Tehillah Generation Chapel
Daily Manna
Monday, April 25, 2016
Topic: The empty tomb 24
Reading: Matthew 27:57-66, 28:1-15
Scripture: He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee. (Luke 24:6)
Note: Even the die hard disciples of Jesus, having lived and walked with Christ for more than three years, could not decouple themselves from the strongly embellished, disingenuous cultural bondage and influence of open disregard for the views of the women folk, who broke the news of the empty tomb of Jesus to them.
The predictably negative attitude of the disciples to the shocking news from the women was embedded in an age old belief of women having the preponderance and propensity to quickly escalate suspicious and mythological information without validating the facts. Their attitude was not any different from the attitude of what any ordinary man in the street or worse still the enemies of Jesus would have treated the news of Jesus’ tomb being empty, hence implying the probability that he had risen from the dead as he promised. They treated the news as idle tales, and they believed them not (Luke 24:11)
Two thousand years on and still counting, with the added benefits of hindsight, better education, more revelations about the church and our positions in Christ, gender stereotyping within our society and geo-political culture is still deeply rooted in our rejection of women as co-equals, co-labourers and co-partners in the eternal promises of God.
In our much more sophisticated society of today, some of these rejections are manifested in quite subtle and subdued manner to the uninitiated eye. What is even more shocking is the propensity by some churches and Christians to reject women in positions of authority within their hierarchy.
Food for thought: The silent approach attitude by majority of churches and Christians to this self-imposed inflammatory subject cannot remain silent forever.
Declaration: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. (Gal 3:28)
© Author: Rev Fred Aboe
