Snatching Defeat From the Jaws of Victory
This phrase is often used for sports teams, and illustrates a phenomenon I’m all too familiar with regarding certain professional teams in my state: we don’t always finish the race. And as Christians we’re all familiar with Paul’s statements about disciplining ourselves so that we are not “disqualified from the prize”.
But now let’s apply this to a rather ironic practice in Christianity: believers fighting for the last place in line.
What I’m referring to is when many Christian men (and the women who bow to them) get indignant and hostile at the very idea that a woman would believe she is called to an area of service that, according to Jesus, is the lowest of the low: Christian leadership. The kingdom of heaven is upside down to the kingdoms of the world, which have the rulers bossing those under them. But in Christianity, the leaders are at the bottom of the pile, serving and lifting up everyone else. One cannot be both a servant and a ruler, regardless of the quality of that rule.
Who fights for the last place in line? Who demands that the coach put them on the bench, unless they think that the bench is where the team leader belongs? Who forbids others to join him there, simply because they are the wrong color or speak the wrong language or, God forbid, don’t have all the right body parts? Who busts a gut to reach the lowest rung on a ladder?
Those who fight for their position show by their actions that they believe this position is a HIGH one of RULE, of POWER, of AUTHORITY, and NOT of SERVICE. They can try to coat this ugly fact in layers of flowery adjectives, like “kind, loving, benevolent, caring, gentle” and even “humble” and “serving”, but they’re only fooling themselves. If they get defensive of it, it’s all about power; if they rail against those who point these things out, it’s an idol. It simply isn’t possible for any believer to claim humble service when they bend over backwards to keep it for themselves and deny it to others. By simple virtue of the fact that they grasp for something and forbid certain others to do the same, they prove that they consider it a high position, not a low one.
So any and every believer who insists that women cannot serve in leadership of men is saying that they do not accept Jesus’ model of the kingdom. It’s that simple.
Prove me wrong... from scripture, and in context. I dare ya.