November 4, 2025 • 22 mins
In a time when women were often ignored, undervalued, or treated as second-class citizens, Jesus stood apart. His interactions with women in the Gospels were radical for His culture — yet perfectly aligned with God’s design. In this episode of The Manhood Tribes Show, we explore how Jesus treated women with respect, honor, and dignity, and what that means for every Christian man today.
You’ll see how Jesus spoke directly to women when others refused to, defended their worth in public when they were shamed, and invited them into His mission and ministry. His example dismantled cultural prejudices without compromising biblical truth — showing men how to lead, protect, and love women in a way that reflects the heart of God.
If you’ve ever wondered what the Bible really says about respecting women, how Jesus balanced truth and grace, or what Christian manhood looks like in relationships, this episode will give you a clear and powerful model to follow. Whether you’re single, dating, married, or mentoring the next generation, Jesus sets the standard for how men should treat women.
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction: Jesus and Women in His Culture
03:18 Speaking Directly and With Respect
11:42 Defending Women’s Worth Publicly
19:26 Including Women in His Mission
28:09 How Men Can Follow Jesus’ Example
💪 Want to know how you measure up as a man? Take our free quiz, called How Manly Are You? and learn how you can get better at being a man. Download for free at manhoodtribes.com/manly. 💪
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Don Ross (00:00):
All right, guys.
Let me ask you a probingquestion today.
How does a real man treat women?
Or maybe better yet asked, wheredid you learn how to treat
women?
What were your examples for howto interact with a woman the way
(00:21):
that you should talk about her,the way that you should talk to
her, the way that a group of menshould talk about women or
interact with women.
Where did your examples comefrom for how to be able to do
those things and do you thinkthe way that you have learned to
do it is actually a good thing?
(00:42):
Is that the way that men shouldtreat women?
I want to, in today's episode,try to talk a little bit.
Along the lines of what it lookslike to treat women well, the
way that men really should treatwomen, and as we're continuing
in this series about Jesus beingthe man most worth following, I
(01:05):
want us to take a look at theway that Jesus treated women.
Because I think it's actuallygoing to surprise us a little
bit, the way that he treatedwomen and how that models for
us, what we as men, who want tobe the best men that we can be,
can actually learn from him.
So let's get started today hereon the Manhood Tribes Show.
(01:27):
My name is Don.
I'm your host here, as always,and I'm excited about continuing
in this series with you as wetalk about Jesus the Man most
worth following.
Now kind of the whole idea withthis series is we probably need
to take a second look at Jesusas really a man, not just a holy
man, not just the Son of God,not just a religious figure or
(01:51):
even a great teacher, but reallyJesus as a man, that as men who
are trying to become the bestmen that we want to be, that we
need to actually look at the waythat Jesus lived.
As a man to discern what didmanhood actually mean for him
and did he actually do it in theway that we are trying to, to
(02:12):
emulate?
Is he the kind of man that mostof us actually want to become?
I think the answer is yes.
I think that all of us who aretrying to be the best men we can
be should look at Jesus becausehe's the best man who ever was.
Now, this isn't just like moralspeak, okay?
This isn't just like, oh, Jesuswas the perfect man and we, so
we should all just be like himand everything's kind of nice
(02:35):
and sweet and tidy.
I think that's kind of the likeoverly churched idea of Jesus,
that he's like nice and sweetand so we as men are supposed to
be nice and sweet.
I don't think Jesus was reallyanything like that at all.
I think there were moments wherehe was nice and sweet and
there's probably moments wherewe as men need to be nice and
sweet, but I don't know thatanyone would've characterized
(02:56):
him that way.
And so we need to really takeanother look to actually be able
to see what was Jesus reallylike.
As a man, one of the mostimportant areas where we do
really need to look at this isthe way that Jesus treated
women.
Because I think probably most ofus would have this idea that
Jesus is kind of soft, right?
(03:19):
If we, if we think about Jesus'spersonality, the way that we
imagine him, we sort of imaginehim being soft, maybe even a
little bit effeminate.
And so the idea that Jesustreated women the way that a
manly man would treat womendoesn't seem to mesh well with
this idea of Jesus being like.
(03:39):
Weak and soft and effeminate,right?
We kind of, the picture that wehave of Jesus might even be that
like he was sort of like one ofthe girls a little bit, you
know?
Uh, and I don't mean to sayanything disparaging about Jesus
to say that, but I just meanthat I think most men who've had
any experience of church get anidea of Jesus being the kind of
(04:01):
man that.
