Becoming His Story. Mary-Elsie Wolfe

he pointed out his wife to me. “There she is—the fat one!” My Kenyan translator, more familiar with Canadian culture, immediately understood my alarm in hearing a man describe his wife as fat. He quickly leaned toward my ear and explained that in their village, being fat was a good thing because it meant that she had a good husband who provided for her. The insight of my translator gave me understanding of the pastor’s reference to his wife being fat. His helpful explanation combatted my offence as it put things into perspective for me.

      As we continue this discussion in light of Jesus’ time and his interaction with women, we need to be careful not to impose our worldview on the text but rather to view the text in light of what we know of this ancient culture.

      God’s worldview transcends ours. That’s the story we want to tap into.

8 Philip Jackman, “Britain’s Stupidest Statutes,” The Globe and Mail, November 7, 2007, accessed January 14, 2017, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/britains-stupidest-statutes/article1089086/.

9 Susan Hylen, A Modest Apostle: Thecla and the History of Women in the Early Church (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015).

10 Mary Evans, Woman in the Bible (Devon: Paternoster Press, 1983), 40.

11 Lynn Cohick, “Women, Children, and Families in the Roman World,” in The World of the New Testament: Cultural, Social, and Historical Contexts, eds. Joel Green and Lee Martin McDonald (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013), 183.

12 Cohick, “Women, Children, and Families,” 180.

13 Westfall, Paul and Gender, 14.

14 Evans, Woman in the Bible, 40.

15 Westfall, Paul and Gender, 13.

16 Cohick, “Women, Children, and Families,” 183.

17 Cohick, “Women, Children, and Families,” 180.

18 Cohick, “Women, Children, and Families,” 181.

19 Westfall, Paul and Gender, 13.

20 Ruth Tucker, “The Changing Roles of Women in Ministry: The Early Church Through the 18th Century,” in Discovering Biblical Equality: Complementarity Without Hierarchy, eds. Ronald W. Pierce and Rebecca Merrill Groothuis (Downers Grove: IVP, 2005), 26.

21 Humphrey Mwangi Waweru, “Jesus and Ordinary Women in the Gospel of John: An African Perspective,” Swedish Missiological Themes 96, no. 2 (2008), 142.

22 Cohick, “Women, Children, and Families,” 182.

23 Evans, Woman in the Bible, 40.

24 Steven Katz, ed., The Cambridge History of Judaism 4 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 10.

25 William Webb, Slaves, Women and Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis (Downers Grove: IVP, 2001), 160.

26 Craig S. Keener, preface to Paul, Women, and Wives, Marriage and Women’s Ministry in the Letters of Paul, 8th ed. (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 1992).

27 Evans, Woman in the Bible, 35.

      Chapter 6

      Mary Models Discipleship 101 (John 2:1–11)

      From Mary, we learn about discipleship. Mary’s relationship with Jesus was what prompted her actions. She had watched Jesus, learned from Jesus, grown in Jesus. We can be pretty brave and bold when we really grasp the possibilities of our faith! Mary’s advantage was a fully immersed daily relationship with Jesus. What Mary did impacts the world 2,000 years later! Too often we limit our perspective to what we understand and can see, without the benefit of God’s view.

      During a school break one year, I took my two girls to see The Bee Movie. At the beginning of the movie a familiar television voice spoke over the text saying, “According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. The bees’ wings are far too short to support their fat little bodies. Bees, of course, fly anyway, because bees don’t care what humans think is possible.”

      This was unquestionably the most profound statement of the movie. The news flash might be reiterated another way—God and his creation do not need to follow our rules.

A comparable message was reported in The Toronto Star and other news media when 21-year-old Zack Dunlap was declared dead after being involved in a crash.28 The results of the brain scan revealed no brain activity or blood flow at all. His family had even approved having his organs harvested, and they were paying their last respects when a pocket knife scratched the bottom of his foot and caused a reaction! The report added that Zack didn’t remember much of the accident or what happened afterwards; however, he did remember hearing the doctor declaring him dead. After being released 48 days later, the man said that he was feeling “pretty good.”

      What remains fascinating is that by all human ability to assess him, he was dead—and maybe he was! So it raises the question, could it be possible that some of the things in which we put stake as humans are beyond us or our own abilities and assessments? Mary, the mother of Jesus, thought so. As we see in the following story, Mary never lost sight of what might be possible when Jesus is with you. She was not the only one aware of the circumstances being faced at this wedding, but she was the only one to react the way she did. She was the only one who made the decision to entrust the challenge to Jesus. Here is her story:

      The next day there was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration. The wine supply ran out during the festivities, so Jesus’ mother told him, “They have no more wine.”

      “Dear woman, that’s not our problem,” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.”

      But his mother told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

      Standing nearby were six stone water jars, used for Jewish ceremonial washing. Each could hold twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus told the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” When the jars had been filled, he said, “Now dip some out, and take it to the master of ceremonies.” So the servants followed his instructions.

      When the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from (though, of course, the servants knew), he called the bridegroom over. “A