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Bible Study 3

The Woman Who Dared to Break In

Sharon Rose Joy Ruiz-Duremdes

I. Learning Task

1. Put a gift on some difficult-to-reach spot in the room.

2. Say: That present is for the one who gets to it first.

3. Action

4. Reflection

4.1. For those who made an attempt –

a) What prompted you to move?

b) What obstruction did you meet?

c) How do you feel about having gotten the present? About not having gotten the present despite your efforts?

4.2. For those who made no attempt –

a) Why didn't you move? What were you thinking?

b) What was going through your mind as others were scrambling for the present?

c) How do you feel about not having gotten the present?

5. Deepening: What insights can you draw from the experience?

II. Read: Mark 14:3-9

III. Study: The Woman's Actions

A. Breaking In

- a woman from off the street

- barging into a party – scandalized the guests

- performing a custom (anointing the guest of honor) that was supposed to be done by only the host (who was always the

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head of the family – father)

+ Give descriptive words for the woman.

+ Do you know of some women who dared to break in to areas where women are "not supposed to be"? Some examples are¦ Kiren Bedi – policewoman in charge of an area where a major protest was in process (India); Benazir Bhutto – became first woman prime minister in a country where the predominant religion is Islam and women's discrimination is very blatant (Pakistan); and Taiwan's first woman communist who struggled against all the social norms and went to Shanghai to study.

+ Application: Where do we need to break in? Some examples are: "courts; negotiating between countries; positions of religious leadership; and economic structures (economies should cater for women and not women to serve the economy); etc."

B. Breaking Up

- The alabaster jar was full of a very expensive perfume made of pure nard (a rare plant from India).

- The perfume was worth 300 denarii (equal to a worker's one year salary).

- The perfume could only be used if the jar was broken.

- In Biology, only when the seed coat breaks will the kernel start the process of germination.

- In childbirth, a mother undergoes intense pain and agony before the excitement and delight of the baby's birth.

- In one sense, women, whether they accept it or not, are already broken. The painful oppression we experience in the hands of patriarchy breaks us needlessly. But there is perhaps another level of breaking that we ourselves must initiate if we are to free ourselves.

+ Break up into dyads or groups of twos and share with each other areas in your life that need to be broken if you are to be the woman you were created to be.

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+ Reading: The Story of Bamboo (An Indian Legend)

Once upon a time, in the heart of the western kingdom, lay a beautiful garden. And there in the cool of the day was the master of the garden who went for a walk. Of all the dwellers of the garden, the most beautiful and beloved was a gracious and noble Bamboo. Year after year, Bamboo grew yet more beautiful and gracious. He was conscious of his master's love and watchful delight, yet he was modest and in all things gentle.

Often when Wind came to revel in the garden, Bamboo would throw aside his dignity. He would dance and sway merrily, tossing and leaping and bowing in joyous abandon. He would lead the great dance of the garden which most delighted his master's heart.

One day the master himself drew near to look at his Bamboo with eyes of curious expectancy. And Bamboo, in a passion of love, bowed his great head to the ground in joyful greeting. The master spoke: "Bamboo, I would use you."

Bamboo flung his head to the sky in utter delight. The day of days had been growing hour by hour, the day in which he would find his completion and destiny! His voice came low: "Master, I am ready, use me as you want."

"Bamboo," the master's voice was grave, "I would be obliged to take you and cut you down."

A trembling of great horror shook Bamboo. "Cut…me...down? Me whom you, master, have made the most beautiful in all of your garden? To cut me down, ah, not that, not that. Use me for your joy, oh master, but cut me not down."

"Beloved Bamboo," the master's voice grew graver still, "if I do not cut you down, then I cannot use you."

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The garden grew still. Wind held her breath. Bamboo slowly bent his proud and glorious head. There came a whisper. "Master, if you cannot use me unless you cut me down, then do your will and cut."