They wouldn't necessarily wantto hang out with.
He's not really the kind of guythat they imagine themselves
being friends with.
He might get along really wellwith their wives, but not
necessarily in a gang ofbuddies.
So to think about how he treatswomen just doesn't seem to
relate.
That's not the kind of man thatI want to be.
I wanna challenge that ideatoday.
(04:21):
I want us to rethink that sumand to examine how Jesus
actually did it so that we mightrethink how we should do it.
Okay, so there's really kind oflike three big things that I
want to talk about today interms of the way that Jesus
treated women that I think willhelp us to get a better picture
of what does it mean for a realman to treat women in the best
(04:42):
way possible.
The first thing is that at everyturn, Jesus sought to treat
women in a way that was ofhigher status than the culture
around him.
Now this is really kind ofinteresting, like Jesus was
something of a revolutionaryreligiously.
(05:03):
We kind of obviously know that,but we don't talk a whole lot
about the ways that Jesus was arevolutionary culturally, that
he really did some things thatwere culturally backwards or
culturally polarizing orculturally like completely
inappropriate in his day.
To actually kind of set himselfup as being a man who treated
(05:25):
women in ways that kind of gothim into trouble, made him look
like a bit of an outcast, puthim on the edge of society
instead of being welcomed forthe way that he treated women,
he actually was kind ofcriticized for the way that he
treated women.
But that's because he was tryingto actually bring up the dignity
(05:45):
of women in his culture andallow them to be seen as
something good as equals amongmen, as co-heirs to the kingdom
of God, as someone who had beencreated alongside men, that they
also had the dignity of whatscripture calls the image of
God, that women also were madeas God's image, not just men.
(06:09):
Not just a superior gender andan inferior gender, but really
two genders who operatedtogether to display what God is
like to the world.
So what were some ways thatJesus did that well, for
example, in Jesus' day, if youwere a rabbi, which meant that
you were a teacher who had agroup of disciples with you.
(06:31):
Most Jewish rabbis would not becaught dead teaching women,
certainly not having women intheir inner circle.
And yet Jesus wasn't afraid todo this at all.
He regularly had women followinghim.
He had women who supported hisministry.
He had women who ministered tohim.
He spent time around women.
(06:51):
He hung out with women.
He taught.
Women.
That was something that Jewishrabbis did not do at all.
Teaching of the Jewishscriptures was reserved for men,
but Jesus made a point to beable to teach women to do things
for women, to serve women, toheal women, to include women in
(07:11):
his ministry, to involve them inthe things that he was doing.
Now, yes, his 12 disciples wereall men.
But he didn't limit his ministryto his 12 disciples.
There were women who wereregularly around what he was
doing, both as followers and assupporters of his ministry.
Jesus included women in somevery radical ways, and because
(07:34):
of that, he got talked verypoorly about by the religious
leaders of his day when theyaccused him of associating with,
uh, drunkards and gluttons.
Part of that was saying likeJesus was associated with the
lowest of the low, and thatincluded women that he was
associating with himself,associating himself with people
(07:55):
in ways that would make himappear scandalous and just to be
around women as a male.
Teacher was kind of a taboothing to do, but Jesus did it
anyway because he knew thatwomen were worthy of that kind
of dignity and that kind ofrecognition in his kingdom.
So he wasn't about to excludethem just because that was the
(08:16):
cultural norm for Jewishteachers to do in that day.
Okay?
So Jesus radically includedwomen and he elevated their
status wherever he could.
The second thing is that Jesusmade a point to defend or to
stand up for women who werebeing shamed by the culture
(08:38):
around him.
So we can think of a fewexamples of the way that Jesus
did this, and the story of thewoman at the will.
Jesus made a point not only totalk to her, but to reveal
himself to her as the son ofGod.
Now this was a woman who,because of her social standing,
had been completely ostracizedby the people around her.
(09:01):
Her community wanted nothing todo with her, and that was
because she had been with awhole bunch of men.
She had had several husbandsalready and was now onto another
one, and people just kind ofknew she wasn't a woman of good
repute.
That didn't really seem tobother Jesus.
He made a point of sitting withher, of talking with her, of
drawing water with her for thesake of being able to illustrate
(09:24):
a point of talking to her abouther life and of including her in
his ministry and revealinghimself to her.
He elevated her status.
Not only that, but she was what?
The Jewish people called aSamaritan.
She was someone who was, uh,both religiously and
historically kind of outcastfrom Jewish society.
