Jesus traveled through the cities and villages, preaching and proclaiming the good news of God’s kingdom. The Twelve were with him, along with some women who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses. Among them were Mary Magdalene (from whom seven demons had been thrown out), Joanna (the wife of Herod’s servant Chuza), Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their resources. (Luke 8:1-3 CEB)
Understand the significance of these few words.
“… Judaism in Jesus’ time … had a very low opinion of women … [they were] chiefly valued for fecundity, kept as far as possible shut away fromthe outer world, submissive to the power of her father or her husband,, and … inferior to men from a religious point of view.
Only against the background of that time can we fully appreciate Jesus’s attitude to women. Luke 8:1-3 … speak[s] of women following Jesus, and this was an unprecedented happening in the history of that time. … Jesus … knowingly overthrew custom when he allowed women to follow him. He could do this because he required from his disciples an attitude to women of complete chastity … Jesus was not content with bringing women up onto a higher plane than was then the custom; but as Savior of all … he brings them before God on an equal footing with men …” (Joachim Jeremias, Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus, pp.375-376)
Or as Charles H. Talbert puts it:
“It was not uncommon for women to support rabbis and their disciples with their own money, property, or foodstuffs … but for a woman to leave home and travel with a rabbi was not only unknown, it was scandalous …” (Reading Luke, p.96)
With that in mind, at least three thoughts seem obvious as we seek to take the teachings of this text onto our lives today. First, while the gospel of Christ is not a “social gospel,” it is a gospel with radical social implications. A gospel that claims to be of Christ, but does not address the social world in which it finds itself is no gospel at all. Second, Jesus was not content to massage the social and religious status quo, rather, he challenged it head on in words and practice. Disciples seeking to imitate him today must move toward doing the same, not settling for less. Third, Jesus’ engagement with the human injustices of contemporary religion and society bought him on a cross. Christ’s church today must not cower in fear over potential negative repercussions from wherever they may come, but boldly live out the gospel it claims to believe, knowing that God’s way for this world is best.
Our Father in heaven, holy is your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. So be it. Amen.