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Chapter-a-Day

Always Believe the Women

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Always Believe the Women (CaD Lk 24) – Wayfarer

But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.
Luke 24:11 (NIV)

Looking back on my life journey, I’m grateful that God surrounded me with women. While I have two older brothers, they are identical twins and seven years older. Thus, growing up, it was my older sister Jody who was my constant companion. We even went to the same college. Then, God blessed me with two daughters and for pretty much the next thirty years I was the lone male in the house with three females.

Being surrounded by women has been a life-long course for me in female appreciation. The fact that my earthly journey coincided with the unprecedented rise in the role, status, and rights of women has only accelerated my understanding. Back in high school, our study of world history tracked the role of women in society throughout the ages, which was huge in preparing me for the learning I’ve had to do along the way.

My thoughts on the role and status of women have changed dramatically over the years. This is not just rooted in cultural changes, but in my spiritual maturity and understanding, as well. It’s only in the last ten years that I’ve come to increasingly appreciate one of the foundational pieces of the Great Story from the very beginning. When cursing Adam, Eve, and the evil one for the original sin God tells the serpent that there will be “enmity” between him and the woman.

I believe that the struggle of women throughout history is, among many other things, a spiritual struggle. I believe that there is a special hatred that the evil one has had for women from the beginning, and men have been largely complicit in blindly accepting the schemes. I confess I have, especially in my younger years. I have a whole host of thoughts on this subject that I hope to share in a future post and podcast, so I won’t belabor the point.

One of the things I’ve come to love about Luke’s version of the Jesus Story is the fact that he alone gives credit to the women who followed Jesus and financially made it possible. In today’s final chapter, Luke not only records that it was the women who first discovered that Jesus had risen, but he also names them. Consider that while Matthew, Mark, and John were primary sources and witnesses of events in Jesus’ story, Luke was not. He investigated the Jesus Story by interviewing and collecting evidence from primary sources. I personally believe that Luke names women like Joanna, the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household because he interviewed her. He knew her, and he recognized the role she played in being among the inner circle of followers and financing Jesus’ ministry.

I also believe, as a man who has lived a life surrounded by women, that Luke records that the Eleven (The Twelve minus Judas) did not believe the women and considered their report of the risen Lord “nonsense” because the women would have clearly remembered this detail and emphatically made a point of it in their retelling. God bless Dr. Luke for honoring them by not leaving that out.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself thinking about my mother, who crossed over into eternity this past March. There is so much more that I appreciate about her today than I did even ten years ago. I think about her mother and three sisters who influenced my life as well as their mother who was the spiritual matriarch of our clan. I think about Wendy, her mother, sisters, and grandmother. I think about my daughters and granddaughters. As I consider the base enmity that the evil one harbors for them, it creates a desire within me to honor them more, appreciate them more, and encourage them more in all the days I have left on this earth.

If I could go back in time and have a chat with Peter and the boys, I would tell them, “Dudes, trust me on this. Always believe the women. Always.”

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Ladies First

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When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.
Luke 24:9-11 (NIV)

Of the three authors of Jesus’ biographies (aka “the Gospels”), Dr. Luke is known for his attention to details not found in the other three. One of these details that stands out for me is the attention he gives to the women among Jesus’ entourage and inner circle.

Much earlier in his accounts, Luke shares with us that a group of women were traveling with Jesus and the Twelve. They were also financially supporting His miraculous mystery tour around the shores of Galilee:

After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.

Luke 8:1-3 (NIV)

Contemporary followers of Jesus don’t give enough attention and credit to Jesus for radically shifting the status of women in Hebrew and Roman society. The status of women in those days was as poor as it has been throughout most of history. Women were perceived and treated as inferior to men. One of the daily prayers that a good Hebrew man would recite thanked God that he was not born a woman, a dog, or a Gentile. It was socially unacceptable for a man to speak to a woman in public. Freeborn women in the Roman Empire fared somewhat better than women in Hebrew world of Judea, but not much.

Jesus was a game-changer. He broke with convention. He spoke to women publicly. He touched them, healed them, and treated them with love and grace. It is no wonder then, that women would be among his most staunch supporters. I also find it fascinating that among the inner circle of female advocates is Joanna, the wife of the head of King Herod’s household. Another fact comes to my mind this morning that among all the accounts of Jesus’ kangaroo court trials before the Jewish High Priest, the Jewish religious authorities, the Roman Governor Pilate, and the Judean King Herod, there is only one person who speaks up on Jesus’ behalf. The wife of Pontius Pilate sent her husband a private message urging him not have anything to do with Jesus and all of the turmoil being stirred up against Him.