(09:46):
And so this was a woman that norabbi would be seen associating
with, and yet Jesus took timeout of his day specifically to
be with her and to make a pointof defending her, of elevating
her, and of showing that evenshe was somebody who was worthy
of his respect.
We see this again when Jesus,uh, interacts with the woman who
(10:10):
is caught in adultery, we seeher being shamed by the
religious leaders around her,pulled from her own bed and
nothing but a sheet and thrownat Jesus' feet, at Jesus' feet
with these religious leaderspreparing to stone her as a way
of trapping Jesus.
Okay.
Now, none of this is reallyabout the woman in the religious
(10:31):
leader's mind, but Jesus takesthe scene and turns it around so
that it absolutely is about her.
He challenges all thosereligious leaders by saying, who
among you is without sin?
You should be the one to castthe first stone.
Then, and of course, none ofthem can own up to that, and so
they drop their stones and theywalk away.
(10:52):
Jesus defends this woman.
He doesn't know if she wasreally caught in adultery or
not.
Maybe she was, maybe she wasn't.
But Jesus doesn't actually stopto bother with that detail.
He just says, no woman should beshamed in such a way as these
religious leaders are doing,that he knew that they were
trying to trap him, that theyweren't actually concerned about
(11:15):
her, and they certainly were notconcerned about.
Restoring her out of her sin.
They just wanted to use her as aweapon to be able to trap Jesus.
And if her sin was, the cost ofthat and the punishment that she
got was the cost of it, then sobe it.
They had accomplished theirgoals.
Jesus didn't want any woman tobe used as a weapon or a trap
(11:36):
that intentionally.
Degraded her and put her into aplace where she was something
less than a human being.
Jesus wanted to defend andsupport her in that moment so
that he could elevate her to herrightful place as a co-heir of
the Kingdom of God and as a coimage of God alongside even
those men who were seeking herworst.
(11:59):
Now as he defended her, he didsay to her that he didn't cast
any judgment, but he encouragedher go and leave your life of
sin.
So whatever he knew about whatshe had done, he still was
calling her to obedience and tofaithfulness, but he was doing
it in a way that honored her,that respected her, that
(12:20):
defended her, that supported heras a person, and didn't shame
her based on her sin.
Jesus did something radical inthat moment that showed not only
to that woman, but to all women,that he was for them, that he
met them in their lowest placesand in the places where society
most tended to overlook them andto say, I love you.
(12:42):
I don't judge you, but I wantthe best for you, and it doesn't
include this sinful way ofliving.
So we see from the way thatJesus treated and interacted
with these women, that he wasall about defending and
supporting those who were mostvulnerable and who had been most
oppressed.
Okay, one more thing, andcertainly not the least.
(13:03):
On the list is that Jesusactually entrusted his
resurrection message first towomen.
Now, this is a radical point,but if you read the gospels in
the Bible, those are the storiesabout Jesus' life.
You will see that in each one ofthem, the first people to the
(13:24):
tomb that found that Jesus wasno longer there were women.
It was women who discovered thatJesus' body was not in the tomb,
and even who met with him orwith angels to learn that he was
risen from the dead.
And then those women were taskedwith taking that message to the
(13:45):
12 disciples and to let themknow that Jesus was not dead,
but was alive.
That's what Christians callpreaching.
The gospel.
It was women who first preachedand announced the resurrection
of Jesus.
Now, this is, frankly, this is ascandalous detail in the story
(14:06):
of Jesus from the first centurybecause women, especially in
that Jewish society, were notconsidered to be able to have
reliable testimony in a court oflaw.
So if you wanted to be able tohave a witness to an event, it
was not women who could reliablydo that.
It had to be men.
So to include women in the storyas the first witnesses of
(14:29):
Jesus's resurrection as thefirst preachers of his account
of rising from the dead, thiswas really risky.
This was not the kind of detailthat you wanted to include if
you wanted people to haveconfidence in the message that
Jesus had risen from the dead,because in that culture, women
giving that message would'vebeen considered.
(14:51):
Unreliable.
It would've been consideredquestionable that that detail
was included.
People might have read that andthought, uh, I'm not sure that I
can trust these women to carrythat message.
And yet Jesus did.
He did trust women to carry thatmessage.
In fact, the gospels all make apoint that these women were the
(15:12):
first ones to see him and tocarry that message to the
disciples.
This is so powerful.
We see here that Jesus knew thatwomen had an important role to
play in his kingdom, that theywere capable of far more than
the culture had judged them, ofthat they were reliable, that
they were trustworthy, and thattheir gender didn't have.
