Women's Equality

The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus

Chapter 105:1-8

(Mirrors the Gospel of Luke 8:1-3)

"1. Now, many women who possessed much wealth, and abode in other towns of Galilee, implored that Jesus and the twelve, together with the masters from the foreign lands, would thither go and preach and heal. 2. Among these anxious ones were Mary Magdalene, who was obsessed by seven homeless spirits of the air, which had been driven out by the Omnific Word which Jesus spoke; 3. Susanna, who owned vast estates in Caesarea-Philippi; 4. Johanna, wife of Chuza, one of Herod's court; 5. And Rachel from the coast of Tyre; 6. And other from beyond the Jordan and the sea of Galilee.7. And they provided ample means, and three times seven men went forth. 8. They preached the gospel of the Christ, and they baptized the multitudes who made confession of their faith; they healed the sick and raised the dead."

When we think of Jesus’ ministry, we imagine him traveling around Galilee with his 12 Disciples preaching and teaching to the crowds that would gather by the Sea. Luke 8 tells us that there was a group of women who also followed Jesus, and these women supported Jesus’ ministry financially. In the Aquarian Gospel of Jesus, we find a near identical passage to Luke 8, with some additional information about each of the women who were on Jesus’ team.

The world of Jewish women at the time of Jesus was one of restriction. Women were not allowed in the Temple; they were not allowed to touch the scriptures because it would be a defilement; and, in general, men did not speak to women in public spaces and only minimally to their wives behind closed doors. Jesus, on the other hand, included women in all activities of ministry. Women were not only his financial supporters, but also spread the gospel of God’s unfolding kingdom to all whom they met. Women were the first at the tomb; they tended to his physical needs by washing his feet with their tears and then covering them with expensive oil.

Women saw Jesus as their liberator—not just from being a housewife or mother, but from the tyranny of men overlords who saw their relationship with their wives as dutiful rather than loving. Jesus gave women another purpose in life. He offered them respect, which they rarely received.

While most women in the West don’t feel the same level of oppression that women of Jesus’ day might have felt, there are still mountains to climb when it comes to the equality of women. The gender pay gap has changed very little in the last 20 years. According to several websites that report statistic on the pay gap, the average full-time wage for all women across all job sectors is 84 cents to every dollar earned by men. Additionally, men have greater opportunities to advance in their jobs, they tend to receive higher bonuses, and are able to access more avenues to growing their wealth than women.

We’ve also seen, in recent months, the overturning of Roe v. Wade which takes away a women’s agency over her own body. What we are telling women, with the draconian laws that many states now have on their books, is that women are incapable of making healthcare decisions, in conjunction with their doctors, and need the guidance of others who know absolutely nothing about their individual healthcare needs.

Until Title IX was passed in 1972, women were not guaranteed the right to participate in, receive benefits from, or not be discriminated against when entering into any education program or activity that receives federal funding. Title IX has been particularly transformative in women’s sporting events and has sought to level the playing field between sports offerings and funding in educational institutions.

Finally, I’d be remis if I didn’t mention that it was 1919 when women finally won the right to vote, and that the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was added on August 18, 1920. Women fought for years for this right, and it is incumbent upon women now to treasure what others made possible. The only way women will ever find equality in society is by voting and making their voices heard.

Jesus makes it clear in his relationships with women that there is no place in our society for discrimination. We are one race—human—and we are meant to work together as one community. As we continue our study of women, may we find the courage to stand up for equality for all people.

Physical Health - Jesus' Ministry of Healing

Luke 17:11-19

11 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he entered a village, ten men with a skin disease approached him. Keeping their distance, 13 they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16 He prostrated himself at Jesus’s feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? So where are the other nine? 18 Did none of them return to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

As we continue our series on the social issues of Jesus’ day, we will be looking at the issue of healthcare this week. It is well known that a signature part of Jesus’ ministry was healing people – the blind, the deaf, the lame, and the leper to name a few.

In our passage today, and in other healing passages like it, faith is often tied to the act of healing. I have often wondered if these passages were explicitly or implicitly saying that a lack of faith limited or prevented someone from being healed. Jesus certainly implies this in various contexts such as the healing of the Centurion’s servant where Jesus exclaims the following:

In Matthew: “Go; let it be done for you according to your faith.”

In Luke: “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”

In the healing of Blind Bartimaeus, we see Jesus respond similarly:

In Mark: “Go; your faith has made you well.”

When we look at these instances where Jesus heals a physical malady, we have to ask the question, “Would he heal someone if the one who is asking lacked faith?” Oddly enough, we can never know the answer to this because all of the examples given to us in the gospels are of folks who showed tremendous faith. If faith is a prerequisite of being healed, then why do we NOT see this type of healing happening every day?