"Bamboo, beloved Bamboo, I would cut your leaves and branches from you also." "Master, master, spare me. Cut me down and lay my beauty in the dust, but would you take from me my leaves and branches also?" "Bamboo alas! If I do not cut them away, I cannot use you."

The sun hid her face. A listening butterfly glided fearfully away. Bamboo shivered in terrible expectancy, whispering low. "Master, cut away." "Bamboo, Bamboo, I would divide you in two and cut out your heart, for if I do not cut so, I cannot use you."

"Master, master, then cut and divide."

So the master of the garden took Bamboo and cut him down and hacked off his branches and stripped off his leaves and divided him in two and cut out his heart, and lifting him gently, carried him to where there was a spring of fresh, sparkling water in the midst of the master's dry fields. Then putting down one end of broken Bamboo into the spring and the other end into the water channel in his field, the master laid down gently his beloved Bamboo.

The spring sang welcome. The clear sparkling water raced joyously down the channel of Bamboo's torn body into the waiting fields. Then the rice was planted and the days went by. The shoots grew. The harvest came. In that day was Bamboo, once so glorious in his stately beauty, yet more glorious in his brokenness and humility.

For in his beauty, he was life abundant. But in his brokenness, he became a channel of abundant life to his master's world.

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C. Breaking Out

- Why did she break the alabaster jar? (Purpose: to anoint Jesus). The woman's action was purposeful.

- If the woman merely broke the flask, it would surely have been a shameful waste. She broke it in order to minister to others.

- Women are familiar with this because our brokenness is usually j¦ due to what we do for others – e.g. broken women because they have to support their families; broken women because they fight for a cause; broken women because they slave out in the rice fields and factories to enrich capitalists; broken women because they are used to satisfy men's lustful desires; etc. Who else?

- Focus on the crowd's reaction (Vs. 4):

a) They were indignant (really?).

b) They began to philosophize (Vs.5). In that patriarchal system, the women were not allowed to be themselves and do what they wanted to do. We see the men here imposing their own perception. Their comment seemed to say: "What you do does not count. It's just a waste of resources. You are not capable of doing something worthwhile."

- Focus on Jesus' reaction:

a) She had done a good thing of anointing my body for burial because this woman feels the agony I will go through. At this moment, she has decided to be in solidarity with my struggle. Women are much more sensitive. (I see this very clearly in my two children. The first girl has taken as her role model her father. So she is more athletic, loves to socialize, take trips. The maleness in her makes her less discerning of people's needs unless these are pointed out to her. The second girl has taken me as her role model. I see that she more readily sees areas of need and immediately tries to help. She empathizes more with people's difficulties.)

b) She has done a good thing because she has transcended the customs and traditions which she feels are suffocating and restricting.

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c) She has done a good thing because she is existential. She believes in the sacredness of the present moment; she knows I will not be around for very long so she seizes the opportunity to minister to my needs.

- Implication of Jesus' statement:

a) The poor you will always have with you - not a declaration of the eternity of poverty. It is an attack on the blindness of the crowd: You often equate helping the poor and marginalized by giving them something. So you give a beggar money so he will go away. Have you really helped his situation? If you really want to help him, attack and dismantle the structures/system that cause his poverty and push him to beg. Routine almsgiving is like tokenism. Women are given positions as managers or presidents. Men think this will make the women happy. But what it just does is that it silences them. Jesus was saying: Do not think that because you have given an offering you have performed your responsibility to the poor.

b) The women you will always have with you and their presence will always be a judgment as well as a challenge.

c) Mark 14:9 – Part of the Good News is women breaking out of the oppressive molds of society.

IV. Closing Activity: Singing a chorus

(Tune: "I'm In, Right Up, Right Down")

We're breaking in and up and out

To be what we're meant to be

We're breaking in and up and out

Women strong and free

We'll loose our chains that bind

God-given tasks to find

We're breaking in and up and out

To be what we're meant to be.