is the ministry of either angels or women. In the earthly life of Jesus we see women who glorified Jesus through their domestic responsibilities with which they ministered to him.62 The key word in “ministry” is “service.” And again Jesus is the supreme example. Jesus’ entire redemptive purpose for coming to earth is encapsulated in Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

The question we began with was, “How does Jesus minister to women?” The answer is, “really good!” He came to serve. We see his service to women through talk, through teaching, through touch, and through thankful praise for their faith. As we all have a need to belong, feel worthy, and feel competent, we see that Jesus brings dignity, value, and worth to women and their roles of service as “daughters of God.”

https://bible.org/article/how-jesus-ministered-women

Are prayers being hindered because husbands are not honouring their wives .
New Living Translation 1 peter 3:7 .
In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God’s gift of new life. Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered.

It is not about speeches from another message, it is about the message in its entirety! Listen to the whole thing before you put out responses!

Most of us so called Christians would have lambasted Paul and the Peters the same way we are blasting these men of God if we lived in their day.

Can you imagine if the same preacher were to say ” You foolish Ghanaians! who has bewitched you?” But Paul said that to the Galatians of his time. It would have been absolutely unheard of! Infact i can bet that some would have called that he renders a national apology, etc, etc.
We enjoy taking things out of context just to show what? our learnedness and so called enlightenment? well, God is watching and will surely Judge us all one day….

I beg to differ. Actions speak louder than words. We can tell from actions. Not all the preachers who have made a name are good people or even christian. There is so much more that goes on behind closed doors that we are not privy to. All we see is what they present to us in front of a pulpit. It is time to educate ourselves and seek God directly. There is no need to go through other men. And we have to sharpen our spirit of discernment in order to see through the fake messages and bad actions of leaders and not just listen and follow them blindly! BTW, I am happily married but don’t see the point in sending out messages like this to Ghanaians especially as there are several women living with gay men who refuse to make their sexuality public! Let’s be wise people and stop validating unbecoming behaviour!

hahaha…priceless!

Thank you Princewel! It’s gratifying to know guys like you do exist. I believe living together in harmony is a two way street. I will give my man all the respect he needs and he will give me all the love I desire. The fact that a lady is not married doesn’t make her incomplete. In fact a man is better off with a woman who finds herself complete and happy as a single person rather than going for someone who thinks marriage is what should complete her. Marriage is a blessing from God but being single is no curse and as I said earlier, we can all achieve our God-given potentials single or married.
And you are spot on the worship of men of God these days. It’s so appalling. I bet people wouldn’t recognise Jesus if he came in the form of a poor wretched looking man because we are so engrossed in worshipping the men of God. They are not God. They are servants of God and I am against any disrespect towards anybody be it a man of God and anyone else but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t speak the truth or disagree with them if need be. No wonder people chew grass and drink fuel cos their pastors asked them to. For lack of knowledge my people perish.
Have a good weekend everyone! Cheers!

Ama I like your fiance and I dont know you but I think the fact that you still choose to marry knowing that it doesnt “validate” you or mean you are at the peak of your life is a good quality and shows maturity. Pls, stop worshiping so called men of God and correct them when they go wrong. Women have suffered a lot in this male ridden society. Let we the men shut up and let them be.

He’s actually laughing at your comments. he doesn’t believe guys like u still exist. He believes marriage is a partnership and he knows I respect him as the head of the family but that in no way makes it a privilege that he wants to marry me.

Agreed

*stands up and cheers*