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And Also Some Women
Jun 11, 06:36 PM
“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, Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.” ~Luke 8:1-3
Jesus is known for traveling with twelve men but hardly remembered for the women who ministered to and with Him. Luke tells us that they had been healed, some from evil spirits and some from other infirmities. No one understands the ministry of healing quite like someone who has been healed. No one can enter with empathy the suffering of others like one who has similarly suffered. Believers, however well intentioned, cannot function with genuine compassion unless and until they have themselves suffered. Otherwise, they become “Do It Yourself Christians” who can speak of grace but have never really been desperate for it and received it. Our Lord can understand well what we are going through because He has tasted the same suffering, and worse. Those who are welll have no need of a physician but only those who are sick. The power of Jesus finds its way of entry into people’s lives when it is bathed in unfeigned compassion. Compassion like that arises from someone who knows what it means to be truly helpless.
Who knows what these women did before Jesus found them. Seven demons came out of Mary from Magdala. I am sure the people in that town could tell you stories about her. Her life must have been a mess, and not the kind of mess you would be attracted to but repulsed by. Especially if you are a state of the art Christian. It is one thing for Jesus to have healed these women. It is quite another matter for Him to have allowed them to minister with Him. Jesus did not see these women through the lens of their former sins. He saw them only in the context of their new identity. Who knows if others saw them that way. Maybe the people in their home towns still gossiped about them. Jesus not only knew they weren’t that way any more, He had full confidence in their ability to help others and gave them plenty of chances to do just that. His confidence in them bolstered their own sense of worth and dignity.
Joanna was the wife of Herod’s steward. Wow. Herod: the slaughter of Bethlehem’s babes. Chuza must have been a man of some power and prestige. I wonder what personal risk she took by aligning herself with this controversial itinerant Jewish rabbi. She didn’t just secretly mail checks to His ministry. She left home and traveled with Him. I would love to hear her story. Maybe she saw up close the difference between the one who ordered the murder of the innocents and the One who came to heal and to save. Perhaps the choice of the two ways of life was clearer for her than for the rest of us. She had to have sacrificed a lot to have given up the kind of life that kind of political power brings.
These women followed Jesus and participated in His ministry. Furthermore, they seemed to have made His ministry possible by supporting Him and His disciples out of their means.