Christocentrism of Charism – Buggert - CarmelStream

certain professions or practices turned themselves into Gentiles. In the eyes of the Pharisees all such
were Godless sinners, the "rabble," and included those uneducated in the law, the poor, tax
collectors, swineherds, prostitutes, the sick, blind and lame, demoniacs, beggars, robbers, gamblers,
usurers. It is especially for these, the marginalized, the oppressed, the vilified and the victims of
society that Jesus worked his mighty deeds and proclaimed his "good news" of the reigning God,
good news for those who heretofore had heard only the "bad news" of exclusion and condemnation.
In fact, for Jesus the kingly activity of God was being primarily manifested in God's compassionate
love for all these. It is especially with these "outcasts" that Jesus and his God had solidarity and for
them a preferential love. clxiv
Included among those who were marginalized in Jesus day were women. The role of women
in Jewish society at the time of Jesus was basically restricted to the home. The Jewish historian,
Josephus, roughly a contemporary of Jesus, writes: "The woman ... is in all things inferior to the
man. Let her accordingly be submissive, not for her humiliation but that she may be directed; for the
authority has been given by God to the man." clxv
This inferiority extended also to religious matters. A woman was not permitted full access to
the temple; she was restricted to an outer courtyard. The religious obligations expected of her were
the same as a slave's. She did not have to recite the shema that every male Jew was expected to pray
each morning and evening. The reason for this was that a woman was like a slave; she was not the
mistress of her own time. Women were not to be spoken to on the street; they were to veil their faces
and remain behind their husbands in public. clxvi
How shocking Jesus' association with women in public must have been. Many of his mighty
deeds were performed for women; women travelled with him and in fact assisted Jesus and his
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