(15:35):
Anything to do with theirreliable or their
trustworthiness.
In fact, in some ways it mighthave even increased it, but the
point that Jesus was making wasto be able to show that women
had value and dignity and theyshould be seen as such if the
King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
If the victor over death couldentrust that message to women,
(15:59):
then certainly we could entrustthem with far more than we have
been considered doing.
Now, okay.
These are all examples of howJesus really went way outside
the cultural norms to make apoint of showing the value of
women, their dignity, theirworth, their capability, all of
(16:19):
the things that made women goodas co-heirs, as co-equals, and
his co images in God's kingdom.
He made these points.
So what though, does that meanfor us as men today?
How do we take those kinds ofthings?
You and I aren't rising from thedead and having people, you
know, transmit our message toothers.
(16:40):
Like we don't quite have thesame ability to do anything
about women's status culturallyas Jesus might have done.
So what does that mean then?
How should we take those thingsand learn from Jesus as a way of
treating women in our day andage?
Well, I think we can take a fewthings away from what he did.
The first thing is to recognizethat because of our strength as
(17:03):
men, we do have something tooffer in both protecting and
elevating women around us.
We can give of our strength tohelp women be in a stronger
place culturally.
Now, even in our culture wherewomen are, for the most part,
thought to be equals, even ifthey're not always treated as
(17:25):
equals.
There still is room for us asmen to be able to show up in a
way that defends and supportsand allows room for women to be
able to participate in things.
Those are all ways that we canfollow.
Jesus's example of elevating thestatus of women and defending
them in places where they mightbe vulnerable to the culture's
(17:47):
criticism or wrong assumptionsabout women.
We as men can make that standand at times.
It might cost us a little bit,it might cost us a reputation.
It might cost us a little bit ofbeing able to participate in
jokes with the guys around theoffice or the guys around the
ball team, or you know, whateverelse.
It might cost us a little bit inthat regard.
(18:09):
But it cost Jesus a whole lot.
It cost him the ability to berespected by other religious
leaders of his day, but itgained him so.
Much.
It gained him not only therespect and the following and
the support of women in hisministry, but it gained him the
respect of men as well, whowanted to be able to be like him
(18:33):
and to recognize that women hadsomething to offer.
There were men who wanted totreat women well, to treat them
better than the society aroundthem did.
And they saw that as anopportunity to follow Jesus and
do his as he did.
As you take a stand and stand upfor women, there are other men
who probably want to do the samebut are afraid to do that.
(18:54):
So use your strength, whetherthat's your voice, your
position, your reputation,whatever it is that you have to
offer, use it to be able tosupport and encourage the women
around you.
You also can trust the womenaround you.
Use your courage.
It's a mark of manhood and wetalk about it regularly to put
(19:16):
your trust in the women aroundyou.
Let them know that they haveyour support and that you trust
their ability to not only handlethings well, but to handle them
with.
Excellence This is especiallytrue in religious circles where
women are often treated assecond rate citizens.
(19:36):
So for those of you who aretrying to follow Jesus, you may
have more room than most atbeing able to trust.
The women around you and helpthem know that they have dignity
and they have capability atdoing things well and with
excellence in a way that will berespected and rewarded.
(19:56):
Now lastly is just very simplywhat Jesus did as well.
Love the women around you.
Now, of course, I'm not talkingabout loving them
inappropriately.
Jesus didn't love any womaninappropriately, but he did love
them well.
He saw their needs, he paidattention to them.
He saw their identity and soughtfor ways to be able to encourage
(20:18):
it, not to shame it.
And if you can do those things,which.
Aren't inappropriate.
They're not violating any kindof relationship that you might
have with your wife or otherwomen in your family, but it,
you can do that in a way thatcommunicates to women, you love
them as human beings.
Even if you're not trying tocommunicate that you love them
romantically, your love for themwill go a long way in being able
(20:43):
to help them love themselves andto turn that love back around to
others as well.
All right.
There was a lot here andprobably some things that maybe
made you a little bituncomfortable.
Might have actually put someideas in your head that are
going, I'm not sure I've everreally thought about treating
the women around me that way.
That's okay.
That's what Jesus does to all ofus.
(21:03):
He causes us to rethink the waythat we do things.
So I hope that that's whatyou've gotten out of this
message today.
If you like this content, Iwould love for you to like the
video and to subscribe to thechannel, uh, to be able to not
only get more of it, but to helpother men get it as well.
I would also encourage you toconsider signing up for our
Manhood Tribe's community.
(21:24):
This is where you can find otherlike-minded men.
