“Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, ‘I am thirsty.’ A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” John 19:28-30 [NIV]

Today the man who knew me best in the world died. It was a cruel death – brutal, painful – and part of me has wished, over and over, that I had never heard that Jesus would be in Jerusalem. That I had never set out on my pilgrimage to see him, to tell him how he had changed my life. And then when I arrived, when I learned that he had been taken, that he would be executed, why did I stay? I suppose, though I am just a woman, and a Samaritan at that, I wanted to be his witness. And perhaps – I wanted to see a miracle. I hoped that finally he would reveal himself in all of his power. Instead I saw a man, ripped, pierced, suffering – who wants to see their beloved in such agony?

I don’t know if he saw me. To be honest, I don’t KNOW if he would remember me. We only met once, and our time together was very, very short. So you may think I’m crazy when I tell you this, but… I think he spoke to me. From the cross, I mean. The time was growing short – I could tell he was getting weaker – his breathing was so shallow and labored. But then, suddenly, with a great effort he pulled up his head, looked right into my eyes, and cried, so clearly, “I thirst.”

Immediately, I found myself back by that well in the scorching heat of the noon-day sun. No one would come to draw water at that time if they had a choice – but I didn’t. The other women of the village had made that clear. When a strange, dusty man asked me for a drink, all of my defenses went up. In my experience, men who talked to me – well, they weren’t really interested in conversation. And this man was clearly a Jew – a fact I reminded him of sharply as I turned away.

When he answered me, I thought at first he babbled like a fool. For one who moved with such quiet confidence, his words were strange. “If you knew the gift of God,” he said, “and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” I confess, I mocked him to his face – how will you draw this water? Are you truly so great – you can do this without a bucket? But his next words and the knowingness of his gaze caught me. “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,” he said, “but those who drink the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

To be honest, I still didn’t understand exactly what he was offering – I just knew I wanted it. Never to make the hot, humiliating, lonely mid-day trek to the well again – and maybe – something more. Something in me was drawing toward this man – but then he asked me to bring my husband to him. All of the old wounds re-surfaced, and I covered them with a polite lie. It didn’t work. He knew my entire ugly history – and, the most shocking thing was, I saw compassion rather than judgment in his eyes.

I tried just once more to hold him at bay – in a perverse way, I wanted him to remember that he was supposed to look down on me, like everyone else did. He just smiled at me in a way that seemed to recognize me as one of his own. “A time is coming,” he said, “and has now come when the true worshippers [‘when you,’ my heart whispered] will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers that the Father seeks.”

Could it be? I finally drew close to him, saying with hesitant wonder, “I know that Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” He knew what I was asking. “I, the one speaking to you – I am he.”

His friends were uncomfortable when they returned to find us talking, so close together. I didn’t stay long – I needed to go anyway, to tell the others of my village, whether they would believe me or not – and as I ran away, I heard his friends urging him to eat. “My food,” he replied, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”

This is the man who changed my life – the one I heard cry out on the cross, “I thirst,” just moments before it was finished. You may find the words unremarkable – he was a man, after all. I know – I saw him, I even touched him – and men, especially men suffering as he did, thirst. But he looked at me as he said it, and I wonder if he wasn’t talking about something more. If he wasn’t reminding me once again to look more carefully, below the surface, beyond the obvious physical realities. I think he was talking about the desire of his heart and asking me once again to share a drink with him, this time from a much deeper well.

He hungered to do the will of his Father – wasn’t he thirsty for that as well? He offered me living water, a cooling draft that would draw me into the arms of his Father, the life of his Father – as he hung there, so very alone on that cross, didn’t he long for that as well? I am sure that many, more learned than I, will offer theories about which words of Scripture Jesus fulfilled today. They will offer scholarly proofs and persuasive commentary. All I can tell you is that as he spoke, my heart instinctively cried back in the words of the Psalmist: “As the deer pants for the water, so my soul pants for you… My soul thirsts for God, for the living God… When can I go and meet with God?”

Do you know what the soldiers offered Jesus in response to his cry of thirst? Vinegar. Rank, sour, disgusting… As angry as I am at that memory, do you know what I offered him that day so long ago? Essentially, the same thing. I never did draw him water, but I drenched him with my anger, my pain, my sin. And just like the vinegar, he took it and drank. Then he held out a cool cup brimming with forgiveness and new life.

