I came across a post saying to let women do the preaching on Resurrection Sunday as they were the ones who discovered how the Lord had risen.

At first glance, it seems affirming but as I lingered on what it’s saying, it slowly became patronizing. Are we to be grateful to be given the opportunity to speak on the most important event this side of heaven? As I follow the man who posted it, I don’t believe he had any malice. Perhaps he may have thought he was giving his thumbs-up to women especially if he comes from a church that does not allow women to speak.

I would often hear pastors joke about God choosing women to spread the news because of our *snicker snicker* madaldal nature. Yes, women love to talk but men who are called to love their wives as Christ loves the church have no business mocking women in the pulpit. Where were the men on the most you-have-to-be-there morning? They were in mourning, disappointed, depressed, and hiding in fear (John 20). But don’t misunderstand me here. This is not a piece on the battle of the sexes. I am simply pointing out where the women were and where the men were not, according to the Bible.

With the exception of John, Nicodemus, and Joseph of Arimathea, only the women stood by Jesus publicly from the night of His betrayal to His rising. (Of the three men, John was the bravest as he stood to lose the most. Nicodemus and Joseph had their standing in society to shield them from harm and bashing.)

Anyway, as I reflected on the Facebook post, I suddenly had an understanding on why God chose women. God bookended the life of Jesus with announcements from people who had no credibility whatsoever during their milieu.

Shepherds were unskilled, illiterate, and uneducated. They were also like the trolls of their day with a reputation of being liars and con men yet God chose them to announce the birth of the Truth.

Women during Jesus’ time (and sadly, even to this day), were looked on as inferior, carrying little or no authority at all yet God chose them to spread the news of the Life.

God did not choose Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary” because they were Marites but because God was just being Himself. True to His character, He shows us how His ways and thoughts are not our ways and thoughts (Isa. 55:8). And because this is an eternal axiom, male chauvinism has no place in it, especially in the pulpit---and in our posts.