To be able to connect with andto build community with so that
you can do this kind of lifewith others who are trying to do
it as well.
Just go to manhoodtribes.com/community and look
for the opportunity to be ableto sign up when our community
opens its doors.
Next, finally, if you enjoyedwhat we talked about today, I
(21:46):
would love for you to engage inthe comments and just say,
what's one thing that you can doas a man to treat the women
around you the way that Jesuswould have?
What's one thing that you can doas a man to treat the women
around you the way that Jesuswould have put your answer in
the comments below, and I lookforward to engaging with you
there, and I'll talk to youagain next time here on the
(22:08):
Manhood Tribe Show.
We'll see you then.
All right, guys.
Let me ask you a probingquestion today.
How does a real man treat women?
Or maybe better yet asked, wheredid you learn how to treat
women?
What were your examples for howto interact with a woman the way
(00:21):
that you should talk about her,the way that you should talk to
her, the way that a group of menshould talk about women or
interact with women.
Where did your examples comefrom for how to be able to do
those things and do you thinkthe way that you have learned to
do it is actually a good thing?
(00:42):
Is that the way that men shouldtreat women?
I want to, in today's episode,try to talk a little bit.
Along the lines of what it lookslike to treat women well, the
way that men really should treatwomen, and as we're continuing
in this series about Jesus beingthe man most worth following, I
(01:05):
want us to take a look at theway that Jesus treated women.
Because I think it's actuallygoing to surprise us a little
bit, the way that he treatedwomen and how that models for
us, what we as men, who want tobe the best men that we can be,
can actually learn from him.
So let's get started today hereon the Manhood Tribes Show.
(01:27):
My name is Don.
I'm your host here, as always,and I'm excited about continuing
in this series with you as wetalk about Jesus the Man most
worth following.
Now kind of the whole idea withthis series is we probably need
to take a second look at Jesusas really a man, not just a holy
man, not just the Son of God,not just a religious figure or
(01:51):
even a great teacher, but reallyJesus as a man, that as men who
are trying to become the bestmen that we want to be, that we
need to actually look at the waythat Jesus lived.
As a man to discern what didmanhood actually mean for him
and did he actually do it in theway that we are trying to, to
(02:12):
emulate?
Is he the kind of man that mostof us actually want to become?
I think the answer is yes.
I think that all of us who aretrying to be the best men we can
be should look at Jesus becausehe's the best man who ever was.
Now, this isn't just like moralspeak, okay?
This isn't just like, oh, Jesuswas the perfect man and we, so
we should all just be like himand everything's kind of nice
(02:35):
and sweet and tidy.
I think that's kind of the likeoverly churched idea of Jesus,
that he's like nice and sweetand so we as men are supposed to
be nice and sweet.
I don't think Jesus was reallyanything like that at all.
I think there were moments wherehe was nice and sweet and
there's probably moments wherewe as men need to be nice and
sweet, but I don't know thatanyone would've characterized
(02:56):
him that way.
And so we need to really takeanother look to actually be able
to see what was Jesus reallylike.
As a man, one of the mostimportant areas where we do
really need to look at this isthe way that Jesus treated
women.
Because I think probably most ofus would have this idea that
Jesus is kind of soft, right?
(03:19):
If we, if we think about Jesus'spersonality, the way that we
imagine him, we sort of imaginehim being soft, maybe even a
little bit effeminate.
And so the idea that Jesustreated women the way that a
manly man would treat womendoesn't seem to mesh well with
this idea of Jesus being like.
(03:39):
Weak and soft and effeminate,right?
We kind of, the picture that wehave of Jesus might even be that
like he was sort of like one ofthe girls a little bit, you
know?
Uh, and I don't mean to sayanything disparaging about Jesus
to say that, but I just meanthat I think most men who've had
any experience of church get anidea of Jesus being the kind of
(04:01):
man that.
They wouldn't necessarily wantto hang out with.
He's not really the kind of guythat they imagine themselves
being friends with.
He might get along really wellwith their wives, but not
necessarily in a gang ofbuddies.
So to think about how he treatswomen just doesn't seem to
relate.
That's not the kind of man thatI want to be.
I wanna challenge that ideatoday.
(04:21):
I want us to rethink that sumand to examine how Jesus
actually did it so that we mightrethink how we should do it.
Okay, so there's really kind oflike three big things that I
want to talk about today interms of the way that Jesus
treated women that I think willhelp us to get a better picture
of what does it mean for a realman to treat women in the best
(04:42):
way possible.
