Why Do You Trouble the Woman?
A Sermon in The Other Six Days Series
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
October 16, 2005
Deuteronomy 22:22-29; Galatians 3:23-29; Matthew 26:6-13

Deuteronomy 22 22 ¶ If a man is caught lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman as well as the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.
23 ¶ If there is a young woman, a virgin already engaged to be married, and a man meets her in the town and lies with her, 24 you shall bring both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death, the young woman because she did not cry for help in the town and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
25 ¶ But if the man meets the engaged woman in the open country, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. 26 You shall do nothing to the young woman; the young woman has not committed an offense punishable by death, because this case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a neighbor. 27 Since he found her in the open country, the engaged woman may have cried for help, but there was no one to rescue her.
28 ¶ If a man meets a virgin who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are caught in the act, 29 the man who lay with her shall give fifty shekels of silver to the young woman’s father, and she shall become his wife. Because he violated her he shall not be permitted to divorce her as long as he lives.

Galatians 3 23 ¶ Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27 As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

Matthew 26 6 ¶ Now while Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, 7 a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table. 8 But when the disciples saw it, they were angry and said, “Why this waste? 9 For this ointment could have been sold for a large sum, and the money given to the poor.” 10 But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? She has performed a good service for me. 11 For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. 12 By pouring this ointment on my body she has prepared me for burial. 13 Truly I tell you, wherever this good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”

I. BEGINNING

I don’t always like looking at photographs from years ago. Particularly the ones from my first couple of years in high school. Before I got contacts and still wore glasses. Before I shaved off that wispy cheesy moustache that I was convinced made me look grown up. Those photos from back when we all had hair parted down the middle and feathered. Hey, it was the 80’s, after all. And there are some bad pictures from college of me in a white t-shirt and gray vest, John Cougar style. Hey, it was the late 80’s. There are those snapshots, those preserved moments in time, that sometimes embarrass us when we look back at them. Especially if they’re from our awkward phases. Particularly if found in an old yearbook, or shown to your friends by your mother.

II. TEXT

And so we come to the reading tonight from Deuteronomy. It’s one of the really warm and fuzzy readings in the Bible. And it’s one of those that generally makes the modern church uncomfortable. Probably why it’s not in the lectionary. This text is a lot like one of those old photos in an old photo album that when it gets dragged out embarrasses us later on in our lives. It seems to be from a more awkward phase in our life as a people of God.

It starts out alright, relatively speaking. If a man sleeps with the wife of another, they are both put to death. Might seem harsh to us, but it seems even handed. We read further… If a man sleeps with an engaged woman in town, they are both put to death. If she doesn’t cry for help, it is assumed to be consensual and therefore akin to the first situation. Again, a little harsh to our ears, but the logic seems evenhanded.

If it happens in the open country, only he is put to death because she might have cried for help. This, comparatively speaking, sounds kind of enlightened.

But then we get to the last provision and our troubles really begin:

If a man meets a virgin who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are caught in the act, 29 the man who lay with her shall give fifty shekels of silver to the young woman’s father, and she shall become his wife. Because he violated her he shall not be permitted to divorce her as long as he lives.

Wait a minute. Let’s get this straight. Adultery = stoning. Sex with an engaged woman = stoning for both if consensual. Stoning for him if not consensual. Rape of a virgin: a 50 shekel fine payable to the woman’s father. And the rape victim gets to have her rapist as her husband—he cannot divorce her.

Does this seem just to you? How does adultery merit a stronger punishment than rape? It doesn’t make any sense. Even in jurisdictions where adultery is still a crime, the punishments are not worse than they are for rape.

But that’s because we are looking at this text as if it were talking about sex crimes: adultery and rape. In reality, it is talking about property crimes. The crime of the man who sleeps with the wife of another is that he is stealing. The crime of the man who rapes a virgin is that he damages a father’s valuable commodity: his virgin daughter. She is no longer good for sale.

We might be tempted to dismiss this text altogether. We might look at it from a cultural-historical viewpoint and declare that that kind of thinking no longer has any sway over us. It’s just an embarrassing photo from a long time ago, in our more awkward phase.

Except for one thing: the people in those old embarrassing photos are still us. We might be embarrassed by the hairstyles or the clothing, but we cannot deny that we are the people in those old photographs. The experiences and choices that we made when we were younger are still a part of us. In the same way, the experiences of ancient Israel and the Church are still part of who we are. Perhaps more than we are willing to admit.

III. THE SITUATION

For as difficult as it is to imagine, the idea that women were property of their husbands was current up until relatively recently in our history.

A. Secondary Status

1. The Right to Vote

Women didn’t even get the right to vote in this country until 1920. I did the math, that’s 133 years into the founding of the Republic. And, in the scope of recorded human history that’s 5,681 years to 85.

Other rights, like the right to own property were slow in coming. In fact, for years, it was a legal impossibility to rape one’s wife—she was presumed to have consented and the husband was presumed to have the right. Legal recognition of the equality of women has always been slow in coming.

B. Dependent on Men

The result is that for a very long time, women were dependent on men. The biblical formula for disadvantaged people always refers to “the widow and the orphan” that is, a woman without a husband and a child without a father. Up until relatively recently in our history, both were very disadvantaged people.

In our psychology, we still imagine it that way. We still imagine that when a couple has a baby, it would be the mother who would stay home—if one were to do so. We imagine that roles of great importance are fulfilled by men.

