Reframe the Narrative – Shift your Perspective

In my previous post, August 2025, I discussed reframing the narrative or shifting our perspective on Martha and Mary. I would like to continue this month with the story of Martha and other women we find in the New Testament.

Last month, we concentrated on the first meeting of Martha and Mary with Jesus. This post will continue the story where we discover that their brother Lazarus is ill. Martha, not one for sitting around, immediately writes to Jesus, sure that he will come and heal her brother. But Jesus delays, turning up four days later, after Lazarus has died.

Imagine the depths of grief Martha is facing. She confronts Jesus, and he asks whether she believes in him. Her response shows the depth of her faith, her spirituality and her wisdom. This aspect of her faith is something we rarely hear in a sermon or Bible study. Her confession of faith is relegated in favour of talking about her anxiety and lack of faith.

She says, “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.” John 11:27 NLT

She learned this not in the back kitchen, catching snippets of his teaching, but at the feet of Jesus, along with Mary and the male disciples.

“She is right up there with Peter, this girl.” Nick Page, The Wrong Messiah (1)

Martha and Mary were disciples of Jesus, along with Peter, John and Thomas. So were Barnabas and Stephen we read about in Acts but not in the Gospels. Mary Magdalene was a disciple, along with Joanna and Susanna, as mentioned by Luke.

Take off your rose-coloured glasses

Kate Bruce and Liz Shercliffe, in their book Out of the Shadows Preaching the Women of the Bible (2), suggest we need to take off our rose-coloured glasses, which only allow us to see in one dimension, and one story. Taking them off can be painful, disruptive, and even dangerous, but it will enable us to reframe the narrative and tell a different story from the one we normally hear. I have a signed copy, and Liz writes, “Be open to reading stories afresh, Liz. “

We should ask ourselves, “Is this what the Bible says or what we’ve been told that the Bible says?”

I recently watched a TV history programme about the Reformation in Britain. Royal History’s Biggest Fibs by Lucy Worsley. (3) In it, the presenter, Lucy Worsley,  said that history is not just one voice, but many voices competing for our attention. The same is true in our reading of the Bible. There are many voices, and if we listen to and hear only a few, then the story is incomplete. We need to hear and attend to all these voices.

Reframing the narrative of other women of the New Testament

I would like to reframe the narrative of other women in the Bible, but I don’t have space in this post to go into much detail. Please check out my other posts about these fantastic women. Don’t forget to take off your rose-coloured glasses.

Mary Magdelene

If you ask most people and even most Christians what profession Mary Magdalene was before she met Jesus, you are likely to hear that she was a prostitute. But it was Pope Gregory I who, in a sermon in 581, proclaimed her a penitent prostitute, and the legend was born and is still found in contemporary culture and books. The Eastern church has never held this view of her, and the early church did not. She was called the Apostle to the Apostles and remembered as a leader of the church and an evangelist. This is her story.

The woman at the well

You have probably heard that the woman Jesus met at the well had five husbands, and the man she lived with was not her husband, but Jesus does not tell her to sin no more, as he does with the woman caught in adultery. We are often told she was at the well at midday because she was an outcast. If this is so, why do the villagers believe her about Jesus?

Language is important. What does your translation say? John 4:19 in The Passion Translation says, “The woman changed the subject.” That sentence is not in other translations. Jesus never let the Pharisees change the subject, so he would not have let her distract him. He answered her genuine questions.

The Message Version says in verse 28, “In her confusion, she left the water pot.” She was not confused, and she left her water pot in her enthusiasm to tell her friends and neighbours that she had found the messiah. Words matter!

The narrative we often hear about this woman comes from the Reformation. Before then, she was remembered as Photine, meaning the illuminated one. She spoke to emperors and was martyred by being thrown down a well. This is her story.

The woman who anointed Jesus?

The story of a woman anointing Jesus is found in all four Gospels, each with slight variations. In a previous post, I suggested that there were two anointings, one by Mary, Martha’s sister and another by an unnamed woman. Let’s look at what Luke says in chapter 7 verses 36-50

Luke uses the word h’amartōlos to describe her. Accurately translated as sinner, but how does Luke use this word? It’s the second time he’s used it, and the first was in 5:8 when Peter uses the word to describe himself. We are often told that Luke uses this word as shorthand to say that she is a prostitute. This is not true of Peter, but why then is it true of the woman? This is her story.

What do you notice about the accusations against these three women? They were all accused of a sexual sin. This is important because how we talk about women in church matters. It matters to half the congregation  — the women  — and the other half  — the men. It matters to everyone. It matters how women are seen and how they use their gifts in the church today. Please let’s take off our rose-coloured glasses, however painful it might be, and tell the whole story of these women we read about in the New Testament.

Christ in the House of Martha and Mary Jan Vermeer van Delft 1654

“She is right up there with Peter, this girl.” Nick Page

Photo by Vooglam Eyeware on Unsplash

Take off your rose coloured glasses

Be open to reading stories afresh

Is this what the Bible says or what we’ve been told that the Bible says?