The first thing is that at everyturn, Jesus sought to treat
women in a way that was ofhigher status than the culture
around him.
Now this is really kind ofinteresting, like Jesus was
something of a revolutionaryreligiously.
(05:03):
We kind of obviously know that,but we don't talk a whole lot
about the ways that Jesus was arevolutionary culturally, that
he really did some things thatwere culturally backwards or
culturally polarizing orculturally like completely
inappropriate in his day.
To actually kind of set himselfup as being a man who treated
(05:25):
women in ways that kind of gothim into trouble, made him look
like a bit of an outcast, puthim on the edge of society
instead of being welcomed forthe way that he treated women,
he actually was kind ofcriticized for the way that he
treated women.
But that's because he was tryingto actually bring up the dignity
(05:45):
of women in his culture andallow them to be seen as
something good as equals amongmen, as co-heirs to the kingdom
of God, as someone who had beencreated alongside men, that they
also had the dignity of whatscripture calls the image of
God, that women also were madeas God's image, not just men.
(06:09):
Not just a superior gender andan inferior gender, but really
two genders who operatedtogether to display what God is
like to the world.
So what were some ways thatJesus did that well, for
example, in Jesus' day, if youwere a rabbi, which meant that
you were a teacher who had agroup of disciples with you.
(06:31):
Most Jewish rabbis would not becaught dead teaching women,
certainly not having women intheir inner circle.
And yet Jesus wasn't afraid todo this at all.
He regularly had women followinghim.
He had women who supported hisministry.
He had women who ministered tohim.
He spent time around women.
(06:51):
He hung out with women.
He taught.
Women.
That was something that Jewishrabbis did not do at all.
Teaching of the Jewishscriptures was reserved for men,
but Jesus made a point to beable to teach women to do things
for women, to serve women, toheal women, to include women in
(07:11):
his ministry, to involve them inthe things that he was doing.
Now, yes, his 12 disciples wereall men.
But he didn't limit his ministryto his 12 disciples.
There were women who wereregularly around what he was
doing, both as followers and assupporters of his ministry.
Jesus included women in somevery radical ways, and because
(07:34):
of that, he got talked verypoorly about by the religious
leaders of his day when theyaccused him of associating with,
uh, drunkards and gluttons.
Part of that was saying likeJesus was associated with the
lowest of the low, and thatincluded women that he was
associating with himself,associating himself with people
(07:55):
in ways that would make himappear scandalous and just to be
around women as a male.
Teacher was kind of a taboothing to do, but Jesus did it
anyway because he knew thatwomen were worthy of that kind
of dignity and that kind ofrecognition in his kingdom.
So he wasn't about to excludethem just because that was the
(08:16):
cultural norm for Jewishteachers to do in that day.
Okay?
So Jesus radically includedwomen and he elevated their
status wherever he could.
The second thing is that Jesusmade a point to defend or to
stand up for women who werebeing shamed by the culture
(08:38):
around him.
So we can think of a fewexamples of the way that Jesus
did this, and the story of thewoman at the will.
Jesus made a point not only totalk to her, but to reveal
himself to her as the son ofGod.
Now this was a woman who,because of her social standing,
had been completely ostracizedby the people around her.
(09:01):
Her community wanted nothing todo with her, and that was
because she had been with awhole bunch of men.
She had had several husbandsalready and was now onto another
one, and people just kind ofknew she wasn't a woman of good
repute.
That didn't really seem tobother Jesus.
He made a point of sitting withher, of talking with her, of
drawing water with her for thesake of being able to illustrate
(09:24):
a point of talking to her abouther life and of including her in
his ministry and revealinghimself to her.
He elevated her status.
Not only that, but she was what?
The Jewish people called aSamaritan.
She was someone who was, uh,both religiously and
historically kind of outcastfrom Jewish society.
(09:46):
And so this was a woman that norabbi would be seen associating
with, and yet Jesus took timeout of his day specifically to
be with her and to make a pointof defending her, of elevating
her, and of showing that evenshe was somebody who was worthy
of his respect.
We see this again when Jesus,uh, interacts with the woman who
(10:10):
is caught in adultery, we seeher being shamed by the
religious leaders around her,pulled from her own bed and
nothing but a sheet and thrownat Jesus' feet, at Jesus' feet
with these religious leaderspreparing to stone her as a way
of trapping Jesus.
Okay.
Now, none of this is reallyabout the woman in the religious
(10:31):
leader's mind, but Jesus takesthe scene and turns it around so
that it absolutely is about her.