I am told that on the night Jesus was betrayed, he took a cup of wine, and told his friends, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” He takes our sin – and he offers us so much more in return. Nothing less than complete acceptance, total forgiveness, full restoration to life in the Spirit. It is a mystery, and I am only a woman, and a Samaritan at that – but this is what I have seen, this is what I have heard.

Brenna blogs at http://www.purpleforparenting.net/.

I am seriously disappointed in Zondervan for making this decision. Douglas Moo, chairman of the Committee on Bible Translation, says that for the new version they desire to “make sure we are putting God’s unchanging word into English people are actually using.” But honestly, how can they do that if antiquated masculine pronouns are all that are used? Children these days do not learn an English that uses male pronouns as the generic form or speech. The language the majority of Americans actually use is gender inclusive, that is just the way things are. I recall a professor I knew who worked on Bible translations share that what changed his mind about the necessity of gender inclusive language for translations was when his daughter asked him why only boys could be Christians. Her Bible used male pronouns and terms like “son of God,” and as a modern American she had no idea that such language was meant to include girls as well. Forget whether gender-inclusive language is the fair or the just way to translate the Bible, it’s practical in our day and age.

So to have the anti-female voices of Grudem, and Dobson, and Piper and their followers win out disturbs me. It is just one more example how for many Christians one of the central aspects of their faith is the subjugation of women. I know there are other accurate and appropriate Bible translations available, but none with the reach as the NIV. It is the powerhouse, it’s the translation of choice for evangelicalism. I grew up with the NIV, and since it’s publication have used the TNIV. It is those words that I know by heart, and it feels like a betrayal to have Zondervan proclaim that I as a woman matter so little.

So how do you respond? What translation do you use? How does gender-inclusive language affect your reading of scripture?

By Adele Hebert

There are numerous occasions recorded in the Gospels where women are treated as second class citizens, even as sex objects, and it was expected that Jesus would do the same. One such occasion occurred when Jesus was invited to dinner at the house of a skeptical Pharisee (Lk 7:36ff.) and a woman of ill repute (harmatolos, a sinner) entered and washed Jesus’s feet with her tears, wiped them with her hair and anointed them. The Pharisee saw her solely as an evil sexual creature: “The Pharisee …said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would know who this woman is who is touching him and what a bad name she has.’” But Jesus deliberately rejected that way of thinking. He rebuked the Pharisee and spoke solely of the woman’s human, spiritual actions; he spoke of her love, her unlove, i.e., her sins, her being forgiven, and her faith. Jesus then addressed her (it was not “proper” to speak to women in public, especially “improper” women) as a human person: “Your sins are forgiven…. Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

A similar situation occurred when the scribes and Pharisees used a woman reduced entirely to a sex object to set a legal trap for Jesus (Jn 8:2 11). It is difficult to imagine a more callous use of a human person than what the “adulterous” woman was put through, by the enemies of Jesus. First, she was “taken” in the act, then dragged before the scribes and Pharisees, finally brought before an even larger crowd that Jesus was instructing, “making her stand in full view of everybody.” They told Jesus that she had been caught in the very act of committing adultery and that Moses had commanded that such women be stoned to death (Dt 22:22ff.). “What have you to say?” The trap was partly that if Jesus said Yes to the stoning he would be violating the Roman law, which limited capital punish¬ment, and if he said No, he would contravene Mosaic law. It could have been to expose Jesus’s reputation for kindness toward, and championing the cause of, women in opposition to the law and the condemnation of sin.

Jesus, of course, eluded their snares by refusing to become entangled in legalisms and plots. Rather, he dealt with both the accusers and the accused directly as spiritual, ethical, human persons. He spoke directly to the accusers in the con¬text of their own personal ethical conduct: “If there is one of you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” To the accused woman he spoke with compassion, but without approving her conduct: “‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.’”

Regarding the status of women, the woman being caught in the act of adultery, according to the Law of Moses must to be stoned to death. But since the type of execution mentioned was stoning, the woman must have been a “virgin betrothed,” as referred to in Dt 22:23f. It states both the man and the woman must be stoned, although in the Gospel story only the woman is brought forward. However, the reason given for why the man ought to be stoned was not because he had violated the woman, or God’s law, but “because he had violated the wife (property) of his neighbor.” It was the injury to the man (not the wife or betrothed) that was the great evil. Jesus defended her; he did not condemn her; he declared her a person, definitely not the property of a man.

