And the Women Who Followed

July 12, 2021 Georgia Tanner

Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means. Luke 8:1-3 ESV

The church where I belong has a very active Women’s Ministry. It has been exciting for me to be embraced by all these women, the circle growing each time I attend a new event or show up for weekly prayer together. Recently I encountered a whole new thing. These women not only reach out to wrap their arms around one another, but they also reach out to other women. The ones outside the circle.

Yesterday I heard some of their stories. The woman just out of jail since last week. The woman who declared she was told her whole life that she was unlovable - only to experience now being loved deeply by God. The woman who shared the photograph taken on her wedding day, after coming out of a ten-year spiral of heroin and homelessness. The woman who begged another to sing for her and sobbed with her head down as she sang the loving words of the Savior.

This is something that started two thousand years ago when women started leaving the life they were living to follow this teacher and healer named Jesus. Some women had lived a life of good things - a fine husband, successful children, and a beautiful home. Some women had experienced the harder things - destructive relationships, lost children, and deferred responsibility. These women found common ground. They walked a new road behind Jesus. They broke with what their society expected of them. They reached out to place an arm in support around another. And they grew in strength and wisdom. And love.

This was Jesus. This is Jesus. This was revolutionary. It still is. I am reminded of the closing prayer of Jesus – you may not remember this passage – but it is worth hearing a bit of today:

“The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” John 17:20-23

Did you catch that? Jesus gave his glory away! The glory given to him by the good Father was given to those who would believe. In the act of believing they would become perfectly one with each other; this unity made possible because of the great love living within them of the Father and the Son! They became one. Perfectly one. Sharing the glory and love of Jesus. Let me leave this thought for just a moment - we will return.

Culture and context are crucial in understanding – well, just about anything. I grew up in a time of women's 'liberation'; women already had the right to vote and were found in the workplace as often as finding their fulfillment in managing the home. But the availability of 'The Pill' had changed a woman's ability to have more control over when she conceived a child. Enter in the 'Sexual Revolution' and the opportunity to have more sexual encounters outside the safety of marriage – if a woman chose to. There were marches for women's rights and bra-burnings and all sorts of liberations. It was the 1960s heading fast and furious into the 1970s. Women were demanding equality with men in every area of society.

I had grown up in the home of a woman who belonged to a different generation. Some call it the 'greatest generation'; those who became adults in the 1940s. She was not what you would expect. The oldest daughter of a dairy farmer, she was loud enough to make her voice heard in a family of four older brothers, two sisters, and another brother trailing behind her. She was the only one of the eight to go beyond high school. Graduating as a Registered Nurse, she enlisted as an Army Nurse serving in WWII, married a handsome Air Force officer, and left her country life for a place as distant as California where they bought a house and had 2 daughters of their own. The communists were invading Korea, and her reenlisted husband's plane went down over the ocean there. My mother moved back to her hometown, sold her house in Los Angeles, built a new one in Greenville, bought a new car, and a gun to protect herself and her girls. This was the woman I grew up with. I didn’t need any lessons in women being as capable as men. I was living with one.

Today in our culture of women's rights, I am afraid we think we need to hit men over the head with a hammer – or at least in the knees to cripple them so we can stand over them and roar about how strong and important we are. I just don't think that is necessary. I really like men. I love being married to one, I love being the mother of one. I have loved working with them. I love the differences between a man and a woman. I birthed one of each and I can tell you from experience there are certainly differences – good differences. I celebrate them. But I will acknowledge in these days of division some churches are getting very tangled up with too many discussions about how and where to stand with men and women ministering together. So, let's go back to the world of Jesus and look again at what was happening there.

First, we must acknowledge that in the Jewish ancient culture, women were not considered equal with men. No way. Women were completely dependent on the men in their lives for provision and protection. We must acknowledge this ancient land of Israel (like every ancient land!) was very, very different from the culture we are experiencing in modern America. That is why the Word of God has been fascinating from the beginning in the way it has included the stories of the hurts and sorrows and hopes and joys of women. And when Jesus showed up on planet earth it became even more so. Women played out prominently in story after story, miracle after miracle… And here – out of seemingly nowhere, we get this listing, by name, of specific women who were not only there in the life and story of Jesus– they were actively affecting the ministry of Jesus. In a really good way.

In Dr. Luke's telling of the good news of Jesus, we have just recently left the house of Simon the respected Jewish leader where Jesus has praised the actions of a sin-filled woman whose gratitude of being forgiven has caused her to 'love much'. With a skip and a hop, we are traveling with Jesus and his entourage through cities and villages proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. Remember, this is good news. They are on a mission to show and tell what this 'kingdom of God' looks like. And among the odd assortment of disciples from very different walks of life, there are also "some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities". This is not just a boy's club. Let the girls come in also.

Women important enough to be called by name. Luke starts with “Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven devils had gone out”. We are not told she was a prostitute. I wonder if this assumption came about because people connected her with the woman in the previous story. Regardless, she had been a troubled woman, living with more than one demon condemning her. She had lived a difficult life that had separated her from the respectable folks and had taken her to dark places alone. Broken and hopeless, somewhere along the way she had met Jesus and everything, everything had changed. I am betting she still had the scars of a battered life. Wounds deep and painful. I wonder if she was still raw from the shame of her life as an outsider. But she had been forgiven much and so now she was able to love much. This was Mary called Magdalene.

Then there was Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager. She would be quite different from Mary of Magdalene. Joanna’s husband was a high-ranking official in Herod’s court. She was part of the aristocracy. Highly respected. I am guessing she was a woman with great responsibility and deep connections. Can’t you imagine her carrying the role of administration and planning? She would have been a leader, capable of opening closed doors and influencing situations. And here she was, listed with the likes of Mary. She would show up again, at an empty tomb. And again, in the early church. She would be found trustworthy and loyal.

We don’t know a thing about Susanna. But I am guessing those early readers of Luke’s story did since she is named. And then there were the others. Many others. Who “provided for (the ministry of Jesus) out of their means”. Probably financial gifts – but probably in other ways as well. You know us women.

So put this important piece of information into your brain; it wasn’t just the men who were there with Jesus. Women – important enough to be called out by name – were there. Traveling from village to village with Jesus. Women who ‘provided’. Women who were thought valuable in sharing this precious and profound good news of the kingdom of God.

We women can easily think our efforts to serve the living Jesus are small or unimportant. We sometimes ask ourselves why we continue. Does it make a difference in the big scheme of God's world? It does. It continues to do now what it did two thousand years ago. It continues to take Jesus further down the road. What we do paves the path into the next village, the next neighborhood, the next house, the next heart.

Whether you are Mary Magdalene or Joanna or the unknown Susanna, Jesus has a place for you in his world. He has rescued you out of darkness, released you from your demons, cured you of your weakness, and you too can follow behind him, telling His story.

Question: These women provided. Have you ever thought about that? What are you doing to ‘provide’ for the ministry of Jesus? How are you sharing the good news of the kingdom of God?

I love the rawness of this cover of a Chris Tomlin song!

Blandine Ngarukiye I Will Follow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ImWcm6rec4