He challenges all thosereligious leaders by saying, who
among you is without sin?
You should be the one to castthe first stone.
Then, and of course, none ofthem can own up to that, and so
they drop their stones and theywalk away.
(10:52):
Jesus defends this woman.
He doesn't know if she wasreally caught in adultery or
not.
Maybe she was, maybe she wasn't.
But Jesus doesn't actually stopto bother with that detail.
He just says, no woman should beshamed in such a way as these
religious leaders are doing,that he knew that they were
trying to trap him, that theyweren't actually concerned about
(11:15):
her, and they certainly were notconcerned about.
Restoring her out of her sin.
They just wanted to use her as aweapon to be able to trap Jesus.
And if her sin was, the cost ofthat and the punishment that she
got was the cost of it, then sobe it.
They had accomplished theirgoals.
Jesus didn't want any woman tobe used as a weapon or a trap
(11:36):
that intentionally.
Degraded her and put her into aplace where she was something
less than a human being.
Jesus wanted to defend andsupport her in that moment so
that he could elevate her to herrightful place as a co-heir of
the Kingdom of God and as a coimage of God alongside even
those men who were seeking herworst.
(11:59):
Now as he defended her, he didsay to her that he didn't cast
any judgment, but he encouragedher go and leave your life of
sin.
So whatever he knew about whatshe had done, he still was
calling her to obedience and tofaithfulness, but he was doing
it in a way that honored her,that respected her, that
(12:20):
defended her, that supported heras a person, and didn't shame
her based on her sin.
Jesus did something radical inthat moment that showed not only
to that woman, but to all women,that he was for them, that he
met them in their lowest placesand in the places where society
most tended to overlook them andto say, I love you.
(12:42):
I don't judge you, but I wantthe best for you, and it doesn't
include this sinful way ofliving.
So we see from the way thatJesus treated and interacted
with these women, that he wasall about defending and
supporting those who were mostvulnerable and who had been most
oppressed.
Okay, one more thing, andcertainly not the least.
(13:03):
On the list is that Jesusactually entrusted his
resurrection message first towomen.
Now, this is a radical point,but if you read the gospels in
the Bible, those are the storiesabout Jesus' life.
You will see that in each one ofthem, the first people to the
(13:24):
tomb that found that Jesus wasno longer there were women.
It was women who discovered thatJesus' body was not in the tomb,
and even who met with him orwith angels to learn that he was
risen from the dead.
And then those women were taskedwith taking that message to the
(13:45):
12 disciples and to let themknow that Jesus was not dead,
but was alive.
That's what Christians callpreaching.
The gospel.
It was women who first preachedand announced the resurrection
of Jesus.
Now, this is, frankly, this is ascandalous detail in the story
(14:06):
of Jesus from the first centurybecause women, especially in
that Jewish society, were notconsidered to be able to have
reliable testimony in a court oflaw.
So if you wanted to be able tohave a witness to an event, it
was not women who could reliablydo that.
It had to be men.
So to include women in the storyas the first witnesses of
(14:29):
Jesus's resurrection as thefirst preachers of his account
of rising from the dead, thiswas really risky.
This was not the kind of detailthat you wanted to include if
you wanted people to haveconfidence in the message that
Jesus had risen from the dead,because in that culture, women
giving that message would'vebeen considered.
(14:51):
Unreliable.
It would've been consideredquestionable that that detail
was included.
People might have read that andthought, uh, I'm not sure that I
can trust these women to carrythat message.
And yet Jesus did.
He did trust women to carry thatmessage.
In fact, the gospels all make apoint that these women were the
(15:12):
first ones to see him and tocarry that message to the
disciples.
This is so powerful.
We see here that Jesus knew thatwomen had an important role to
play in his kingdom, that theywere capable of far more than
the culture had judged them, ofthat they were reliable, that
they were trustworthy, and thattheir gender didn't have.
(15:35):
Anything to do with theirreliable or their
trustworthiness.
In fact, in some ways it mighthave even increased it, but the
point that Jesus was making wasto be able to show that women
had value and dignity and theyshould be seen as such if the
King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
If the victor over death couldentrust that message to women,
(15:59):
then certainly we could entrustthem with far more than we have
been considered doing.
Now, okay.
These are all examples of howJesus really went way outside
the cultural norms to make apoint of showing the value of
women, their dignity, theirworth, their capability, all of
(16:19):
the things that made women goodas co-heirs, as co-equals, and
his co images in God's kingdom.
He made these points.
So what though, does that meanfor us as men today?
How do we take those kinds ofthings?
