Preferential Options Archives - Renewed Heart Ministries

Preferential Options and Patriarchy

Posted on June 29, 2024 by Herb Montgomery

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Herb Montgomery; June 28, 2024

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Our lectionary reading from the gospels this upcoming weekend is from the gospel of Mark:

When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” So Jesus went with him.

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”“You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’” But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?” Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him.

After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat. (Mark 5:21-43)

In equity work today, understanding our social locations in the society we have created is important. We first have to realize that if everyone is to have enough, not everyone is going to need the same things. We must understand how social location impacts people before we can arrive at what justice says those in different social locations need. This is where our story helps this week, because in our story we have two social locations contrasted.

The first character is the synagogue leader. It’s troubling that we are given his name when we are not given the name of the woman who shows up next in the story. She will remain nameless, but we all get to know Jairus’ name. This synagogue leader lived in a certain social location within his social system. He possessed privilege, power, and authority.

The woman’s social location was vastly different. First, she was a woman in that society. And while she may have been at one point a wealthy woman (indicated by her spending all of her money on doctors), her present social location is on the edges of society. She may have found community on those margins, but she also may have not. Her medical condition caused her to shunned according to the law:

“When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time other than her monthly period or has a discharge that continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she has the discharge, just as in the days of her period. Any bed she lies on while her discharge continues will be unclean, as is her bed during her monthly period, and anything she sits on will be unclean, as during her period. Anyone who touches them will be unclean; they must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening. When she is cleansed from her discharge, she must count off seven days, and after that she will be ceremonially clean. On the eighth day she must take two doves or two young pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance to the tent of meeting. The priest is to sacrifice one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. In this way he will make atonement for her before the LORD for the uncleanness of her discharge. You must keep the Israelites separate from things that make them unclean . . . ” (Leviticus 15:25-31)

I find it fascinating that the author of this story spends so much time making the fact that she touched Jesus so significant. This woman, living separately from the rest of her society, took the risk of touching even the hem of Jesus’ garment in hopes that that would not be enough contact to contaminate him. Her own self image and self-loathing here is painful. But her touch doesn’t make Jesus unclean. In fact, in our story, touching Jesus makes her clean instead. There is so much we could make of how the early Markan community viewed Jesus being communicated here. They had encountered something in Jesus that had changed their lives. For them, Jesus was the source for that which had been life-giving.

When we put the synagogue leader and the woman from these two stories together, we begin to see what liberation theologians call the practice of a preferential option for the marginalized. The synagogue leader’s daughter was at the point of death. Yet Jesus pauses in the urgency of reaching her. In our story, Jesus could have looked at this marginalized woman and said he didn’t have time right now, come back later, or even no. Instead Jesus stops and makes time for her.

Practicing a preferential option means prioritizing the well-being of the powerless in society. We typically practice a preferential option for the powerful. In fact, if our story this week was typical, Jesus would have preferred the synagogue leader because of who and what he was. But in our story, Jesus practices a preferential option for the woman. Jesus is standing squarely in the Hebrew prophetic justice tradition here. He stops and puts this woman first: the last shall be first and the first shall be last.

While they wait, the synagogue leader’s daughter does die, and it looks like this story will affirm the social assumption that if we take care of those considered less than in our society then there won’t be enough for everyone else. We assume life is a zero-sum game. But, as the saying goes, justice isn’t like pie. In fact, we are all connected and, as Martin Luther King, Jr. later said, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Jesus assures the synagogue leader that it will be okay: just keep believing.

And when Jesus arrives at the synagogue leader’s house, he takes the hand of the daughter and restores her back to life. Stopping to help the woman on the way, in the end, didn’t cost the synagogue leader his daughter. Ultimately, there was enough for both.

These two characters were not just connected by this story, but also in humanity. They were connected to each other the same way we are each connected to each other. The synagogue leader not only regained his daughter, but could also gain restoration of a part of his own humanity as he learned to look differently at those his society was marginalizing. When we share rather than hoard, we find there’s enough for us all. Rather than building bigger piles of hoarded resources we can build community, communities where each of us is committed to taking care of one another. As the saying states, the Earth produces each day enough for every persons’ need but not every person’s greed.