Adapted from Leonard Swidler, Biblical Affirmations of Women

Adele Hebert is an independent scholar, who lives in northern Alberta, Canada. Adele has been writing articles, bible studies and editing Christian books, all about how Jesus loves women. Adele has helped God’s Word to Women website, Christians for Biblical Equality, and recently worked with Leonard Swidler on his latest book, Jesus Was A Feminist. Currently Adele is writing a series of bible studies on how Jesus gave women a voice.

So today many of us are taking time to listen to the voices of women of faith – looking to the women in the Bible, church history, and those who helped shape our faith. Some of us are blogging in a synchroblog and others are preaching about biblical women in churches.

For example –

Christine Sine reflects on why observing International Women’s Day is important – “Some think that singling out women and their achievements like this is outdated and even obsolete. I suspect they are unaware of how many women still struggle to treated as equals. I will never forget the Cambodian refugee who said to me “Your being here gives me hope that one day my daughters will have the same kind of freedom that you have.” The commemoration of a day like this which has fostered massive change, not only for women, but for children, the underprivileged and victims of discrimination still gives hope to those who long for freedom. Its achievements cannot be forgotten or taken for granted.”

Minnowspeaks gives a poignant summary on what it means to her to celebrate women – “I want to celebrate women, and I do! I celebrate those beautiful women who, rather than focus on the injustices that have risen up against them, rejoice in their lack and know it is enough to be loved of God. I celebrate those hands and feet and hearts that do the little and in doing a little teach the rest of us that we too can do a little. I celebrate those women who face circumstances much more heart breaking, challenging, and costly then my own and yet who do not give in or run away. I celebrate them because while they could stand in judgment against me; they do not. I celebrate them because they are beacons of hope in a world that needs to be reminded what hope looks like. I celebrate them because I need to be reminded what they look like.”

Pam Hogeweide considers what the world is missing when women are silenced – “The devil was brilliant when he inspired misogyny. Convince a people group that women are less than in some way or capacity and you have effectively cut that tribe’s power base in half. At least by half. Oh yeah, make sure the gender you are neutering are the primary caregivers in the home and of children so they will ensure that the next generation continues the tradition of gender inequality.”

Teresa upholds the various roles biblical women served in – “It’s interesting to note that Paul does not commend Phoebe and Junia or the other women in Romans 16 for being good wives and mothers, which leads me to think that, in Paul’s mind, these roles do not define Biblical womanhood, important though they may be. So we women should celebrate the many gifts we have been given and live the lives God has in store for us, not cowtowing to just one limited image of who we are supposed to be.”

And in her reflection on the single mom who Elisha helps in 2 Kings 4: 1-7, Sensuous Wife gives us words on encouragement when helping single moms – “When God pours out good and blessing in her life, help her to receive it. Don’t deny yourself the joy of being one of the jars of miracles in the life of a single mother.”

I encourage you to read through the following links and hear how others have listened to the voices of women. If you have a link you would like to add to the list or a description of your church service, please post it in the comments.

Julie Clawson on the God who sees
Steve Hayes on St. Theodora the Iconodule
Sonja Andrews on Aunt Jemima
Sensuous Wife on a single mom in the Bible
Minnowspeaks on celebrating women
Michelle Van Loon on the persistant widow
Lyn Hallewell on the strength of biblical women
Shawna Atteberry on the Daughter of Mary Magdalene
Christine Sine on women who impacted her life
Susan Barnes on Tamar, Ruth, and Mary
Kathy Escobar on standing up for nameless and voiceless women
Ellen Haroutunian on out from under the veil
Liz Dyer on Mary and Martha
Bethany Stedman on Shiphrah and Puah
Dan Brennan on Mary Magdalene
Jessica Schafer on Bathsheba
Eugene Cho on Lydia
Laura sorts through what she knows about women in the Bible
Miz Melly preached on the woman at the well
AJ Schwanz on women’s work
Pam Hogeweide on teenage girls changing the world
Teresa on the women Paul didn’t hate
Helen on Esther
Happy on Abigail
Mark Baker-Wright on telling stories
Robin M. on Eve
Alan Knox is thankful for the women who served God
Lainie Petersen on the unnamed concubine
Mike Clawson on cultural norms in the early church
Krista on serving God
Bob Carlton on Barbie as Icon
Jan Edmiston preached on the unnamed concubine
Deb on her namesake – Deborah
Makeesha on empowering women

There are few words spoken by women in these gospels, but many tears are shed and recorded, mostly by women, some even by Jesus, the man of sorrows. The fact that all these tears are detailed says that God values all our precious tears, whether for joy or sorrow. Psalm 56:8 tells us that, “God knows our troubles and our wanderings, stores all our tears in a bottle, has counted each one of them, and they are recorded in the Book.”

