SILENT NOT SILENCED

There’s a lot of talk about the treatment, or lack of treatment of women in the Bible, especially the New Testament where Paul resides.  I don’t find that true.  Some say women’s voices are silenced and see that as suppression.  I see the women, not silenced, but being silent.  Their witness of God is more like the witness of God through nature.

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.  Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.  There is no speech, nor are their words, whose voice is not heard.  Their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the earth” (Psalm 19: 1-4).

The women in Jesus’ life are written about very clearly and respectfully; they followed him and loved him; they simply responded differently than the men.  Unlike the shepherds and wise men who responded to the birth by going out and proclaiming the event, his mother Mary simply treasured those things in her heart.  Unlike the other disciples who got caught up in power struggles after hearing Jesus teach, Mary of Bethany simply sat at his feet and listened to him.  Unlike the other disciples who hid together in an upper room after Jesus was crucified, Mary Magdalene tended quietly to his burial and went early to his tomb, enabling her to be the first one to see the resurrected Jesus.

There are more of these quiet women throughout the New Testament and in the history of the church; women, not silenced as some may say, but quietly making noise and an impact in the world.  These women are role models for me.  Their depth of love and commitment to God, to Jesus, and to the faith is heard loudly in their silence, and observed clearly in their actions of obedience, devotion, and adoration.