The cross of Jesus is central to Christianity. Christianity is the only religion in the world which honours and esteems women and give them their proper place, although Christianity had been corrupted in the past which resulted in women being marginalised. Although women have been elevated to equality in modern secular society, they miss out on and leave out the fact that women have been created in the image and likeness of Crist, since men and women were together equally created in the image and likeness of God at the creation in Genesis. Jesus radically opposed the way in which women were viewed at his time, and consistently treated them as equals, disregarding man-made traditions and oppressive customs. His actions were revolutionary, breaking through centuries of gender inequality. He restored women to honour, equality and covenant identity. At the crucifixion there were a number of women present and when Jesus placed his mother Mary under the care of John, He was remembering women and lifting them up. In Genesis God spoke about Eve’s seed (Eve being a picture of Mary), which was that of all of mankind, from which Jesus was born, who was to crush the seed of satan. In all of this there was no man involved. The first evangelist in the Bible was the Samaritan woman. At the instance where Mary was sitting at Christ’s feet while Martha was complaining about having to do all the work, Jesus, as a Rabbi, did for the fist time, proclaim that women could be disciples of Christ, by acknowledging what Mary was doing. During the journeys of Jesus’ ministry there always was a group of women travelling with them, seeing to His, and the disciples’ needs. The fist people who went to the tomb after the crucifixion, and the first to meet the resurrected Christ, and thereafter testify about the resurrection, were women.