You and I aren't rising from thedead and having people, you
know, transmit our message toothers.
(16:40):
Like we don't quite have thesame ability to do anything
about women's status culturallyas Jesus might have done.
So what does that mean then?
How should we take those thingsand learn from Jesus as a way of
treating women in our day andage?
Well, I think we can take a fewthings away from what he did.
The first thing is to recognizethat because of our strength as
(17:03):
men, we do have something tooffer in both protecting and
elevating women around us.
We can give of our strength tohelp women be in a stronger
place culturally.
Now, even in our culture wherewomen are, for the most part,
thought to be equals, even ifthey're not always treated as
(17:25):
equals.
There still is room for us asmen to be able to show up in a
way that defends and supportsand allows room for women to be
able to participate in things.
Those are all ways that we canfollow.
Jesus's example of elevating thestatus of women and defending
them in places where they mightbe vulnerable to the culture's
(17:47):
criticism or wrong assumptionsabout women.
We as men can make that standand at times.
It might cost us a little bit,it might cost us a reputation.
It might cost us a little bit ofbeing able to participate in
jokes with the guys around theoffice or the guys around the
ball team, or you know, whateverelse.
It might cost us a little bit inthat regard.
(18:09):
But it cost Jesus a whole lot.
It cost him the ability to berespected by other religious
leaders of his day, but itgained him so.
Much.
It gained him not only therespect and the following and
the support of women in hisministry, but it gained him the
respect of men as well, whowanted to be able to be like him
(18:33):
and to recognize that women hadsomething to offer.
There were men who wanted totreat women well, to treat them
better than the society aroundthem did.
And they saw that as anopportunity to follow Jesus and
do his as he did.
As you take a stand and stand upfor women, there are other men
who probably want to do the samebut are afraid to do that.
(18:54):
So use your strength, whetherthat's your voice, your
position, your reputation,whatever it is that you have to
offer, use it to be able tosupport and encourage the women
around you.
You also can trust the womenaround you.
Use your courage.
It's a mark of manhood and wetalk about it regularly to put
(19:16):
your trust in the women aroundyou.
Let them know that they haveyour support and that you trust
their ability to not only handlethings well, but to handle them
with.
Excellence This is especiallytrue in religious circles where
women are often treated assecond rate citizens.
(19:36):
So for those of you who aretrying to follow Jesus, you may
have more room than most atbeing able to trust.
The women around you and helpthem know that they have dignity
and they have capability atdoing things well and with
excellence in a way that will berespected and rewarded.
(19:56):
Now lastly is just very simplywhat Jesus did as well.
Love the women around you.
Now, of course, I'm not talkingabout loving them
inappropriately.
Jesus didn't love any womaninappropriately, but he did love
them well.
He saw their needs, he paidattention to them.
He saw their identity and soughtfor ways to be able to encourage
(20:18):
it, not to shame it.
And if you can do those things,which.
Aren't inappropriate.
They're not violating any kindof relationship that you might
have with your wife or otherwomen in your family, but it,
you can do that in a way thatcommunicates to women, you love
them as human beings.
Even if you're not trying tocommunicate that you love them
romantically, your love for themwill go a long way in being able
(20:43):
to help them love themselves andto turn that love back around to
others as well.
All right.
There was a lot here andprobably some things that maybe
made you a little bituncomfortable.
Might have actually put someideas in your head that are
going, I'm not sure I've everreally thought about treating
the women around me that way.
That's okay.
That's what Jesus does to all ofus.
(21:03):
He causes us to rethink the waythat we do things.
So I hope that that's whatyou've gotten out of this
message today.
If you like this content, Iwould love for you to like the
video and to subscribe to thechannel, uh, to be able to not
only get more of it, but to helpother men get it as well.
I would also encourage you toconsider signing up for our
Manhood Tribe's community.
(21:24):
This is where you can find otherlike-minded men.
To be able to connect with andto build community with so that
you can do this kind of lifewith others who are trying to do
it as well.
Just go to manhoodtribes.com/community and look
for the opportunity to be ableto sign up when our community
opens its doors.
Next, finally, if you enjoyedwhat we talked about today, I
(21:46):
would love for you to engage inthe comments and just say,
what's one thing that you can doas a man to treat the women
around you the way that Jesuswould have?
What's one thing that you can doas a man to treat the women
around you the way that Jesuswould have put your answer in
the comments below, and I lookforward to engaging with you
there, and I'll talk to youagain next time here on the
(22:08):
Manhood Tribe Show.
We'll see you then.
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