When I was in high school, I went with a friend to a “tent meeting” in Florida. At this meeting, there were two individuals with quite the reputation for healing people with the touch of their hand. They invited people up on stage, would say a few words, watch the individual collapse to the floor, and then proclaim that they were healed. I left there thinking, “That is so fake.” I guess from my response to what I was seeing, I would have to say my faith was weak or lacking.

Does my skepticism of these two individuals qualify as a lack of faith, or was I responding to something else other than a faith issue?

I personally believe it is the latter. What was hard for me to accept, and what is still difficult for me to accept, is that God would have some unknown criteria by which all people may be healed, but then God doesn’t clue us in to what those criteria are. Faith is such a broad term and can be defined in a multitude of ways. We typically think of faith as belief in, but I think it is more than just belief. It feels more like a conviction that is unwavering; a holding space for something; a reliance upon something that is unseen and potentially unknown except for the resulting evidence.

And for me, this is where the rub comes in. When I witnessed the “fake healings” it diminished the possibility of a true healing experience for me. Also, there was zero tangible evidence that any of those people were actually healed. For example, one individual claimed to have cancer. There was no way for us to ever know if the woman was cured from her cancer just because the “healer” said she was.

This is not to say that I don’t believe in healing—I do! I have an Aunt who was healed from what the doctors were certain was liver cancer. She found out she had a spot on her liver on a Tuesday that was the size of a half dollar. She went to church on a Wednesday; they laid hands on her, anointed her with oil, and prayed for her to be healed. She went back to the doctor one week later for additional tests and scans, but they couldn’t find any sign of the spot on her liver. They couldn’t explain it; neither could she, but she believed that God healed her.

In truth, I don’t know what the spot was on my Aunt’s liver, but I will not discount the possibility that she was healed. What I struggle with, though, is the fact that she was healed simply because people prayed over her, or she had some extraordinary faith that made it possible for her to be healed. My struggle is with a God who would arbitrarily choose to heal some but not others. Why?

What we see in our passage is that Jesus heals all 10, even though only one was going to be grateful. It is up to the reader to decide if Jesus knew that only one would return, but let’s assume for the moment he didn’t know; how does that change the equation? Jesus did heal them for the accolades or the prestige. He healed them because they needed healing. And he healed them all. If Jesus KNEW that only one would return and offer thanks, this makes his healing of all 10 even more important. Jesus didn’t withhold healing; even from the ungrateful. And, in this passage, he heals them all before knowing anything about their faith. It is only after the one returns that Jesus comments on his faith.

In my mind, Jesus makes a fundamental case for universal healthcare. Everyone should have the opportunity to receive the best care possible. If Jesus could have healed everybody, would he have made that his mission? Maybe. What we do know is everywhere he went, he healed people.

Another aspect to healing is that we live in a more technologically advanced time than Jesus. Since Jesus walked the earth, we have discovered antibiotics, we have x-ray machines, CT Scans, MRIs, and other high tech diagnostic equipment. We can perform all kinds of surgeries now that no one could have even conceived, such as transplants. These are truly miracles of modern medicine. Perhaps this was God’s plan all along. Through the advent of modern medicine, we’ve had to rely less and less on faith to heal us and rely more and more on science.

Does this shift, however, defeat the purpose of Jesus and his healing ministry? Or does it teach us to have a different kind of faith – faith in Science of Medicine?

No matter where you land along the spectrum between faith and science, the world is filled with unlimited possibilities. Healing happens every day, we just may not see it or understand it. Likewise, death happens every day. That, too, is a mystery. This is one theological dilemma that we may never be able to solve. Still, we grapple with what it means to be healed and whole, and what it means to have faith, and still believe that God is speaking through all the new technology we have at our disposal. We take it all in because it is all available to us. We take what makes sense to us, and leave the rest.

Mental Health - Healing the Gerasene Demoniac

Luke 8:26-39

26 Then they arrived at the region of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27 As he stepped out on shore, a man from the city who had demons met him. For a long time, he had not worn any clothes, and he did not live in a house but in tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, shouting, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most-High God? I beg you, do not torment me,” 29 for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) 30 Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. 31 They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.

32 Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding, and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So, he gave them permission. 33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd stampeded down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

34 When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. 35 Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they became frightened. 36 Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. 37 Then the whole throng of people of the surrounding region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, for they were seized with great fear. So, he got into the boat and returned. 38 The man from whom the demons had gone out begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So, he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.

