JESUS AND WOMEN
Scholars today are re-discovering and reconstructing the crucial role that women had in the origins of the Christian tradition. Many observe that Jesus' treatment of women was markedly different from the patriarchal practices of His time. He treated women with the same dignity that He showed toward men, stood firm against the abuse of outcast women and widows, and used feminine images to describe His mission and God's love.
He used the image of a mother hen to describe His care and love for His people (Mt. 23:37), and He imaged God as a woman looking for a coin to show God's intense love for the lost (Lk. 15:8).
Perhaps Jesus' most radical step toward restoring women to a key role in religion was His choice of women to be His disciple. No other rabbi did that!
The gospel images of His mother Mary, Mary Magdala, the Samaritan woman, Martha and Mary, and Joanna are convincing symbols of how Jesus gave women equal status in bringing God to the world.
For the early Christians, Jesus was the primary image of God, the full relevation of the love, compassion, forgiveness, justice, and self-sacrifice of God. Though Jesus himself was male, He was the incarnation of God as a human person. Jesus commissioned both women and men to carry His message to all the world. For these early belivers, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:27).
Since both women and men have been created as images of God, both can represent God's presence and power (Brennan R. Hill).