Women Proved the Truth of the Resurrection
by George Moore
Earlier this month, our nation watched as Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first black woman to sit on the United States Supreme Court. [1] Not lost in the celebration is the fact that two years ago, Kamala Harris, became the first female Vice President, as well as the first African-American woman to be in this role. [2] It’s remarkable that in our lifetime, we’ve been able to observe these achievements despite the challenges many minorities and women still face.
Ketanji and Kamala are great examples of women using their voices to be influential in our nation and it reminds me of the influential voices of women at the resurrection. The entire Christian faith is centered around the resurrection and Paul highlights its importance when he says,
“But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead…And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” [3]
Paul makes it definitively clear that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundation of the Christian faith. This demonstration of God’s power in history was witnessed by over 500 hundred people. The apostles were so sure of it that they made eyewitness accounts of it in the Gospels. It would have been hard to believe that Christ rose from the dead because everything about this story is counter-cultural in the eyes of those in ancient Palestine. First, a man coming back from the dead was considered foolish. [4] Second, Rome thought very little of the Jewish faith and saw it as inferior to theirs. [5] Third, in their view Jesus was crucified as an enemy of the state due to the accusation of leading a revolt and no criminal was fit to be the Messiah.[6] As if the reasons listed above were not enough to disprove the validity of the resurrection, the people of that day would have also dismissed these claims because they were made by women.
All four of the Gospels share that when Jesus rose, he appeared to Mary Magdalene and the other women and they told the apostles the good news. [7] Though their testimony would have normally been ignored, the apostles didn’t bother to remove it from their accounts because they were the first to discover that Christ indeed had risen. Lee Strobel writes in his book 'The Case for Christ', “Women were on a very low rung of the social ladder in first-century Palestine. There is an old rabbinical adage that says, ‘Let the words of the law be burned rather than delivered to a woman.” [8] Renowned scholar and expert on the resurrection, Gary Habermas asserts that in that day the testimony of a woman would have been equal to believing the testimony of a criminal. [9]
Even still, despite the views of women at that time, the Gospel writers left their testimony in the Scriptures. By doing so, the early church showed they had nothing to hide regarding their testimony despite how it sounded to others. It shows us today that resurrection stands on its own two feet and that the God of heaven has free course to choose who will champion His message of victory and salvation.
And God is still doing that today! All over the world, He is using women of all ethnicities to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Even though women are still fighting for equalilty, the Gospels have displayed the significance of their voices. And by leaving their testimony for generations to read, the apostles show us that we don’t have to alter our stories to fit societal standards. The Word of God stands on its own and its power is found in the one who rose, not which gender shared the message.
Notes:
1. https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/ketanji-brown-jackson-senate-confirmation-vote/index.html
3. 1 Corinthians 15:12-15, 17-19
4. 1 Corinthians 1:23
5. Justo L. Gonzalez. The Story of Early Christianity Vol. 1: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation. Broadway, New York: Harper Collins, 2010, 61.
6. James H. Cone. the Cross and the Lynching Tree. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2011, pg. 1.
7. Matthew 28:1-15; Mark 16:1-14; Luke 24:1-12, John 20:1-18
8. Lee Strobel. The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence of Jesus. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing, 1998, pg. 6.
9. Gary Habermas & Michael R. Licona. The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Kregel Publishing, 2004, pg. 72.