Editor's note: Enjoy today's devotion from 52 Weeks with Women of the Bible by Ann Spangler & Jean E. Syswerda.
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Her Story
Well-to-do and not afraid to challenge society’s norms, Joanna traveled with Jesus and His disciples and supported them financially.
Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household... [helped] to support them out of their own means. — Luke 8:3
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Who was she?
According to Luke 8:2, Jesus had healed Joanna from an illness. Her gratitude turned into devotion expressed through practical generosity. Along with other women, she used her own resources to support Jesus and His disciples as they journeyed from place to place. Though they could have spent their wealth on personal comfort, they chose instead to give selflessly.
Scripture honors them as women of courage and generosity—even when traveling alongside men defied the social expectations of their time.
A Closer Look at Joanna’s story
Her story took place around ad 27–30.
As the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household, Joanna would have belonged to an elite circle of high-status people in Herod’s court. Participating in banquets, religious gatherings, and other social events meant that she probably knew both Herod Antipas and his wife Herodias.
She also knew Jesus, who early in His public ministry healed her of an illness. From the very beginning Jesus drew followers from every social stratum, even from the privileged social group to which Joanna belonged.
Luke’s Gospel names Joanna, along with Mary Magdalene and Susanna, as one of the women who traveled with Jesus and His twelve disciples. These women provided practical and financial support for His itinerant ministry. Such a situation would have been astonishing, even scandalous, in first-century Israel, just as it would be in traditional Middle Eastern societies today.
Though wealthy women could be benefactors, a woman could never become the disciple of a rabbi unless the rabbi was her husband and he was willing to teach her.1 Additionally, women didn’t travel unless accompanied by a male guardian, usually a relative. One must put on first-century Jewish glasses to imagine just how scandalous Joanna’s membership in Jesus’ travel¬ing entourage would have been.
The story of Joanna offers a glimpse of how Jesus persistently broke through social, cultural, and religious barriers between males and females as well as between the haves and the have-nots. The miracles He performed, the parables He told, and the way He responded to women all bore testimony to women’s equal value. When Jesus healed the woman with the issue of blood, for instance (Mark 5:25-34), He responded to her as someone who was neither defiled nor defiling. By healing her, He removed her unfitness, and, by implication, the unfitness of other women to participate in communal worship. No longer could ritual impurity prevent anyone from participating in the Kingdom.
Christ’s attitude toward women enabled Joanna and many others to become full and important members of the Jesus community.2
Remarkably, Joanna was among the women who were the first to hear and bear testimony to the fact that Jesus, who had been tortured and crucified on a Roman cross, had risen from the dead.
Joanna’s Legacy in Scripture
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What connection is there between Joanna’s healing and her support of Jesus?
Discuss what may have been unusual about Joanna and the other women traveling with Jesus. Where might they have gotten the financial means to do so?
How does Joanna’s generosity encourage the same in your own life?
Describe the social barriers these women must have faced. What social barriers do women today face in ministry and discipleship?
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How did the disciples react to the news from Joanna and the other women? Why do you think they responded this way?
List some of Joanna’s qualities that you would like to imitate.
Our Connection to Joanna
Joanna followed Jesus for the entirety of his public ministry. While her social status would have bestowed wealth and influence, it may also have placed her in jeopardy. How could she, a member of Herod’s court, so publicly associate with the cousin of John the Baptist, whom Herod had beheaded?
Joanna may have spoken to Herod and Herodias about how Jesus had transformed her life, and she may have had to leave the court to follow Jesus as His disciple. The Bible doesn’t say. It must have taken enormous courage for her to follow Jesus, seeking first His Kingdom rather than her own safety and comfort. But that’s what love propelled her to do.
Joanna’s discipleship seems to have begun when Jesus healed her. What does her example say about the dynamics of discipleship? How are those dynamics expressed in your own life?
What social, political, or personal risks may God be asking you to take as you seek to follow Jesus?
Father, I’m both inspired and convicted by Joanna’s dedication. Show me how I can live my life fully devoted to You and Your Son. Then give me courage to follow the path you’ve revealed.
1. Ben Witherington III, Women and the Genesis of Christianity (Cambridge University Press, 1990), 111.
2. Witherington III, Women and the Genesis of Christianity, 83–84.
Excerpted with permission from 52 Weeks with Women of the Bible by Ann Spangler & Jean E. Syswerda, copyright Ann Spangler and Jean E. Syswerda.
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Your Turn
Has Jesus healed you or blessed your life in ways that cause you to serve Him however you can? How are you showing Him your dedication? Let’s courageously give Him our all! ~ Devotionals Daily