In the years to follow, the spread of the Jesus movement was, in part, fueled by the fact that the status of women within the movement broke with social convention. “In Christ,” Paul wrote, “there is neither male or female.” When Jesus followers gathered for their love feasts women were welcome at the table with men. It may seem like a baby step in contrast to modern society, but in the day it was a major game-changer. It should also be noted that once the Jesus Movement became an institution called the Holy Roman Empire, women were quickly stripped of what gains in status that they had been enjoying.

In the quiet this morning I find it, therefore, worth pondering that in yesterday’s chapter Luke makes it clear that it was the women of Jesus’ inner circle who followed Jesus to the cross and witnessed the entire bloody affair while the men were hiding in fear for their lives. In today’s chapter it was the women to whom word of the resurrection was first given, and the men who concluded that the silly women were being non-sensical.

The further I get in my journey, the more I find myself shedding the social and institutional conventions and norms that I was taught and absorbed growing up with regard to women. God saw fit to ensure that most of my earthly journey would be spent as the lone male in the company of amazing, strong, gifted, and wise females. I find that it has made me both more appreciative of Jesus’ rebellious change of the social conventions of His day, and more desirous to carry on that legacy.

Chapter-a-Day

A Small Detail of Culture and Economics

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healing of maryAfter this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.
Luke 8:1-3 (NIV)

I mentioned last week that I appreciate Luke for the small details he researched and added into his telling of Jesus’ story. The opening of today’s chapter is an example. Luke is careful to point out that Jesus was accompanied, not only by the twelve, but also by some women whom Jesus had healed. When reading “Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household,” Luke’s contemporaries would have read that description and immediately understood that Joanna was a woman of means. Herod was a regional king ruling under the authority of the Roman Empire, and managing Herod’s household would have been a well paying position. Luke points out that the women were traveling with Jesus and helping to support Jesus ministry financially. This little detail fascinates me.

In Jesus day, women in Palestine had very low social status. The Jewish culture at that time, it can be argued, was misogynistic. Women were treated with contempt and good Jewish men could be heard reciting ritual prayers thanking God that they had not been born Gentiles (non-Jews), dogs, or women. I can’t imagine how that made women feel when they heard their husbands reciting such a thing.

Jesus, however, cut against the grain of the contemporary culture. He spoke with women in public which scandalous in that day. He socialized with broken women of ill-repute and treated them with love, compassion, and forgiveness. He did not discriminate in performing miracles. He was not only seen publicly healing men, but also touching and healing women of their infirmities both physical and spiritual. Jesus didn’t fear wrath and ridicule for these things, and He received a generous dose of both. Jesus did what was right in the face of popular culture and treated women with the love, honor, and respect that is due to all daughters of Eve. THAT is the Jesus I follow and strive to be like.

In giving us this detail, Luke also clues us in to how Jesus’ traveling ministry operated financially. At least part of the funds required to support Jesus and his followers came from the financial means of his followers, women of means in particular. The principle here is simple. Jesus followers and those whom He healed gave out of their gratitude to support Him and His ministry. It should be no different today. I give regularly to the on-going work of Jesus, not out of blind obedience, guilt, or shame, but out of gratitude for what Jesus has done in my own life.

Another thing this little detail makes me think about is the case of Joanna. Her money was coming directly from Herod’s palace. Herod was a corrupt, evil, murderous tyrant. I can hear the conversations of Jesus’ followers around the fire at night arguing whether Jesus should accept such “dirty” money. Doesn’t that come from evil means? Isn’t accepting that money just a vote of support for Herod and his evil ways? There is no mention of Jesus having any qualms about accepting Joanna’s gifts, despite the fact that it flowed from Herod’s coffers.

There is a timeless, on-going debate about the financial inequalities among peoples and social groups. Financial inequalities existed in Jesus’ day. In fact, it can be argued that the inequalities were even more extreme than what we experience in modern western culture. Yet Jesus’ own ministry would not have been possible were it not for the financial support of followers who were among the rich of that day. I find it interesting that while Jesus taught constantly about money, the teaching was almost always focused on the spiritual connection between individuals and their finances. Jesus never spoke out about the corrupt Roman tax system, but He spoke to individual tax collectors about not using the system to extort money from others. Jesus did not condemn the rich for having money, but He did warn individuals that their love of money was leading them down a spiritual path to condemnation. The only time Jesus made any kind of broader statement was with regard to the extortion racket being carried out by the religious leaders in the temple.

This morning I’m thinking about Jesus, who showed love and compassion to those His culture did not love. I’m thinking about Jesus, who was not as concerned about the macro economic and political issues of this world, as He was about the micro-spiritual connection between our money and our hearts. I’m thinking about Jesus, whom I want to emulate in my thoughts, words and actions this day.