Caring

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

CARING

Mark 15:40-41

40 Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. 41 In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.

NIV

Although there is some debate regarding just who are all these women, there is enough evidence from three of the gospel accounts to know that one was Mary, the mother of Jesus, the other was her sister Mary, wife of Cephas, who was the mother of James the younger and Jose, who is also thought to be Joseph, and Mary Magdalene, who is thought of as the one who poured perfume on Jesus. It is also thought that Mary and perhaps Martha the sisters of Lazarus were there. The point here or the reason so many women were there watching from a distance was a simple fact. Women are the nurturers of the world. We see they are identified as women who followed Jesus and cared for his needs. This seems to be a great gift for women, which men just lack. Oh, there may be an exception here and there, but men just are not caretakers in the sense that women are. It may not be the most popular thinking in our culture today, however, God did create woman from a man for the reason to be his helpmate. In our free to be me, hear me roar, women’s equality movements, women still cannot deny they feel this sense of nurturing, for caring for the needs of people, or at the very least, one person. There is this inner core that cares about others. Sure, there may be an exception here and there, but this is an inner, God-instilled, sense to care for the needs of someone. We do not hear about these women throughout the gospels during all the times that Jesus taught or traveled from one town to the next. We do not hear about these women in the sense of caring for Jesus. We have seen them mentioned, Mary the mother of Jesus surely cared for her son. Mary and Martha hosted Jesus and his disciples often and we have seen Martha preparing meals, caring for the needs of Jesus. We have seen Mary, perhaps the one from Magdala pouring perfume over him. What we need to see here is the role throughout scripture of women being the helpers of men.  God knew from the beginning that it was not good for man to be alone, he needs a mate, a helper, a caring loving person to care for his needs. It is interesting the first time the word woman, and not female, appears is in Genesis. This Hebrew word is the feminine form of the Hebrew word for man. The Greek word here that Mark uses for woman has the direct meaning of the female version of man, woman, and has been interchangeable and translated also as a wife. The old English word “wif” was used to mean the wife or the woman of a marriage, and it has evolved from that into wife or wifman, thus woman. As interesting as all this is, the point here, that we see women being in the center of caring for the needs of others. As unpopular as this may be in our culture, this is the reason God created woman, to be this helpmate, this partner, this caring, loving, nurturing half of mankind, for without women where would we be. We need their caring.