Femnist Jesus Reading 1

If Christians have been born again in the Spirit, I consider 2016 as being born again the nth time like a cat.  I have volunteered at the same place I was more than 25 years ago. And so now find myself having the time to read again, and even feel, what was it like when Jesus was still in human form.

"If anyone of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."

This comes from a passage in the book of John, New Testament. The woman was caught in adultery, nakikiapid, and the religious leaders of that time dragged her to Jesus.

Old times, modern times, anytime. People can be dragged into adulterous relationships. The reason? Too many to mention. "Baka nabola yung tao, sabi walang asawa," "Alam naman nila ginagawa nila pero ginagawa pa rin" or "Baka pinilit at binubugbog kaya hindi makaalis!" Across ages, from the young to the old, many are tempted or lured.

In Jesus' time, the community stones the woman to death. Modern times, in Philippine society, the stone usually comes in the form of spite, hatred, degradation.  The adulterous woman today could be physically alive but dead inside. If the adulterous person was a man, it will not be stones but praises, both outright and subtle.

So Jesus could have been the first feminist. He was on the side of the woman. In Jewish society at that time where men had the privilege, Jesus stood firm to protect women from discrimination.  

"At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

"No one, sir," she said.

"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

Saved from the stoning, the woman gains a new life, and a command to empower herself, to leave the relationship and move on.