I was reading this morning, in Matthew 26, the story of the woman who poured the expensive perfume over Jesus’ head. It happened while he was dining at a friend’s house in Bethany, not long before His crucifixion. You probably know the story. The disciples grew indignant, criticizing this woman for her act of love, claiming it was a waste. Wouldn’t there be better uses for her money?
Jesus responded, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me” (Matthew 26:10 NIV). Not only does He defend her in that moment, but He goes on to say, “Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her” (Matthew 26:13 NIV).
Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me.
Her perspective on Jesus’ looming death was so different from that of the disciples. She seems much more intuitive, more willing to take risks, more likely to act on her emotions. The complainers, on the other hand, were thinking concretely, factually, only able to see the situation from one angle.
This woman and the beautiful thing she did bothered them. In fact, Judas was so bothered by it that he marched to the chief priests and offered to hand Jesus over to them for a price. We’re told that “…from that time he started looking for a good opportunity to betray him” (Matthew 26:16).
Their different perspectives and reactions got me wondering about the whole right-brained, left-brained thing. When you were in school, were you ever taught that whichever side of your brain was dominant determined your personality and behaviour? Perhaps you’ve even taken online quizzes to discover where you fit. But guess what. It turns out that this idea is an oversimplification of a very complex matter…your grey matter, that is. Yes, different regions of the brain appear to be responsible for different things, but no one relies only, or even mostly, on one side of their brain.
As I did some digging, I discovered that all of the regions of the brain work together. What differs is how. For example, women’s brains seem to be able to communicate better side to side, whereas men’s brains seem to have better communication front to back.
Speaking of gender differences in brain function, this is a hot potato topic of research right now. No one seems to want to touch it. Perhaps people think it would be easier to lay misogyny to rest if we could just believe that men and women are no different. After all, if any differences are found, especially when it comes to brain structure and function, couldn’t they be used as fuel to fire all sorts of faulty and harmful assumptions?
Well, a groundbreaking study published just this year has confirmed suspicions that male and female brains are much more different than previously thought.1 So different, in fact, that their data doesn’t show overlap or a continuum of any kind. What’s vitally important to keep in mind, however, is that “different” does not imply “better.”
As a Christian woman, it does concern me that certain corners of Christianity, notorious for their silencing and suppression of women, could twist results like this in order to more deeply entrench their prescribed gender roles. Yet, personally, I see a hopeful side to this research. For me, it underscores the importance of ensuring that our ministries are shaped by the voices and perspectives of both men and women.
As one physician and psychologist said, “Men and women are turning out to be different, more different than we may have imagined. That doesn’t mean that women are better than men, or vice versa. But it does suggest that if we ignore the differences, we may disadvantage both women and men.”2
…if we ignore the differences, we may disadvantage both women and men.
For too long, these differences have either been misinterpreted or ignored. Thankfully, as Jesus predicted, we are still telling the story of the woman from Bethany. But I wonder how many of us read it and still feel a twinge of indignation. Jesus braided her story to global gospel proclamation. We need to let that sink in for a moment. Because there are still women today being bothered for doing beautiful things for Jesus.
As we continue to unearth the complexities of how the parts of the brain communicate and work in tandem, may it serve as an illustration to help us bridge our unhealthy and unholy divides. Contrary to what many have thought over the years, the human brain is not easily and neatly divided. Its different regions work together. It’s time we did too. Let’s learn from one another. There is room for pragmatism and practicality. There is room for lavish acts of love. It’s not an either/or dilemma. Let’s use our differences to their full advantage…and to the furtherance of the gospel.
1Ryali, S., Zhang, Y., de los Angeles, C., Supekar, K., & Menon, V. (2024). Deep learning models reveal replicable, generalizable and behaviorally relevant sex differences in human functional brain organization. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, volume 121, number 9, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2310012121.
2Sax, Leonard M.D., Ph. D. (2024). New Research Finds Huge Differences Between Male and Female Brains. Psychology Today, https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/sax-on-sex/202405/ai-finds-astonishing-malefemale-differences-in-human-brain