1. The Church

No less so in the church. In a denomination like the United Methodist Church, where at neighboring Wesley Seminary over 50% of the classes are women, the church still seems to operate under the impression that its pastors are mostly men: married men, to be precise. One woman pastor told me that her husband stopped going to ‘clergy spouse’ events in the conference, because they kept turning out to be oriented toward women.

C. Body Image

In general, men are evaluated on their desirability as a mate based on their success, power, wealth, and ability to provide. Women are evaluated more often based on their looks. It is why men are killing themselves working and women are killing themselves trying to live up to an imaginary ideal of body image.

Young women are increasingly suffering from eating disorders. The causes are many and complex but the media bombardment of idealized “perfect” women cannot be reasonably ignored. Many young women suffer from the affliction of looking in a mirror and seeing someone heavier and less attractive than they want to see. It does not matter that on an objective level she may be at her ideal weight and healthy. In a culture that continues to evaluate women based on sex appeal rather than on their contributions and character, this kind of thing will continue to happen.

And there is a curious corollary, too. Oftentimes women will convince themselves that if they have achieved success, or if they have found love, it is because they are physically attractive, not because they have merit—and then will become stressed with maintaining that attractiveness in order to remain in the status quo—in the relationship, in the job.

D. Discrimination

Women suffer other maladies in employment. Women as a rule earn less than men do for the same work: Women working full time, year round, still make only 76 cents for every dollar that a man makes. Black women get 66 cents and Latinos only 55 cents. Even the best-case 24-cent gap adds up over a work life to a very unequal scorecard. Totaling more than $300,000 for the average woman's career. [1] The irony is that it is the higher paying jobs where this is more true. Blue collar work is regulated by minimum wage laws and most employers do not care whether men or women work these jobs. It is the professional positions, the academic positions, the corporate positions, where money really makes a difference, that these inequities make their biggest appearance. Women comprise only 15% of all the corporate boards in the nation. [2]

Another malady suffered is that of sexual harassment, an affliction not even redressed until very recently in the law. I am privileged to have had a connection with the law firm that brought one of the most famous sexual harassment lawsuits in the country Jenson v. Eveleth Mines. It’s so famous that they made a movie, North Country, that’s coming out Friday about it. But there are plenty of cases still out there.

IV. THE GOSPEL

You know, an interesting thing happened a couple thousand years ago: Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. That event declares loud and clear that the Kingdom of Heaven is breaking in to our reality. God is beginning the work of the New Creation. A New Creation that turns the present reality on its head. The first shall be last and the last first. Weakness shall be counted as strength and folly as wisdom. The Gospel requires a radical reevaluation of our thinking.

A. Jesus

It was a message that Jesus lived out in his earthly ministry. Jesus lived a life that challenged all kinds of social distinctions. He ate with tax collectors and prostitutes. He ministered to Gentiles. He reached out to the marginalized and the outcast. And most compellingly, women were an important part of his ministry. The gospels report that women accompanied him on his travels from Galilee to Jerusalem. According to Mathew, Mark, and Luke, only the women were present at the crucifixion. The risen Christ first appeared to the women—a curious choice since in the ancient world women were generally not considered reliable witnesses. But Christ lived a life that proclaimed that another reality was at hand—the Kingdom of God, in which the distinctions of the world would pass away.

In the Gospel lesson tonight we see evidence of this radical rethinking. Stunned by the excess of the woman’s act of anointing Jesus with the expensive ointment, the disciples object. You can almost hear the condescension in their voices, “Why this waste?” 9 For this ointment could have been sold for a large sum, and the money given to the poor.”

And Jesus responds to them in stunning fashion:

“Why do you trouble the woman? She has performed a good service for me. 11 For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. 12 By pouring this ointment on my body she has prepared me for burial. 13 Truly I tell you, wherever this good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”

Wherever this good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her. Jesus says that the proclamation of the Gospel will be accompanied by a remembrance of this woman and what she had done for Jesus.

Jesus equates her lavish act with preparation for burial—a traditional role for women. But the anointing of the head is a sign of royal commission, and thus she is cast in the untraditional role of priest or prophet anointing the king.[3] These are radical statements by Jesus and reflects a radically different reality than the one in which most people—including his disciples it seems—were operating.

B. Paul

Paul shared a conviction in the in-breaking of the Kingdom and the radical community ethic that entails. Paul believed that the resurrection of Christ was the sign of the kingdom’s advent and that all the old structures were giving way among the people of God. It is that radical change that he refers to when he writes:

28 There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

We know that in the ancient Church, women held positions of leadership and authority. Paul believed that in this new eschatological age, this age of the end of history, all social distinctions would be erased and that included distinctions according to sex. Paul even refers to one woman, Junia, as being “prominent among the apostles”. If we have any doubt as to how radical an idea that was, we have only to look at the fact that in some later manuscripts someone changed that name to Junius.

V. END

And so it does seem that the structures of the world creep in to our religious expression. Before we are too quick to condemn our ancient Israelite forebears we should look at ourselves. Is our attitude toward sex and gender roles the result of our commitment to the gospel or our concession to the realities of the world? Are we challenging or reinforcing structures that keep women as second class citizens?

As Christians, we are called not only to proclaim the Good News but to live it. To proclaim the message that Jesus came, died, and rose again for every one of us, male and female alike. To live lives that embrace the radical overturning of the world’s structures that the arrival of the Kingdom of God brings. If we can live out lives that challenge these structures, that demand equality and dignity for women, that reject demeaning gender roles for women, that uplift women and their self-esteem and self-image, that promote an equality not only at law but in the heart, then wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what we will have done will be told in remembrance of us.