Jesus Challenges the Way People Talk About Social Status

There is No Male or Female

As Jesus said in Matthew 19:4, God made humans male and female. Later in history, God chose a specific people through which He would bring the Messiah. He gave Israel 613 laws by which they were to live, worship, and run their nation. These laws concerning worship spoke of a tabernacle in which the priesthood would work to offer up sacrifices on behalf of the people. Within this tabernacle there was an inner area called the Most Holy Place. This is where God dwelled. The thing is, though, only one nation on Earth had access to this Holy Place. Not only that, but only tribe out of that nation could go into that area of the tabernacle. Within this tribe only one family produced High Priests who could go into the innermost part. Out of this family, one man was chosen to go into the Most Holy Place. Even then, however, he could only enter one day out of the year called the Day of Atonement. Needless to say, this position was extremely exclusive. Only one person out of the nation was chose, and, even then, if you weren’t in the right tribe, in the right family, and of the write gender, there was no possible chance of going into God’s presence. Jesus and His followers challenged this entire system by boldly proclaiming,

Galatians 3:28 NASB95

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Now, in the world, these divisions still exist. Just take a look at the division that exists between these categories. In our country, white men were the priesthood. What I mean by that is, they made the decisions, they ran the country, and only they had the right to vote until embarrassingly recently. Paul isn’t saying that these categories don’t exist at all, but he is teaching that, where Christ is concerned, these things don’t matter. Anyone can boldly enter the Most Holy Place:

Hebrews 10:19 NASB95

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus,

Hebrews 4:16 NASB95

Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

This radical new way of talking about who can enter God’s presence shatters many cultural norms that we hold dear. Even today, certain people are consciously or unconsciously excluded from their God-given role in the kingdom of God because of people who are still holding on to these categories. People who are made “mouths” or “feet” or “hands” are told that they aren’t allowed to fulfill their roles because, and only because, of these categories. Fortunately, people are catching up to where Jesus and His followers were two-thousand years ago. Probably one of the best examples of this is how one answers this question:

Who delivered the first gospel sermon?

I have always answered this question by appealing to Acts 2 and talking about Peter’s first gospel sermon, but this isn’t the case. In John 20, Mary Magdalene was the first one to the tomb. While Peter saw the empty tomb, he didn’t understand what was going on. It was Mary to whom Jesus first appeared, and it was Mary who was the first person sent (the literal meaning of apostle) to tell others about the risen Savior.

John 20:17–18 NASB95

Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’ ” Mary Magdalene came, announcing to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and that He had said these things to her.

God could have elected that Peter or John would be the first to see the risen Savior and pronounce the good news, but He, in His wisdom, chose Mary Magdalene, a woman who had previously had cast out seven demons (Mark 16:9), to proclaim that Jesus had risen. This demonstrates that even the “unclean” or the “lesser sex” are actually equal in God’s eyes and just as capable of representing Christ and articulating the gospel as men.

Jesus and Tables

Jesus ate with the sinners at the table, but flipped over the tables of the so-called religious people. Jesus was often criticized for sitting at the table with sinners, publicans, and harlots.

Luke 5:30 NASB95

The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?”

To this day, there are Christians who refuse to eat with people they consider sinners as a way to teach them a lesson. They believe that their absence from that person’s life will lead to the eventual reconciliation of that individual. This, however, is the very attitude that Jesus condemned.Many well-meaning Christians spend their time flipping over the tables of these individuals with whom Jesus would often recline at the table. Jesus, however, had a different group in mind when He flipped over tables:

John 2:13–16 NASB95

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.”

Jesus flipped over the tables of those who took advantage of people’s faith for a quick buck. It was these types of people that created the very society which led to women feeling the need to turn to prostitution and men becoming tax collectors for Rome. While these individuals were in need of repentance, they are not the main focus of many of Jesus’s sermons. Instead, he fights the root of all evil: the love of money. Christians could learn a thing or two from Jesus and begin flipping over the right tables in our society.

Whosoever Will

Galatians 3:28 NASB95

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Paul also addressed an issue that still plagues much of the world: there is no Jew or Greek. God is worried about what family you belong to or from what tribe you come. There is nothing wrong with being proud of your origins, but, ultimately, we are all children of God and stand on level ground at the foot of the Cross. Jesus, in His answer to the women at the well, spoke of God’s special treatment of the Jewish people, but, as He indicated, their election was not to the exclusion of others but for the eventual radical inclusion of all people’s, nations, and tongues. The apostle Peter had to learn this lesson if he was to be a good shepherd for the flock of God:

Acts 10:10–16 NASB95

But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance; and he saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!” But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.” Again a voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” This happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky.

Acts 10:28–29 NASB95

And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean. “That is why I came without even raising any objection when I was sent for. So I ask for what reason you have sent for me.”

When Jesus said “whosoever,” He meant it:

John 3:16 NASB95

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

This is radically different from how the “real world” works, yet Jesus challenged the “real world” time and time again. This is why Mark frames his account of the gospel around a new beginning of a new creation. This is why the prophets spoke of a new heavens and new earth. And this is the good news that we are to proclaim today. This good news was often called the “good news of the kingdom” (Matthew 4:23).It turns out, Jesus’s teaching concerning the kingdom circumvents how the “real world” works as well.