Briefing: There are those who think front line law enforcement and military positions are male positions and no place for a female. What is your stance on females in law enforcement?

Dispatch/Assignment: What percentage of your department or agency is female? Ask someone who has been in your agency for fifteen to twenty years what the percentage was when they started. Read Matthew 28:1-10.

On the Street: I became a peace officer in a time where there was a changing attitude about females in police work. There were already many female police officers working but they described how hard it was for them to gain acceptance. They stayed the course and proved their worth, making it easier for the next generation to do the job with less hassle and fewer barriers to cross. I came out of the police academy with the attitude that a female could do the job just as well as a male.

My first Field Training Officer was a twenty-seven year veteran of the force. He was a soft spoken man with hard features. He looked like an aged Robert Redford. He did not have much use for female officers and my attitude began to shift with his influence. My next FTO had over twenty years and the same attitude. The third and fourth FTOs did nothing to change my fast warping ideas of female cops. It did not help that I worked in the toughest division of the city and there were no females who worked these particular areas.

After a year of being out of training and working the streets, my section was assigned a new Sergeant; a female Sergeant. You can imagine the talk around the station. Without going into pages of details, she corrected our skewed perception of female police officers. She was smart, forceful, authoritative, confident, and a great street cop.

This brings us to the females in this passage. They lived in a time when women were considered second class citizens and not of much use. Jesus, however, had a different view of the role they would play. He allowed them to be a major part of His ministry on earth and, as we see here, gave the greatest honor to one of them. She was given the honor of being the first human to have an encounter with Him after His resurrection.

Because women did not rank very high in those days, it was a very radical move for Matthew to list five women in Jesus’ genealogy. I also find it amazing that the women and the Roman guards were there when the angel appeared; however, the guards were scared and left but the women stayed. That’s courage.

Highlights from this Read: In the very first verse of this chapter we are told the women went to the tomb on the first day of the week, the day after the Sabbath. The Sabbath is Saturday. Jesus rose on Sunday. This is significant because the day of worship was Saturday not Sunday. The followers of Christ worshiped on Saturday but they began to celebrate Sunday because it is the day of Christ’s resurrection. It stuck and that is why we have church services on Sunday, to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Every Sunday is Easter!

Investigational Resources: Matthew 16:21 is fulfilled in verse six. For more on the women going to Jesus’ tomb, read Mark 16:1-8, Luke 24:1-10 and John 20:1-8.

Officer Safety Principle: Do not discount anyone’s ability to serve in the advancement of the kingdom.

from The Gospel of Matthew Through the Eyes of a Cop
©by Charles Gilliland. Used by permission.
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