6 April 2025 – 5th Sunday of Lent

The problem with pay equality is that men tend to go for higher paying jobs, like doctor or business executive, while women tend to settle with lesser paying ones like female doctor or female business executive.

Dave Chappelle has a bit that goes: "I used to do shows for drug dealers that wanted to clean their money up. One time I did a real good set, and these guys called me into the back room. They gave me $25,000 in cash. I jumped on the subway and started heading towards Brooklyn at one o’clock in the morning. Never been that terrified in my life. I’d never in my life had something that somebody else would want. I thought to myself, “*expletive, if (anyone) knew much money I had in this backpack, they’d kill me for it.” Then I thought: “(Wow), what if I had a vagina on me all the time? That’s what women are dealing with.”

Chappelle’s story illustrates one man having one moment of clarity on what women face in our world. I’m sure many of you are aware that there is a movement aiming to reverse the forward movement made towards the rights of women, people of colour, and the LGBTQI+ people. In the states it’s called Project 2025 – a 900-page manifesto written by conservatives, the majority of which have ties to Trump. Here’s how one journalist describes it:

“Project 2025 seeks to impose a hierarchal, gendered, patriarchal vision of society. It is particularly focused on enforcing a vision of the family that relies on fixed and narrowly defined gender roles and in undermining protections that enable women and LGBTQI+ people to thrive outside of a male-dominated, heterosexual family. It also seeks to reinforce racial hierarchies through a variety of mechanisms. Attempts to roll back civil rights protections and end the federal government’s efforts to achieve gender justice are embedded throughout the entire plan in five overlapping ways: (1) efforts to limit reproductive rights and penalize unmarried women; (2) attacks on protections against sex discrimination and other efforts to expand gender equity; (3) attacks on LGBTQI+ people; (4) gutting of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and other racial justice measures; and (5) efforts to reduce access to and investments in anti-poverty programs by prioritizing the

interests of the wealthy over the needs of low-income families, who are disproportionately led by women.”

And we shouldn’t think that we in Canada are not influenced by movements like these – this movement can be seen in many (often more subtle) ways in our country. While progress has been made, we know that as Canadians struggle to afford the basic necessities of life, women bear the brunt of the affordability crisis - especially women of colour, the young, 2SLGBTQI+ women, and women with disabilities. In Canada, sixty percent of minimum wage workers are women, food insecurity remains highest among female lone parent families, and 90% of families using emergency shelters are headed by single women. We seem to be closing the wage gap – from women earning 0.75 for every dollar a man makes in 2020 to about 0.89 in 2025. There are also growing number of female CEOs (about 1/3 now) – though in 2022 it was noted there were more CEOs named ‘Michael’ than there were women (7-6).

Why am I raising women’s issues today? Well, quite simply, there is a woman at the centre of our gospel story and I believe this is one example of the ways Jesus embodies values counter to his culture (and ours). One interpretation sees Jesus as inverting the male honour code of his society for what may be called a female honour code. Jesus’ world was an honour-shame society. Ours is a guilt and innocence society that is mostly individualistic. Honour-shame societies are about whether one has honour in the community. In Jesus’ time, only men could acquire honour, women were passive participants in this culture.

Honour was something that had to be fought for and taken from other men. Domination, hierarchy, violence, and exclusion characterized this male honour code. It was rigidly hierarchical and those at the bottom of the ladder, disproportionately women, were deemed ‘unclean.’

Enter Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus, hosting Jesus for dinner in their home. While we may not blush at this story, the people in their day surely would have. Why? Let’s go over a few points that makes this story unusual. Firstly, Jesus’ feet would have already been washed. Foot washing was a normal part of hospitality because people in sandals walked along dusty roads, alongside oxen, donkeys, etc. and the droppings they’d leave behind. So, foot washing would’ve been done as soon as he entered their home. Secondly, as a woman, Mary was not supposed to be in the dining room unless to serve. And then she does the astonishing by touching Jesus, anointing his feet with oil. Men and women were prohibited from touching each other in public, men were not to even speak with a woman who was not his wife, mother, or daughter.

Next, Mary uses her loosened hair as a towel to dry his feet. A woman’s loose hair was viewed as too sensual in those times – it was taboo for women to have their hair unbound (we still see this in some cultures today). Finally, Mary uses an extravagant perfume on his feet, worth an entire year’s salary. John the gospel writer calls this an anointing, and like the other three gospel writers, he credits a woman as being the one to anoint Jesus.

Anointing was reserved for kings, prophets, or priests who were called by God for a special task. This anointing was performed by a male priest in Jerusalem NOT: a layperson, not in a town like Bethany where the poor and sick were cared for, and definitely not by a woman. One person put it this way: “John offers us the outrageous idea that Jesus, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Christ is being lavishly anointed for his journey to the cross by a poor, small-town, laywoman, who, in a moment of unbridled devotion, breaks through every tradition in the books.”

Judas tries to put Mary in her place, but Jesus commands him to “Leave her alone.” By siding with Mary, Jesus joins her in breaking down the cultural barriers between women and man and embodies the radical equality in the Kingdom of God. Jesus brought equality not only to women, but to lepers, sex workers, tax cheats, and outcasts of every kind. St. Paul talks about this equality in the body of Christ when he declares that there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, all are one in Christ.

Also of note, the Gospel of John uniquely places Jesus’ anointing just before his grand entrance into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday. Mary anoints Jesus’ feet, not his head as in Matthew and Mark. Right after that, Jesus rides into Jerusalem, hailed by the people as their popular king, “the King of Israel!” Then, one of his first acts as king in the capital city is to get down on his knees and wash other people’s feet when he institutes the Lord’s Supper. Did you catch that? A woman anoints Jesus’ feet so that he goes on to become the king that washes other people’s feet! What a powerful counterculture story!

It is my deeply held conviction that followers of Jesus ought to be promoting equality in every way possible, for it is the way of our Lord. We may debate how best to achieve this, but any movement that ignores the disparities in our world and seeks to dominate anyone who is not a straight, white, male, is anti-Christ and needs to be resisted with all our might. I know we don’t like talking about politics in church, but to divorce Jesus’ message from the real-life problems in society is to do him a great injustice. Seeing his radical message of equality in action also sheds light on why the people in power plotted to put him to death.

On the surface, the Gospel is a story about a man who is called “the Son of God,” who calls 12 male disciples and becomes a king. Under the surface, we find an emerging feminist trajectory. This man is anointed king by a woman and sets forth a female honor code. He establishes a non-hierarchical “kingdom,” a “kingdom” that breaks with the patriarchal domination of the culture and establishes a Reign of Love and Grace. I can’t speak for you – but for me, that’s truly good news.

 6 April 2025 – 5th Sunday of Lent