The Significance of Women
David Gilliland concludes the 2022 teaching weekend by looking at “The Significance of Women” in John’s Gospel. While Luke’s Gospel is traditionally considered the “Gospel of womanhood,” John’s Gospel also contains significant material about women that provides instruction about relationships in the new spiritual life. Over the course of the message, David analyses six key stories of women in John’s Gospel, all unique to John and not found in the other Gospels: (1) Jesus’ mother at the wedding in Cana (Chapter 2), (2) the Samaritan woman at the well (Chapter 4), (3) the woman caught in adultery (Chapter 8), (4) Mary and Martha at Bethany during Lazarus’s death and resurrection (Chapters 11-12), (5) the women at the cross (Chapter 19), and (6) Mary Magdalene at the resurrection (Chapter 20). David shows how these stories as demonstrating a progression of faith development: trust (wedding at Cana), testimony (woman at the well), transformation (woman caught in adultery), trial (Mary and Martha), tenacity (women at the cross), and triumph (Mary Magdalene at resurrection). David demonstrates that these stories also illustrate three key aspects of relationships in the new spiritual life: sinful relationships removed (stories 2 and 3), sundered relationships replaced (stories 4 and 5), and superior relationships revealed (stories 1 and 6).