Wives Submit to Your Husbands

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. - Ephesians 5:22

This is the passage that Donna Burkland picked for her sermon yesterday. If you didn’t get to see Haru wincing as she read the scripture, it’s worth it to go watch just that part of it!

Donna started off putting this short, controversial verse in context by using some insights from Rachel Held Evans:

“All three of the passages that instruct wives to submit to their husbands are either preceded or followed by instructions for slaves to submit to their masters….Biblical passages about wives submitting to their husbands are not, as many Christians assume, rooted in a culture epitomized by June Cleaver’s kitchen, but in a culture epitomized by the Greco-Roman household codes, which gave men unilateral authority over their wives, slaves, and children.”

Below is what Donna said afterwards. Think on it. How does this approach to Paul’s teaching on wives sit with you? What does it make you feel? What new thoughts does it stir in you?

Now I don’t know if Paul was intentionally trying to subvert the patriarchy, because it's all he knows at this point, but I do think in hindsight, reading these passages within the context of Greco-Roman Household codes, it subverts our expectations of what is happening in these passages, much like what Jesus does all the time.

if all these people make up the 1st century church--women, slaves, and children--then my best bet is Paul is forced to listen to these voices. And through listening, he starts to understand their grievances. And through understanding their grievances, he can’t look away. He has to say something. He has to address the abuse and the harm done by heads of households, and he has to somehow tie it back to Christ and the church.

In an ancient patriarchal society, this kind of listening is revolutionary, whether Paul realizes it or not. Paul is doing what many of us are doing right now. We are recognizing our blindspots due to not being exposed to other people and other perspectives, namely those with less influence and power. We are being challenged to look within ourselves and question whether what we know to be true is actually of Christ, of Jesus. We are wrestling with who to give space to. Paul proves his imperfect wrestling by still engaging with what wives, slaves, and children should do for the head of the house.

He is still submitting to the head of the house, but Paul’s doing it in such a way that recognizes there are other voices. Paul is stuck, like many of us, in structures that limit freedom for all.
Like Paul, we are struggling to figure out how to bring the kingdom of God to earth when our “earth” upholds white supremacy, and when oppression is built into the very fabric of the culture.

Friends, I don’t think we are meant to follow Paul's instruction on submission here. I think we are meant to resonate and humanize with Paul’s wrestling, an imperfect wrestling at that. And through this wrestling of engaging with different voices and people, we join Jesus in making all things new.