There can be a great deal of tension in our evangelical subculture when women try to live into their callings.
Many sermons have been preached and many articles and books have been written about the scandalous nature of our God. We see this quality evidenced regularly in the Gospels as Jesus prioritizes spending time with common people, tax collectors, and sinners over spending time with religious leaders of the day (Matt. 9:10-11; Luke 15:1-2).
We see him overthrowing money tables at a temple (John 2:14-15), publicly accusing religious leaders of being hypocrites, white washed tombs and murderers of the prophets (Matt. 23:1-36), etc.
Scripture is filled with many instances of Jesus saying and doing things that were wholly inappropriate and truly scandalous in light of the standards of the day.
However, because we’ve become so familiar with many biblical stories, often we do not pause to reflect on the scandalous ways that Jesus interacted with women. When we are less intentional about reflecting on these instances in Scripture, we are less prepared to equip women to wholly follow our amazing Lord today.
New Testament Stories of Women
In the New Testament we see the angel approaching Mary, asking her to play an integral role in the salvation of humankind (Luke 1:26-2:20). Would she carry the Christ child as a virgin so the world might know God’s love? What an incredibly scandalous plan, though we see foreshowing of it in Scripture (Isa. 7:10-14).
Following God would leave her so vulnerable. Surely, she would repeatedly be accused of being an immoral woman. Although innocent, who would believe her? Yet in spite of all of the potential controversy surrounding God’s plan and all the future sneers and condemning attitudes she would face, she said yes (Luke 1:38)!
And because of her willingness to follow our scandalous and …