From the Gospels to Elizabeth Warren, women nevertheless persist

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Stories of persistent women abound in the Gospels. There is the woman in the Gospel of Mark who suffers from excessive bleeding or a hemorrhage. She has endured much at the hands of many doctors, but she has not been cured. Society shuns her as unclean due to the constant presence of menstrual blood. She persists in getting close enough to Jesus to touch the hem of his cloak, believing in Jesus’ power to heal her. Her persistence and faith are rewarded.

There is the Canaanite woman in the Gospel of Matthew, a foreigner, who persists in believing that Jesus can help her daughter. Jesus answers that he was sent only to the Jews. “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs,” he tells her. The disciples want Jesus to get rid of this pesky woman. But she persists: “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Because of her faith, Jesus heals her daughter. Her persistence validates Jesus’ redemptive role for those who are not Jews.

There is the nameless woman in the Gospel of Luke, weeping and wordless, who washes Jesus’ feet with her tears and dries them with her hair. She kisses his feet and anoints them with oil. She persists in caring for him, even when Jesus’ dining companions condemn her as a sinner. Jesus forgives her sins, saying, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

There are the women in the Gospel of John who persist in following Jesus all the way to the foot of the cross when most of his other followers have abandoned him. Among them is Mary, the mother of Jesus, who loves her son with the persistent love we women hold for our children and reflects the parental love that God has for us.

http://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/03/29/gospels-elizabeth-warren-women-nevertheless-persist