Luke and the Role of Women, By Kelly Litton

To be honest, I was a little nervous being one of the ones asked to write about the role of women.   It seems for years, the same fight has been fought, and the same discussions have been had about women’s roles.  So many of us, particularly those who grew up in the Church of Christ, can recite I Corinthians 14:34:  “Women should remain silent in the church.”  It seems this scripture is used more often than not when discussing the role of women in the church.  But as we read books like Luke and Acts, it seems that there is more to look at.  Luke discusses many women in his writings, and he shows their important roles in making a difference for Christ.  

In this day and age, and particularly in this culture, it is impossible to ignore the fact that women’s roles in our society are changing drastically.  If we look back to the 1950’s, a woman working outside of the home was rare.  We move into today’s world, and we see not only women working, but women as CEO’s of the huge companies they work for.  With the feminist movement in full swing, and a woman running to be the Vice President of our country, we see that women’s roles are not just changing in the church community, they are changing all around us.   It would be unwise of us as a church to think that women serve a lesser purpose in the kingdom of God than men.  We see women making huge differences for Jesus everyday…and we can also see it in Luke’s writings.  Yes, the majority of the public teaching was left to men during Luke’s day, but women also played a critical role.  From Mary and Martha, to the women who helped financially support Jesus and his ministry, to the women Jesus uses in his parables, Luke shows in his writings that women made a difference.  

For years, I have listened to discussions about the role of women in the church, mainly because my own mother became a minister on a church staff long before that was the norm.  Watching my mom over the years, there has been no doubt in my mind that God has used her to bless other people, and even to bless their church body as a whole.  It does not seem that Luke’s writings in particular are those that suggest women should or should not be holding the leading roles in a church organization.  The writings do, however, show that women are extremely important in sharing the Gospel of Jesus with the world.