Joanna - the brave disciple
Learning From the Unknown Disciples: Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Susanna • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 17:06
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Joanna was a brave lady, willing to risk all for Jesus.
When you are near the top of society in a time of political intrigue.
A time when heads quite literally could role if you got things wrong.
It pays to be very careful which causes you back.
Chosing to follow an itinerate preacher who gets on the wrong side of the religious leaders is probably something you would avoid.
Especially when your husband’s boss is the king and he needs to keep those religious leaders on side.
Luke 8:3 tells us that Joanna’s husband was named Chuza.
Chuza was the steward or business manager of King Herod Antipas who ruled during the time of John the Baptist and Jesus.
Herod had removed John the Baptist’s head and would also be involved in the judgement against Jesus when he handed him back to Pilate the Roman governor, even though he could find no reason for his death.
For Herod Antipas playing the political game and keeping powerful people on side was more important than the life of one of his own people.
So when Joanna chose to follow Jesus and even provide for the material support of Jesus’ travelling band of disciples she was putting her entire family at risk.
Luke 8:2 tells us that Joanna was one of a group of women whom Jesus had healed and some speculate that Chuza her husband is the unnammed official in John 4:46-53 where Jesus healed the man’s son.
46 As he traveled through Galilee, he came to Cana, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a government official in nearby Capernaum whose son was very sick. 47 When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged Jesus to come to Capernaum to heal his son, who was about to die. 48 Jesus asked, “Will you never believe in me unless you see miraculous signs and wonders?” 49 The official pleaded, “Lord, please come now before my little boy dies.” 50 Then Jesus told him, “Go back home. Your son will live!” And the man believed what Jesus said and started home. 51 While the man was on his way, some of his servants met him with the news that his son was alive and well. 52 He asked them when the boy had begun to get better, and they replied, “Yesterday afternoon at one o’clock his fever suddenly disappeared!” 53 Then the father realized that that was the very time Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” And he and his entire household believed in Jesus.
If this is true, and it is purely conjecture, it would explain why Joanna was a follower of Jesus.
Either way Luke has shown in chapter 8 verse 3 that Jesus’ message had reached all the way into the elite levels of society.
And given the response of King Herod Antipas in Luke 9:7-9 to the news of what Jesus was doing as he traveled through Galilee it is clear that there was a lot of interest in Jesus and his ministry.
Not just among the common people but through all levels of society.
Joanna means Yahweh’s gift and she would have enjoyed what many others didn’t have.
A sizable home, servants, luxury.
Yet she wasn’t focussed on those things but on the ministry of Jesus.
So much so that Luke 23:55 and 24:10 we find that she accompanied the group of travelling disciples all the way to Jerusalem and stayed through the crucifixtion and saw the resurrected Christ.
No doubt there was a cost to all this.
With wealth and priviledge Joanna had the means to provide for the financial support of the Jesus and his travelling group of disciples.
But it was a very risky move.
Even if it is her son who was healed by Jesus in John 4:46-53, and we have no way of confirming this it is just speculation, Joanna’s actions could so easily have ended in disaster for her family.
Jesus was crucified, he was seen as a threat to the stability and control of the ruling class of religious leaders.
King Herod and even Governor Pilate had power to prevent this but they were so wrapped up in keeping the religious leaders happy in order to maintain their own positions that they authroised Jesus’ death.
It wouldn’t have taken much for Joanna and her family to be sacrificed to the political intrigues of the day.
After all business managers are expendable as far as a king is concerned.
Joanna could have lived out her years focusing on the luxuries and privileges provided by her wealthy and influential husband. She stands in history as a woman with position and possessions whose devotion to her Lord is exemplified in humble service. (Thomas Nelson, I. (1995). The Woman’s Study Bible. Thomas Nelson.)
And we have to ask why?
Why did this lady take this risk?
Why as Mark 15:40, Luke 23:49. Matthew 27:55-56 all tell us did this lady along with many others follow Jesus all the way from Galillee to Jerusalem and stay right until the end?
Not only did they stay until the end they also took note of where Jesus was buried and prepared spices to annoint his body and then they went to the tomb as Luke 23:56 -24:1 tell us.
There was an incredible risk in this devotion, especially for the women of high social standing such as Joanna.
I think the answer lies in Jesus’ ministry to women and his inclusion of them in a way which was uniquely loving.
Jesus valued women in a way that others did not.
He saw their needs, their faith and opened the door to allowing them to take their rightful place as a full part of the kingdom.
“It is worth reflecting that the Gospels record no woman as ever taking action against him: his enemies were all men.” (Morris, L. (1988). TNTC Luke: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 3, p. 169). InterVarsity Press.)
I think this speaks to the nature of a woman’s encounter with God.
Luke is known as the Gospel of women, more than any of the other Gospels Luke emphasises the role of women in Jesus’ ministry and repeatedly he shows that Jesus showed genuine love towards women.
Women repond to genuine love, especially if a part of being loved is to be healed of some brokenness, sickness or pain.
Ever since the fall we see a picture of women searching for that which was lost.
The purity of true relationship with others, especially the restoration of the broken relationship with men that has caused women so much suffering.
In Jesus, Joanna and the other women would have seen a genuine love that valued them in a way no one else ever had.
They had all known the brokenness of living in a patriarchal world, even the women of substance knew what it was to know their place in society.
Even the women who had grown up in a family where the men were truly followers of Yahweh, who valued their wives and daughters would have known that their place wasn’t truly equal with that of the men.
Yet here we have Jesus, not acting to bring about social revolution on the spot, but instead showing the women that they are loved by God through his treatment of them and allowing them to take their place within the group of disciples.
I think that Joanna and the other women in this group saw in Jesus what God truly thought of them.
Their hearts would have been so impacted by this love that they were willing to risk all to follow Jesus.
Their trust was rewarded, not in an immediate social revolution but in their hope for eternity.
Joanna the brave disciple and the other women with her saw the resurrected Christ.
The hope of restoration of purity in relationship.
Eternity with Christ.
Value.
Respect,
Opportunity.
Love.
What are you willing to risk for Jesus?
Wealth?
Comfort?
Safety?
What does the love of Christ mean for each of us?
Is relationship with him worth everything?
The brave disciple Joanna certainly thought so
29 “Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for my sake and for the Good News, 30 will receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property—along with persecution. And in the world to come that person will have eternal life. 31 But many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the greatest then.”