There are multiple layers to this story too. The synagogue leader’s daughter is described as 12 years old. The woman has had an issue of blood for those 12 years. The synagogue leader’s daughter was also on the verge of maturing into a kind of social death within her society. She was about to grow into a body that now placed the Torah’s purity and cleanliness laws upon her shoulders where each month her body would cause her to be considered unclean. In Journeys By Heart: A Christology of Erotic Power, Rita Nakishima Brock writes, “Both females are afflicted with crises associated with the status of women in Greco-Roman and Hebraic society” (p. 83)

This little girl is about to enter into a new relationship with the patriarchy within her society. She is on the verge of death socially. She is embarking on what it means to be a woman in her world. Mark’s gospel places Jesus in life-giving opposition to that. The women of the Jesus community of Mark’s gospel portray Jesus resurrecting and liberating them from, the injustices of their own patriarchal communities.

Placing the synagogue leader next to the woman in this week’s reading teaches us to practice a preferential option for the marginalized of our society. And placing the woman alongside this little girl calls us to reject preferential options practiced within patriarchy, pitting marginalized people against each other. Jesus’ teachings had been life-giving for those in the Markan community who were marginalized within their society. Specifically here, the story zooms in on women’s experiences in Greco-Roman and Hebrew society.

There’s a lot to consider here today. Is our Christian practice patriarchal? Do we practice preference for the socially privileged or the marginalized? Our reading this week calls each of us to asses whether our Jesus following actually looks like the Jesus story and its ethics, values, and practices.

How does this week’s reading define being a Jesus follower in our contexts today? What changes is this week’s story calling each of us to make?

Discussion Group Questions

1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s eSight/Podcast episode with your discussion group.

2. What communities do you feel equity requires a preferential option for today? Share and discuss with your group.

3. What can you do this week, big or small, to continue setting in motion the work of shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone?

Thanks for checking in with us, today.

I want to say a special thank you to all of our supporters out there. And if you would like to join them in supporting Renewed Heart Ministries’ work you can do so by going to renewedheartministries.com and clicking donate.

My latest book Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political and Economic Teachings of the Gospels is available now on Amazon in paperback, Kindle and also on Audible in audio book format.

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You can watch our new YouTube show called “Just Talking” each week. Todd Leonard and I take a moment to talk about the gospel lectionary reading for the upcoming weekend. We’ll be talking about each reading in the context of love, inclusion, and societal justice. Our hope is that our talking will be just talking (as in justice) and that during our brief conversations each week you’ll be inspired to also do more than just talking. If you teach from the lectionary each week, or if you’re just looking for some thoughts on the Jesus story from a more progressive perspective within the context of social justice, check it out, you might like it. You can find JustTalking each week on YouTube at youtube.com/@herbandtoddjusttalking. Please Like, Subscribe, hit the Notification button, and leave us a comment.

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Right where you are, keep living in love, choosing compassion, taking action, and working toward justice.

I love each of you dearly,

I’ll see you next week.

New Episode of “Just Talking” Now Online!

Season 2, Episode 19: Mark 5.21-43. Lectionary B, Proper 8

Preferential Options and Patriarchy

Each week, we’ll be talking about the gospel lectionary reading for the upcoming weekend in the context of love, inclusion, and social justice. Our hope is that our talking will be “just” talking (as in justice) and that during our brief conversations each week we’ll be inspired to do more than just talking.

If you teach from the lectionary each week, or if you’re just looking for some thoughts on the Jesus story from a more progressive perspective within the context of social justice, check it out.

New Episode of The Social Jesus Podcast

A podcast where we talk about the intersection of faith and social justice and what a first century, prophet of the poor from Galilee might have to offer us today in our work of love, compassion and justice.

This week:

Season 1 Episode 12: Preferential Options and Patriarchy

Mark 5:21-43

“It initially looks like this story will affirm the social assumption that if we take care of those considered less than in our society then there won’t be enough for everyone else, assuming life is a zero-sum game. But then this story takes a sharp turn. This story ends up teaching us how to practice a preferential option for the marginalized of our society. Placing the synagogue leader next to the woman in this week’s reading affirms practicing a preferential option of the marginalized in general. Then, by placing the woman alongside this little girl too, the story calls us to reject specifically preferences practiced within patriarchy.”

Available on all major podcast carriers,

Or at this link:

https://the-social-jesus-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/preferential-options-and-patriarchy

Now Available on Audible!

Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.

by Herb Montgomery, Narrated by Jeff Moon

Available now on Audible!

After two successful decades of preaching a gospel of love within the Christian faith tradition Herb felt like something was missing. He went back to the gospels and began reading them through the interpretive lenses of various marginalized communities and what he found radically changed his life forever. The teachings of the Jesus in the gospel stories express a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of those in marginalized communities. This book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, and presents a compelling argument for a more socially compassionate and just expression of Christianity. Herb’s findings in his latest book are shared in the hopes that it will dramatically impact how you practice your Christianity, too.

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