What Does The Bible Say About Women?

— Hannah Sloan

I am a doctor, and in all my different areas of medical and non medical work, I'm an advocate for women. I've been asked today to speak about women in the Bible, which to be honest petrifies me as it is a huge topic.

And because of that, I've decided to look at a passage of scripture about a woman in the Bible who isn't even named. But that really speaks to me time and time again. Every time I read this Scripture, Jesus speaks to me about something of him. And so I thought it was a really important piece of scripture for us to talk about and discuss today. I hope it speaks to you and gives you a deeper understanding of God's love for you.

The Woman with the Issue of Blood

So this scripture is in the gospels, Luke, Mark, and Matthew. But I'm going to read the scripture today that's in Mark 5:25-33,

“And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.””

-- Mark 5:25-33 (NIV)

So just have a think, have a reflect about what that passage of scripture says to you, what it speaks to you, about women, and about how Jesus thought about women, felt about women, and acted towards women. Because that is a good example of how we too should think about ourselves, and how we should act towards the women in our lives.

I have three points to make from this passage of scripture that I want to discuss and talk about today:

1. Jesus sees you, notices you and pursues you.

2. Jesus loves you in a radical, countercultural way.

3. Jesus welcomes you. He accepts you as more than enough and as a daughter.

And so we're going to briefly unpack those three points today and think about how that impacts us.

#1 - Jesus sees you, notices you, and pursues you.

So in this passage of Scripture, Jesus noticed that somebody had touched him. He'd noticed that somebody had touched his cloak. And rather than continuing to walk on, continuing to get on with his day, he stopped. He stopped, and noticed this woman.

Now the disciples were trying to just dismiss it. They were trying to say, now, you know, loads of people were pushing you, it could have been anybody. But Jesus didn't dismiss it. He knew that somebody had touched him. He knew that somebody was seeking Him out, that the power had left him. And he turned, and he noticed this woman. He noticed her and saw her. He didn't dismiss her. He didn't continue walking. He didn't just notice that she touched him and continue on, he pursued her. He looked in the crowd to find where she was, to find the woman that touched his cloak, to see her.

And this is what Jesus does with us. He sees and notices us, in whatever circumstances we are in at the moment, in whatever we are going through, in whatever difficulties or challenges, he sees us. And he pursues us. He wants to know us. He wants to be allowed to love us. In Matthew 7:7, it says,

“Seek, and you will find”

-- Matthew 7:7

And I think this is a wonderful example of a woman who sought Jesus, who sought her healing and found him and found so much more, as we'll go on to discuss. So Jesus sees and notices us, he pursues us. And like this woman, when we seek Him, we will find Him because He wants us to find him. He wants to be found by us.

So the first point, Jesus sees and notices you and pursues you. Perhaps you will seek Him and find Him today.

#2 - Jesus loves us in a really radical, countercultural way.

So this woman had been bleeding for 12 years. She had been seen as being unclean, whatever she touched also in that tradition became unclean. And you can see from this passage that she fell trembling with fear. She would have been so fearful to have touched Jesus's cloak, to have touched a rabbi, a teacher, to potentially be making him unclean, too.

And so perhaps she was fearing the harshness of Jesus. Was he going to be harsh to her? Was he going to shower her? Was he going to humiliate her? Was he going to treat her as she felt she perhaps should have been treated according to the rules and regulations. As someone who was unworthy, unclean. Maybe she felt unlovable.

But Jesus did none of that. Jesus treated her as someone to be loved. He loved her by being there, by healing her, by noticing her. This was all a display of Jesus's love for her. He loved her in a radical, countercultural way, in a way that she would not have expected. To have touched somebody, potentially made them unclean, and to have been healed by Him.

Jesus loves us, amazingly, radically, and treats us well, as women of God. So that is the second point that Jesus loves us, like he loved this woman, in a radical way.

#3 - Jesus accepts us and treats us as more than enough.

This woman came to him, as it said, and told him her whole truth. She had been bleeding for all that time. She'd felt perhaps rejected, unclean, dismissed by people. She was fearful of coming to him. And yet Jesus didn't just heal her, or show her his love or notice her. But he went one step further, and he accepted her.

He healed her and then the pinnacle, the crown, called her daughter. He welcomed her as he welcomes us, into his family. When we come to Him as we are, with our whole truth, with our difficulties or challenges, our baggages, the things we've done wrong, the things we've done right. The amazing things about us and maybe the not so amazing things about us because we all have those things. He loves us, and He calls us daughter. He accepts us as more than enough, even when we don't feel enough for him.

So this is the amazing Jesus, a God who accepts us as daughter, a God who loves us, in a radical way, sees us, notices us, and pursues us.

How does this impact us?

So let's think about how this impacts us, and how this impacts others.

1) If you are a Christian

So, if you are a Christian, you should be modelling Jesus to others, to becoming more like Jesus, as Holy Spirit works in you. And so the question is, are you modelling how Jesus treats women in your life and in your spirit spheres of influence? Are you modelling Jesus?

2) If you are not a Christian

And if you don't know Jesus, these are still pretty good principles, to model that love and that inclusivity and acceptance of women in your life?

3) If you are a woman

If you are a woman, how are you embracing the God given identity that you have, as someone that Jesus notices, as someone that Jesus loves, in a radical way? And as a daughter of God, have a think today? How are you embracing that identity? Because from that identity comes who you are in life, how you behave, how you act, how you feel, how you think.

We must live from that amazing identity, as women, as daughters of Jesus. Women are so important to God. We are woven throughout Scripture. We are in his story throughout Scripture. There are women throughout Scripture who have shown courage, bravery, who have shown a faithfulness to Jesus, like this woman showed her faithfulness, and who have had much resilience.

Conclusion

From the knowledge of these three points, being seen, noticed and pursued by Jesus, being loved in a radical way, being accepted as a daughter of Jesus, as a daughter of God, I encourage you to accept these things and embrace them as your identities of daughters of God. If we can all embrace these, we can live a life full and fruitful, knowing who we are. So I pray and I ask that the Holy Spirit would speak to you through these points that you would know God's love. And you begin to accept how Jesus treats you and feels about you. And his love for you.