As a Christian, I've been pondering this...
Before I say anything on the subject, I need to say this: I believe God was right in making Jesus a man (as God always seems to do the right thing), and the implications of this are huge and are not always thought about and taken into account. First of all, the time period in which Jesus lived was extremely patriarchal. If Jesus was a woman, he would not have had the same impact and credit that people gave him. Granted there were women prophets in that time period, but they didn't have the same kind of influence. One thing the church has struggled with and still does today is that Jesus had/has feminine qualities (he is moved to pity, has compassion, weeps openly for his dead friend, etc.). How do you approach that? I think it's something to be embraced, not ignored. Sociology has proved that masculinity and femininity are determined mostly by social construction, not biology. In other words, we as a society choose what men and women's qualities are. Men are more restricted in their gender roles when it comes to "feminine qualities." Jesus opens up a whole new door.
While we largely ignore parts of Jesus' sex and gender, we over emphasize other parts. We say, "the Father and Son." What about the Mother, the Daughter? Are we all not God's children? This is another reflection of the time period. In the Bible it calls us to protect the widows and the fatherless. This is because if you didn't have a father, you weren't anybody. You had no home, no income. You were powerless. The man, the head of the household, was the provider. He gave the family a name. But God is gender neutral. There is a mother heart to God. God is like a parent. Jesus is not masculine or feminine. He represented all of humanity.
There is the saying, "God created us in His image, and we returned the favor." Is this our attempt to make God more human and thus more comprehensible and understandable?
There is still much to be said on this, but this is just a taste...
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