by Jennifer Hockenbery
“Then that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men, ’cause Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.”
My students universally loved this line from Sojourner Truth’s famous “Ain’t I a woman?” speech. It always made its way into their final essays: Mary’s birthing of God shows the importance of woman in the history of salvation, maybe God wants us to have a voice in things today too.
The Christmas narrative, as Luke tells it, gives some clear messages about women:
Women matter. Luke notes that Mary was a virgin, not to emphasize her purity as much as to emphasize her independence. As Sojourner Truth says, “Man had nothing to do with Him!”
Women have authority from God. Luke notes that both Elizabeth and Mary are given knowledge about their unborn children, which they accept. Their songs proclaim the greatness of God and the truth of God’s incarnation into the world. In the end, their testimony is upheld as authoritative by Zechariah and Joseph. When Zechariah confirmed his wife’s choice of name for baby John, God loosed his tongue after months of punishment for not believing she could conceive. It is as if God said, okay, you did not trust me, but at least you trust your wife. Luke’s Joseph simply seems on board with his wife’s announcement of her pregnancy in the Gospel account, not requiring a visit from Matthew’s angel to tell him firmly to trust his betrothed.
Women’s bodies are holy. We know from the Gospels that the blood of women was considered unclean. Mary undergoes the standard purification rituals in Luke’s Gospel account. But Luke is clear throughout his first book, the Lord was in the womb of Mary. Her womb was the temple of God who found it a most fit place to dwell.
What does this mean for us today?
Thinking about Mary, a young woman, who held her Creator in her arms, nursed the Giver of all life, taught the Word his first words, and protected the Savior of all, we might be tempted to think that Mary was so different from any of us. But I think God chose Mary, not because she was herself perfect, but because she was a regular girl who was given favor by God. God’s love took this poor teenage girl who was vulnerable to so many authorities and made her the Mother of God.
God’s love gives each of us value. Mary’s example shows us how much God values each of us, even those of us who identify as female in a world where, for a long time, being female meant mattering less, having less authority, and having a body that was not considered holy enough to be ordained.
God says to everyone in this Christmas season—you matter, your voice matters, your body matters. But to women, sometimes we need that reminder to be a little louder, so in these 12 days that we celebrate Christmas, take time to read the first two chapters of Luke and ponder in your heart the miracle of Jesus’ birth and what that might mean about celebrating women.
Dr. Jennifer Hockenbery is interim executive director for Women of the ELCA and editor of the Journal of Lutheran Ethics.