“for whoever does the will of God is … my … mother”
(Mark 3:34, NKJV)
One of the few last examples to illustrate Jesus’ attempts to change the reigning ideology of the woman as the second sex (borrowing Simone de Beauvoir’s term), is the strange happening recounted in Luke 11:27. Of all the important things that Jesus had said and done (John 21:25) this loose-standing recorded event can actually be considered as quite ridiculous, and is for that reason of great importance – “And it happened, as He spoke these things, that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, ‘Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You.’”
One can just imagine this dramatic scene. A crowd of people gather around the young Jew, alleging that He is the Messiah. He is in public, teaching them a range of profound revelations, a new spiritual language that they were wholly unfamiliar with. Indeed – I heard a language I did not understand … (Ps 81:5).
Most probably overwhelmed by the greatness of the moment, but also swept up by Jesus’ inclusive theology, the woman breaks with the social taboo which prohibited her from speaking in public, and spontaneously calls from the audience. What makes her “transgression” in any way acceptable to the male audience is that her statement indeed re-affirms her place in society, siding with the Jewish view that women’s only reason to boast is their status as servants of their husbands and mothers for their husband’s children.
But consider for a moment – what else could the woman say? According to Jewish law and tradition the woman was created for the man’s pleasure, she was his property and had to carry his children. As a matter of fact, the Jewish law was quite adamant (!) – she had found her redemption in the birth of her husband’s son – the penis functioning as the sign of power. When a woman then prides herself in anything, it is in her male children – Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You.
To this Jesus offers a very sober, correcting answer – “But He said, ‘More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!'” (Luke 11:28). He does not belittle her, embarrassing her in public, but affirms the underlying meaning of her statement. He of course knew that his mother Mary was “blessed … among women” (Luke 1:28), and “blessed is the fruit of (her) womb!” (Luke 1:42).
He then places her statement within a greater relief, of emphasising that it is more important for a woman to be aligned with God’s word, and to be obedient to Him. This also largely reflects what He had said elsewhere when his mother and brothers were shown to him in the crowds – “But He answered them, saying, ‘Who is My mother, or My brothers?’ And He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said, ‘Here are My mother and My brothers!'” (Mark 3:33-34).
But there is also another, unseen aspect which the woman from the audience had praised Mary for. This was the Jewish custom of praising a mother of an important man because she had given birth to him. The emphasis had however fallen on him, and not on her. But then it could also be used as a curse – “cursed be the paps that suckled him”. This woman had to know that Jews had often cursed both Jesus and Mary by saying, “Mary hangs in the shades by the fibres of her paps” (T. Hieros. Chagiga, fol. 77.4 & Sanhedrin, fol. 23.3). In this light her statement is a particularly brave voice of a woman who proclaims the inverse in public. Jesus’ view of women had begun to seep through, giving women a voice.
- Sela: Ask the Spirit to help you to recognize the authentic God-given voice of the women around you.
- Read: Ex 35-37
- Examine how this has been fulfilled: Ex 37
