How Does God See Women? A Real Word For Women

Maybe it’s safe here to say that women have often been overlooked in Scripture—often unnamed, silenced, or harmed—yet their stories profoundly matter. The Bible is good news for all, offering light, life, and truth for today. Women in Scripture deserve to be seen, and women reading it today deserve to be equipped. Just as Eugene Peterson hoped people would encounter God through The Message, over eighty diverse women have contributed to a new devotional Bible with the same longing. Today, it is an incredible joy to welcome the words of two of these contributors to the farm table as they share on Jesus’ security and mercy…

Guest Post by Eugene Peterson

Who was the woman who anointed Jesus?

In chapter fourteen of Mark, we are not even told her name, yet Jesus said that she would always be remembered. Rarely in the Gospels does Jesus offer such high praise. 

We don’t know her name.

We don’t know what her previous encounters with Jesus had been.

But we know this: She knew Jesus’ worth.

She had experienced something great enough to ignore social decorum and personal security to be in his presence and honor him. Here at dinner with a friend who was willing to betray him for mere money, Jesus received the adoration of a woman willing to give up everything for him. 

Our brave friend was out of place from the very beginning; there was likely no seat at the table for her. She interrupted Jesus’ dinner with friends to anoint his head, honoring his kingship as much as preparing his body for burial. And while her eyes were fixed on Jesus, the disciples’ were fixed on her – and they were horrified. 

The perfume she used and even the jar itself may have been a family heirloom. It might have served as her dowry or as a retirement plan for herself and her children. In a world where economic options for women were limited, that jar was more than just a symbol. She cracked open her security and poured it out before Jesus. She knew that what she’d found in him was worth everything. In the presence of the giver of life, she had no need for insurance plans. 

“…he’s not after our deeds so much as our hearts.”

While Jesus received her gift with delight, his disciples missed the point. What the woman had to offer was unexpected. It didn’t fit religious protocol. But she alone among them had discovered what following Jesus means – that he’s not after our deeds so much as our hearts. So when the woman, out of place and out of line, fell into the irate disciples’ line of fire, what did Jesus say? 

He said, “Let her alone” (Mark 14:6). 

Then he declared that she would be remembered everywhere the Message would be preached. Why?

Because the good news tells us this: Jesus is worth everything. We can lay down our security before him because our security is found in him. And the gospel of Jesus includes women. It includes those without a formal seat at the table and those who don’t always look right or act correctly. It includes those who face criticism and ostracism. 

The message is for anyone who sees Jesus’ worth and is willing to find their security in him.

Now we move from the book of Mark to the eighth chapter of John, where a second unnamed women is encountering Jesus. This entry and the passage it addresses involve highly sensitive topics that might be triggering to some readers. If that is you, be gentle with yourself.

“Because the good news tells us this: Jesus is worth everything. We can lay down our security before him because our security is found in him.”

She was nameless, naked, guilty.

The woman caught in adultery.

She was subject to punishment by stoning, and the man caught with her was not, which indicates that she was probably unmarried. Little else is known about her; but then again, this is not really her story. This woman was a character in a scene, a pawn in the Pharisees’ divisive plan to trap Jesus. She was guilt personified, a dehumanized object used to turn eyes back to the law, judgment, and rightness. Dragged to the Temple, she knew death was imminent.

John does not describe the woman’s outward emotions. He does not speculate about her thoughts. The woman heard the Pharisees ask Jesus,

“What do you say?” They waited for an answer; so did she.

She watched Jesus dismiss their question by stooping to write in the dust. Meanwhile, angry men stooped to grab rocks.

Then Jesus said, “The sinless one among you, go first.”

Had she heard him correctly?

“Before Jesus’ mercy, the woman had been a nameless adulterer; after it, she became a woman freed from condemnation, free to go and sin no more.“

More importantly, had the men heard him correctly? Would their hypocrisy be as exposed as her guilt had been? She watched each man set down his stone and exit.

Jesus met the woman’s gaze and spoke to her, a sharp contrast to the depersonalizing actions of her accusers. Her answer was stripped of superfluous defense or apology, but she used the word Master. Was she employing courtesy or reverence? We don’t know.

But just as Jesus’ words had awakened the guilt of her accusers, we can imagine that his mercy also effectively awakened the conscience of the accused woman.

Before Jesus’ mercy, the woman had been a nameless adulterer; after it, she became a woman freed from condemnation, free to go and sin no more.

Condemnation could not transform her.

But being seen through the eyes of mercy changed her life.

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