Jesus Through the Eyes of Women: How the First Female Disciples Help Us Know and Love the Lord

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Rather than view women as risks, liabilities, or burdens, Jesus invites them to draw near. With her characteristic and refreshing blend of scholarship and empathy, Rebecca McLaughlin invites us to examine the stories of women woven throughout the ministry of Jesus, searching for the common threads of good news. And a clear, unhesitating message emerges: 'Suffer the women to come unto me.' Herein is instruction and encouragement for women and men alike seeking to live as brothers and sisters in God's family."

Rather than view women as risks, liabilities, or burdens, Jesus invites them to draw near. With her characteristic and refreshing blend of scholarship and empathy, Rebecca McLaughlin invites us to examine the stories of women woven throughout the ministry of Jesus, searching for the common threads of good news. And a clear, unhesitating message emerges: ‘Suffer the women to come unto me.’ Herein is instruction and encouragement for women and men alike seeking to live as brothers and sisters in God’s family.”

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In fact, this book is truly less about women than it is about Jesus, and one gets the impression that this is how the women we meet would want it to be. The book is also for those who are questioning—or even deeply skeptical—about Jesus and about the Bible that tells of his improbable life, death, and resurrection. McLaughlin has spent plenty of time considering the cynic’s vantage point, with books that include Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Largest Religion in 2020 and The Secular Creed: Engaging 5 Contemporary Claims in 2021. She effortlessly brings them along in this project as well. In a culture where women were often silenced, Jesus commissions a female disciple to announce his resurrection to his male disciples. Strikingly, Mary Magdalene is the first person in John’s Gospel to call Jesus ‘the Lord.’"

As he is with these women, he is also with us. “Jesus is no more put off by our inevitable uncleanness than a mother who has just given birth would be put off from holding her blood-smeared newborn. Before long, Jesus would bleed for this woman.” This was a wonderful book. If you haven’t read anything by Rebecca McLaughlin, I highly suggest you do! And if you can listen to her books on audio, even better!

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Christianity is the most pro-woman religion in the world. Don’t believe me? Take it from the women who encountered Jesus Christ during his life on earth. Rebecca McLaughlin’s new book, Jesus through the Eyes of Women: How the First Female Disciples Help Us Know and Love the Lord (Crossway/TGC), illumines Christ’s character from the vantage point of his earliest female followers. Here are 20 quotes that caught my attention. Far from being antithetical to women’s rights, Christianity is their firm and best foundation. (13) If you want further reading on women’s role in the church and an exegetical look at what specific verses mean, I would recommend Evangelical Feminism by Wayne Grudem or Men and Women in the Church by Kevin DeYoung. Chronologically, [Elizabeth’s declaration represents] the first prophetic words spoken by a human and recorded in the Bible since the prophet Malachi four centuries earlier. (36) Boundaries are necessary for human flourishing. The Bible’s boundaries surrounding sex and limiting it to a male and female within the covenant of marriage protects all parties and creates a safe and healthy environment for everyone to thrive. Among many other benefits, it creates financial, emotional, and physical stability.

We affirm that work is part of God’s plan for human beings participating in the cultivation and stewardship of creation. The divine pattern is one of labor and rest in healthy proportion to each other. OurMcLaughlin, instead, simply looks at Jesus. Specifically through the eyes of the women who encountered Him. As a result, this book is all the more compelling.

We deny that human worth and dignity is reducible to an individual’s economic contributions to society Before we get into her masterful debunking of certain myths and stereotypes, let me deflate one on the author’s behalf: though women are in the title, this book is not just for women, and it is not even really about women. This is a book about the person of Christ, and it is for all those who want to know and follow him more. The fresh perspective it offers us is an aide to that lifelong endeavor. After building inroads for a variety of readers, McLaughlin gets into the nitty-gritty details of how women’s accounts added to the picture we see the Gospels paint of Jesus. Which stories in these books were likely included only because women witnessed and relayed them? It turns out, plenty. “If we cut the things that only women witnessed, we’d lose our first glimpse of Jesus as he took on human flesh and our first glimpse of his resurrected body,” McLaughlin writes. “The four Gospels preserve the eyewitness testimony of women.” When it comes to women’s unique ability to bear children, it’s easy to make one of two mistakes: to overvalue childbearing, as if it’s the primary reason why women exist, or to undervalue it, as if creating new life doesn’t matter.” I grew up in a cult that silenced women. If a woman was being physically abused, everyone looked the other way. If a husband cheated, it was her fault. And if she was sexually abused, she asked for it.

But Jesus responds: “Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:42). In a culture in which women were expected to serve, not to learn, Jesus affirms Mary’s learning from him. But far from dismissing Martha, John tells another story in which Jesus has a stunning conversation with her after her brother Lazarus has died. alone. Humanity should not use AI and other technological innovations as a reason to move toward lives Yet, when one turns to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, a radical, revolutionary view of women shines forth through the grace-filled words and loving actions of Jesus toward the females in his life. Jesus broke through both Jewish and Gentile forms of oppression against women and offered a fresh view of the female gender which has provided the undergirding for true women’s freedom and rights up through the present day. view of work should not be confined to commercial activity; it must also include the many ways that This fascinating and inspiring book closes with a look at how the first eyewitnesses of Jesus’ resurrection were women. After seeing Jesus through the eyes of women, I am left with a bigger and clearer picture of my King. I am eager to re-read their stories with open eyes. And I have a fuller heart, both for how Jesus sees women—and how they help me see Him.