This week, we are looking at the world of mental health. As a mental health provider, I am frequently appalled by the levels of care we receive in this country regarding mental health. We often see mental health as separate from physical health, even though one impacts the other. When looking at our health benefits, often they limit mental health services or pay far less than other types of care. This reality became even more apparent as we struggled with the pandemic blues and folks were scrambling to find someone, anyone, that they could talk to about their isolation, their loss of a social life, and a loss of all the normal activities that filled their days. Children 18 years old and under showed a significant increase in mental health crises through the pandemic, and services for minors were woefully inadequate to meet the need.

This Sunday, we are diving into a passage in Luke where Jesus travels to Gerasene and runs into a man known as the demoniac who lives in the catacombs among the dead. Jesus commands that the demons leave, and he casts them into a herd of swine nearby and then runs them down a steep hill and into the lake where they drown. I always feel sorry for the pigs in the story.

So, this passage is layered and calls into question the difference between mental illness and demon possession. We tend to fall on the side of mental illness, rather than demon possession, especially in the 21st century, but perhaps we should ask why that is. To properly tackle this passage, we must be able to grasp the horror of demon possession, if we can even bring ourselves to believe in demons, and then we must understand Jesus’ motivations in healing the demoniac. And we must also wrestle with the political messages woven into this story.

When I was practicing social work full-time, I worked with a psychiatrist who trained in Southern California. She contracted with her local Catholic Diocese to work with those priests who were trained to do exorcisms. She explained that when someone reported that a person was demon possessed, it was her job to interview them and determine whether it was actual demon possession or mental illness. When she told me this, I was at first shocked, then horrified, then curious.

My world doesn’t include demon possessions. But I had to admit, I may not be able to tell the difference between demon possession and mental illness. She tried to assure me that demon possession was a real thing, that it was actually very different and clearly definable from mental illness and could be quite dangerous. If I am completely honest, I am still undecided in this department.

Here's where I see the concept of demons being most useful, though. I may not believe in actually separate beings entering someone’s physical body in order to possess them and torment them, but I can see, very clearly, those who are tortured by their minds and what our minds can conjure up. I’ve seen people who have suffered deeply from depression, anxiety, delusions, hallucinations, and more. I am reminded of a client who suffered a serious brain trauma and then began to exhibit symptoms similar to schizophrenia. He had horrible delusions and hallucinations that made his thinking dark and twisted. He would engage in strange (well, strange to me) rituals whenever he was having acute symptoms that turned this mild-mannered individual into someone that was difficult to recognize. He was hospitalized long term at the state mental facility because his delusions and hallucinations caused him to commit two felonies.

Was my client possessed by demons? Perhaps in his mind he was, but in reality, his brain injury is what caused his delusions, hallucinations, and strange behavior. We might ask the same question of the demoniac. Was he really possessed by demons, or was there a mental health issue that was plaguing this poor guy? In truth, we don’t know. What I can tell you is that we often dismiss the possibility of demon possession because we are so unfamiliar with this kind of soul sickness. What we can attest to with some certainty is that he was healed by Jesus.

Some scholars suggest that the story of the demoniac is actually one created to discuss the more political aspects of this story. A way in, if you will, to discuss the relationship between the Jews living in Gerasene, a Roman occupied city and large camp of the Roman Army. The swine was for the Roman soldiers who lived in Gerasene. The Israelites saw swine as unclean and typically avoided being around pigs altogether. However, what we find here is a group of Israelites who were making money off the Roman Army by raising swine for them.

The last paragraph of this passage is where we find some context for the whole passage. The people weren’t happy that the demoniac was cured. In some sense, they could have cared less. What they were more concerned about is that their swine was all drowned in the lake. Their livelihood was just tanked; Jesus did not do them any favors. Jesus was concerned about 2 things, healing the demoniac, and following the law.

To live this kind of truth, Jesus had to take a risk to reshape the people’s understanding of the world, and subsequently ours.

Mark Nepo frames it this way, “This means staying committed to your inner path. This means not separating from yourself when things get tough or confusing. This means accepting and embracing your faults and limitations. It means loving yourself no matter how others see you. It means cherishing the unchangeable radiance that lives within you, no matter the cuts and bruises along the way. It means binding your life with a solemn pledge to the truth of your soul.”

The Israelites who were tending to this herd of swine had lost sight of the solemn pledge to the truth of their souls. They were more concerned about the herd than about another human being; a herd of swine, no less, a beast that was considered unclean according to God’s law.

This passage, in my estimation, reminds us of what is most important, the care of our souls. It is that care that binds us to one another and to the greater good of who we are and who we are to become. When we care for one another in this way, we love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus’ healing of the demoniac becomes healing for the whole community, even if they couldn’t see it yet. Let us use this passage as a reminder that we can’t always see the pain that others are experiencing, but we are called to ease suffering whenever possible.