The beginning of the New Testament opens with glad tidings, the announcement of two children, which brought tears of joy to Elizabeth and Mary. This joy would be short lived for Mary, as Joseph tells her that he will put her away her quietly. The betrothed was heartbroken, to say the least. An angel in a dream restores their marriage. After Jesus is born, Mary and Joseph bring the child to the temple, and it is prophesied to Mary that, “a sword will pierce your soul.” Lk 2:35. When Jesus was missing for days, she would have been beside herself with worry, but Mary would experience many more tears.

Following the joyful birth of Jesus, other women are not so lucky. Mt 2:18 “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamenting and weeping bitterly: it is Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted because they are no more.” Those women were bereft; Herod had given the order; the soldiers had killed their babies.

There was a woman in Lk 7:37-44, “who had a bad name… and had brought with her an alabaster jar of ointment. She waited behind him at his feet, weeping, and her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them away with her hair; then she covered his feet with kisses and anointed them with the ointment. ‘You see this woman? I came into your house, and you poured no water over my feet, but she has poured out her tears over my feet and wiped them away with her hair.” Jesus was touched by her tears.

There was another woman, taken in adultery, Jn 8:1-11. This woman would have been shocked, sobbing uncontrollably, knowing she would be stoned.

A man named Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, had a daughter who died. Lk 8:52 “They were all crying and mourning for her, but Jesus said, ‘Stop crying; she is not dead, but asleep.” No doubt the woman who touched his hem, and was healed of her hemorrhage for 12 years would have rejoiced. Other women who would have wept with joy are the Syrophoenecian woman whose daughter was cured, the widow of Nain whose son was brought back to life and given back to her, the woman who had a crooked back for 18 years… and many more who heard the wonderful words of their Lord.

Jesus was friends with Martha, Mary and Lazarus. When Lazarus died, everyone wept. Even Jesus wept. Jn 11 says, “When the Jews who were in the house comforting Mary saw her get up so quickly and go out, they followed her, thinking that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Mary went to Jesus, and as soon as she saw him she threw herself at his feet, saying, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ At the sight of her tears, and those of the Jews who had come with her, Jesus was greatly distressed, and with a profound sigh he said, ‘Where have you put him?’ They said, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus wept; and the Jews said, ‘See how much he loved him!’ Sighing, Jesus thanked God.”

In Lk 23:28 Women wailed, “But Jesus turned to them and said, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep rather for yourselves and for your children.” He had such deep concern for mothers and their children.

There is no telling how many tears were shed at that cross or the tomb, by Mary the Mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and the other women. Their grief would have been unbearable. But on Resurrection morning, their tears of sorrow turn to shouts of joy.

Mk 16:1 says, “When the Sabbath was over, Mary of Magdala, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices with which to go and anoint him.” These women were still mourning for Jesus. Tears are louder than words.

Jn 20 says (twice) to Mary Magdalene, “Woman, why are you weeping?” Then he called her name, “Mary, go and tell them: I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ So Mary of Magdala told the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’.” Mk 16:10 “Mary Magdalene then went to those who had been his companions, and who were mourning and in tears, and told them.”

Apparently it was important to mention even in Acts 9:39 that, “all the widows stood round him in tears, showing him tunics and other clothes Dorcas had made when she was with them.” Another woman was brought back to life. Our tears are not for naught.
Jesus paid attention to all the tears; he saw them; he acknowledged them; he even cried with them. There are many tears in the NT, which says that Jesus knows our suffering, he hears our cries. Jesus also promised in Jn 16:22, “Now you are having pain. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.”
Rev 21:4 says, “God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. There will be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away.”

Thank God all our tears are recorded; each tear is counted, for our consolation. Jesus hears our cries; Jesus sees our tears. Jesus even cries with us.

Adele Hebert is an independent scholar, who lives in northern Alberta, Canada. Adele has been writing articles, bible studies and editing Christian books, all about how Jesus loves women. Adele has helped God’s Word to Women website, Christians for Biblical Equality, and recently worked with Leonard Swidler on his latest book, Jesus Was A Feminist. Currently Adele is writing a series of bible studies on how Jesus gave women a voice.