Background

The immediate context for this teaching is our recent trip to as a couple to Vietnam. I believe the significant cost of the trip, in some ways very out of character for us as a couple, was part of a prophetic context where we could hear some deeper things from Christ together about.

Personal Matters

Very early one morning as I arose whilst Donna was still sleeping I was struck by the fact that for some unquantifiable reason she appeared even more attractive than usual. (I have learned to pay attention to these experiences, because they relate to Christ and his Bride.) A few hours later I was off the beaten track on a forest trail imbibing the stillness of the atmosphere and seeking the Word of the Lord. This story came clearly to mind:

“And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her. But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”” (Mark 14:3-9 ESV)

The portion of this story that stuck in my mind was the words of Jesus, “She has done a beautiful thing to me.” I found myself asking the question as to why it had to be a woman who “wasted” such a large quantity of precious ointment on Jesus. It is almost impossible to imagine the typically masculine and pragmatic disciples doing such a thing for Jesus[1].

The Prophetic Beauty

This incident is deeply prophetic, for  Jesus senses that the Father had sent the women and her extravagance is a sign to him of the preciousness of his impending sacrifice to God (cf. Eph 5:2). The purpose of this beautiful act was to strengthen Christ in his faith for the struggle of obedience which lay ahead and that would see him in the grave. I believe that the woman’s actions have something to do with “women’s intuition”.

The Bible teaches us that (all) women are given a gift by God of inwardly sensing that new life comes through painful sacrifice i.e. childbirth. This is a reality deeply rooted in creation and Fall. The LORD spoke these foundational words to Eve after her original sin, ““I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children…Eve…was the mother of all living.” (Gen 3:16, 20 ESV)

This pattern of birthing new life through suffering is not restricted to femininity but is imprinted on the very character of the universe. “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies[2].” (Rom 8:22-23 ESV). Paul’s own life embodies this struggle, “You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first….my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!” (Gal 4:12, 19 ESV). All these texts speak ultimately of a suffering for others so great that it will issue in resurrection from the dead. For men to understand these things requires the removal of a great obstacle.

Gender Shame

The divine judgement on Eve was alleviated by a promise of new life, but there is no such lightening for Adam. The impact of the divine curse on man strikes very much on the futility of what he does, “And to Adam he said, “‘cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”” (Gen 3:17-19 ESV). Unlike the prophetic Word that links the travail of childbirth to new life and eventual resurrection, God’s judgement on man points to its very opposite, the grave. No matter how much men try to establish a God-like status (Gen 3:4) through success at what they do, deep down every man knows the ultimate end of all his hard work is death[3].  Praise God he had something else to say in Eden – the Word of Christ.

Final Beauty

““I will put enmity between you (serpent) and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.””(Gen 3:15 ESV). This prophecy is a gospel message that the woman is a bearer of HOPE, for these words find fulfilment in Jesus as the seed who destroys the power of Satan to hold us in fear of death (Rom 16:20; Heb 2:14-15; Acts 2:24). Only hearing God through scripture can overthrow the struggle men have to connect the realm of suffering with the birth of the beautiful. John’s Gospel tells how Nicodemus “came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes …So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices…” (John 19:39-40 ESV). This preparation of Jesus for burial is a symbolic act whose inner meaning is the relationship between the Bride of Christ and her Bridegroom. It is a prophetic fulfilment of the romance in the Song of Solomon, “I came to my garden, my sister, my bride, I gathered my myrrh with my spice,” (5:1 cf. Ps 45:8). It involves a costly sacrifice of the same beautifying of Jesus as was symbolised by his anointing by the woman at Bethany. The revelation of the beauty of Christ to his Bride is made known in the realm of sacrifice that surpasses all the cultural issues of gender.  In Christ a new foundation is laid for humanity, male and female alike, to appreciate the beauties of God’s kingdom.

I sense strongly that when Jesus appears for his Bride we (men and women alike) will be completely overwhelmed by his radiance. He will be so dazzlingly attractive, captivating and desirable that we will fulfil his purposes with all our hearts for we shall spontaneously desire to be absolutely like him. This is a motivation we can experience NOW. “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.” (1 John 3:2-3 ESV)

Conclusion

There is a “man drought” in the Australian Church today, not primarily in terms of numbers, leadership and maturity, but in terms of Christ-likeness. It was “the man” Jesus who introduced the language of beauty to his death (John 19:5; 1 Tim 2:5; Mark 14:5). Few are the men who can articulate this. Far more than this, Jesus proclaimed that everywhere the gospel was preached such beautiful things would be spoken (Mark 14:9). The revelation of the beauty of Christ in the gospel, the birthing of a new world through sacrifice, is the only way in which our current “man drought” can be healed. Our only hope for a mature Church is restoration of humanity at the deepest levels, including gender identity, through the gospel.