Her Story

This is a six-part series, and this is the fourth installment, exploring how the calling narrative found in the Gospel of John, chapter 1 is repeated in the story of the Samaritan Woman in John chapter 4, and in Mary of Magdala's story at the end of John's Gospel, chapter 20.

There are twelve calling elements to Jesus's call to discipleship and apostolic mission portrayed in the calling of Jesus's first...

We don’t often think of Jesus gathering disciples together as a rabbi starting a school, but the shape of what Jesus did very much is the shape of a school. Jesus did depart from the traditional rabbinical model of his day in a few significant ways. For instance, unlike other schools, Jesus kept his table fellowship open to everyone, people in every stratum and sphere of life.

And, Jesus chose as his disciples some unexpe...

Did Jesus call women into discipleship in the same way Jesus called men?

Or did women simply start following Jesus of their own accord, with no formal call?

Can we say, for instance, that Mary of Bethany was actually a disciple, or was she simply acting like a disciple when she sat at Jesus’s feet?

In the same way, was Mary of Magdala only acting like an apostle to the apostles, as she is sometimes call...

The debate continues as to whether Scripture endorses, or at least permits, or rather forbids women from certain roles within the Body of Christ. May women be deacons? May women be elders? May women be pastors? May women be bishops? May women teach or lead in church?

At stake, of course, is how to live rightly before God, how to do what God has in mind, and to live within the space and the design God has laid out for human...

The story of Jairus’s daughter and the woman who suffered from a bleeding disorder are told together in all three of the synoptic gospels—the gospels that more or less track with each other, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

I am going to be teaching out of Mark’s gospel, who has the most detailed account of these two stories. I believe this to be a true story, but it is a story that also reveals startling truths Jesus was teachin...

Throughout his ministry, Jesus gathered around him men and women who became a community of 120 people joined in their love for and faith in Jesus. And one of those women was Mary of Magdala. She is mentioned fourteen times, in all four Gospels, and her name is almost always placed first, seemingly implying she was first in service, first in support. However, Mary’s most significant story appears not during Jesus’s ministry, but rat...

Is the cross a symbol about death or life? defeat or triumph? humiliation or glory? Or all those things?

As I searched for answers, I became drawn to how Christians depicted crosses a thousand years ago and more, and that search became this fifteen minute video on the ancient symbols of Christianity.

From the eight-hundred-year old Batllo Majsty, now residing in in the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona,...

Of the several influential women in the Bible who are not given names—Job’s wife, comes to mind—the wife of Pilate is perhaps the most shadowy. All that is known of her from the scriptures is her relationship to the Procurator Marcus Pontius Pilate, and the message she sent to him while he was sitting on the Seat of Judgment in the Praetorium the morning Jesus of Nazareth was tried for treason.

Yet her message, and its imp...

In the passage just before this one, Mark talked about the scribe who had asked Jesus about the greatest commandment and was impressed with Jesus’ answer.

Jesus was also pleased.

He told the scribe he was very close to entering the kingdom of heaven. With such a warm endorsement from a scribe, this was a rare teachable moment, the right moment, in today’s passage (Mark 12:35-44), for Jesus to talk about Messiah,...

We don’t know this woman’s backstory at all, whether she was young or old, her culture or clan. Some in our Bible study thought perhaps she was the woman who had committed adultery and was forgiven privately by Jesus after everyone had left (John 8:11).

Maybe!

We really have no information on her at all but what is given in this text.

Back in 591 A.D. Pope Gregory preached an Easter sermon in which he c...

Most Bibles point out that the earliest manuscripts do not include this story, and sometimes it appears in Luke However, Jerome, in 383 AD, included it in his translation of the Gospel of John, right after chapter 7, where it is usually found today. Jerome noted that many ancient Greek and Latin manuscripts at his disposal had this story, in its usual position.

Ambrose of Milan, and Augustine confirmed Jerome’s report, and...

Herodias’ story is introduced in both Matthew’s gospel and Mark’s with Herod Antipas hearing reports about Jesus’ astonishing miraculous powers.

"Some were saying, 'John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers are at work in him.' But others said, 'It is Elijah.' And others said, 'It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.' But when Herod heard ...

There is some debate as to whether the book of Esther is historical, or possibly written as a play or allegory. Haman’s seventy-five foot gallows, the difficulty in establishing which king—and more notably, which queen—Esther’s story describes, and the depiction of a few unlikely scenes such as a massive, three-day civil war which is completely absent from Persian sources, move many scholars to suggest Esther is a dramatized story....

Have you ever even -heard- of Huldah?

I bet not!

Most timelines for the history of ancient Israel place prophets alongside the kings they advised. Even prophets without their own books, such as the prophet Nathan who counseled King David, are listed. But as much as I look for her, I have yet to see the prophet Huldah listed as well.

It is a strange choice, to leave her out of Judah’s timeline, as she was...

Just the word “jezebel” evokes a whole evil, erotic, seductive mystique, doesn’t it? I looked “jezebel” up in the dictionary, and here’s what Webster-Merriam has to say: “an impudent, shameless, or morally unrestrained woman.” According to other definitions,

A jezebel is a wicked, evil, scheming female who is manipulates her victims into giving her wealth, status and power. She is often beautiful and knows it, using her lo...

Bathsheba had grown up admiring the handsome, charismatic king David. It had been an exhilarating time in Israel’s history, and her dad Eliam, one of David’s might men, had been all wrapped up in the thick of it, close with David ever since the young shepherd had been on the lam, running from King Saul. Her grandfather, the godly and spiritual Ahithophel, was one of David’s most trusted advisors, whose godly wisdom was deeply value...

Abigail’s story begins during a traditionally joyful time, the sheep shearing festival. Many guests had gathered, and there was much feasting. Abigail was well-known for her gracious hospitality, and all the tables were generously supplied.

As the celebration wore into the evening, ten plainly dressed men entered the pavilion and came to address Nabal. Would he be willing to share some of the festival food with a fellow Ju...

Embedded within the story of David, Israel’s most beloved king, and of whom the Lord said was a man after God’s own heart, is the tragic story of Michal, a Benjamite princess and daughter of king Saul.

Her story begins in Late Bronze Age Canaan. The twelve tribes of Israel were still in the throes of coalescing into a kingdom, beleaguered by battle after battle with the powerful Philistines, until representatives from acro...

Probably the main point of the story, and why it was included in King Saul’s narrative, is to show how truly far he had sunken. At one point, King Saul is depicted in a dead faint of hunger, weakness, and terror, with the Witch of Endor stooping over him urging him to get up and eat.  But this unnamed woman could teach you and me a thing or two about what it means to give sacrificial love. 

The juxtapositions are striking...