A Few Good Women (Luke 8:1–3) | The Gospel of Luke (Part 56)

Transcript

JRNT 107
04/26/26
The Gospel of Luke: A Few Good Women
Luke 8:1-3
Jesse Randolph


Well, it has already been a sweet, sweet morning. We've been singing of the sweetness of our salvation in Jesus, the firmness of the foundation that we have in our faith in Him, and then to hear those amazing testimonies of grace in the waters of baptism, both through Mark and through Kody. Praise the Lord.

Well, those two men have just testified the goodness of Jesus in their lives and that takes us right into the Gospel of Luke which is all about the very Jesus to whom those men testified. Luke's Gospel is all about Jesus's foretold arrival, His incarnation, His birth, His life, His ministry, His death and resurrection. Remember Luke's purpose statement is given very clearly in the beginning of the Gospel of Luke as he as a Gentile addressed his Gospel to another Gentile named Theophilus. Luke's purpose statement is given in Luke1:4 where he says that “You,” meaning Theophilus, “may know the certainty about the things you have been taught,” those things being that Jesus came as prophesied, that He proclaimed a message of a coming kingdom, that He accompanied His message through a series of signs and miracles, that He was rejected by His own people, the people of Israel, that He was arrested and tortured and crucified for the sins of the world, and then that three days later He rose victorious from the grave, proving that He was God in the flesh with the authority to forgive sins, that He had defeated sin and death for all who would believe upon Him. Those truths I just mentioned are the very heart of Luke's Gospel, and so as we sit here this morning two years into our study of Luke's Gospel it is really critical and important that we not lose sight of those truths. That's why, by the way, I think last Sunday morning's sermon and that concluding passage of Luke 7 is such an important one, a critical one for all of us to hear because that story we encountered last Sunday morning of a woman who is not mentioned by name but described only as a sinner connects so very clearly with Luke's very purpose in writing his Gospel; by showcasing the fact that Jesus came into this world to save sinners. The account at the end of Luke 7 connects to every single one of us who have put our faith in Jesus Christ. It connects us on a very personal level. You know none of us have had the personal experience that that woman had as she beheld Jesus in the flesh and as she wet His feet with her tears and as she dried her own tears off His feet with her hair or as she anointed His feet with perfume. But each of us who has called upon Jesus as Savior and Lord can relate to that woman's heart posture before Jesus as she came to Him humbly and reverently and worshipfully.

That's where we left off last Sunday morning at the end of Luke 7 where Jesus said to this woman in verse 48, He says “Your sins have been forgiven.” Then in verse 50 He says to this woman, this sinner, this humble and repentant follower, “Your faith has saved you.” That's where we left off last time, at the end of Luke 7 with those words, “Your faith has saved you.” Now as we move into Luke 8, we're going to take on a total of three verses, verses 1-3 in this brief transitional text. Look at Luke 8:1-3 with me, God's Word reads, “And it happened that soon afterward He was going around from one city and village to another, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God. The twelve were with Him and some women who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses. Mary who was called Magdalene from whom seven demons had gone out and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's manager, and Susanna and many others who were ministering to them from their possessions.”

I've titled this morning's sermon as I mentioned during announcements, “A Few Good Women.” I tried my best to align this message with Mother's Day but alas it didn't work out. Off by two weeks but in God's good providence He knew what He was doing. But we're going to encounter two weeks before Mother's Day these three women—Mary who was called Magdalene, Joanna the wife of Chuza and Susanna.

Now, before we get too much further into our text, I do think it's important that we lay out some background and some context to what is happening here. For starters it is important to note that Luke's Gospel has much more of a focus on the marginalized and the downtrodden than any of the other three Gospels, Matthew, Mark or John. We've already seen some of this as we worked our way through seven chapters of Luke's Gospel. We've seen that Luke has especially emphasized Jesus's ministry to the sick, to the diseased, to the paralyzed and to the leprous. He has emphasized Jesus's ministry to the societally shunned, to the tax collectors and to the sinners. He has emphasized Jesus's ministry to non-Israelites, to Gentiles, those from surrounding pagan people groups. We saw that with the account of the slave of the Roman centurion or the widow at Nain. That makes total sense when we remember that Luke himself was a Gentile and he is writing to another Gentile, Theophilus.

Well, another one of those marginalized people groups in this part of the world in Judea during the 1st century would have been women. Now God had declared in His Word, He declared in the Law and the Psalms and the prophets, He declared in the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, that men and women alike had been created in His image. Genesis 1:27 says “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female, He created them.” But at the same time God made men and women to be distinct. Only women, for instance, would bear children. Only women, for instance, would be deemed ritually impure during their time of menstruation because, shocker, only women can menstruate. Not men. Only women were called to the domain of domestic, the home. That is why we hear of a Proverbs 31 woman and not a Proverbs 31 man. The idea of a stay-at-home husband just sort of hanging out all day on the homestead would have been completely foreign to the ears of a 1st century Jew. So, God in His revealed Word, the Law, the Torah, He recognized that there were certain distinctions between men and women: physiological distinctions, biological distinctions, even practical distinctions and differences between the two sexes. But men and women were accorded certain rights and privileges which were consistent with the truth that both men and women were the pinnacle of God's creation. Again, Genesis 1:27. That's why we see certain examples in the Old Testament Scriptures of women being held to that pinnacle status, like men. That's why we see women engaging in commerce in Proverbs 31. That's why in the Old Testament we see women playing music in the house of God. Psalm 68:25 speaks of maidens beating tambourines in the sanctuary of God. That's why we see women in the Old Testament praying in the house of God. There was Hannah for instance in I Samuel 1, praying in the sanctuary of God. This is why we see God through Moses, when He makes His covenant with Israel He makes that covenant with the entire people of Israel, men and women alike. Deuteronomy 29:10 says “You stand today all of you before Yahweh your God. Your heads, your tribes, your elders, your officers, even all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, that you may enter into the covenant with Yahweh your God and into His oath which Yahweh your God is cutting with you today.” This is why when the Law of God was read to the people of Israel every seven years women were to be included in the assembly. Deuteronomy 31:10 says “Then Moses commanded them saying, ‘At the end of every seven years, at the time of the year of the remission of debts, at the Feast of Booths when all Israel comes to appear before Yahweh your God at the place He will choose, you shall read this Law in front of all Israel in their hearing. Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones and the sojourner who is within your gates so that you may hear and so that they may learn and fear Yahweh your God and be careful to do all the words of this Law.” In other words, according to the Law of God, the Word of God that He had given to His people, Israel, Israel would have been the people from whom Jesus came and Israel would have been the people whom Jesus initially came for, women weren't shoved into a dark corner. Women weren't walled off from a life of faith. Women weren't treated like second class citizens. No. Women were recognized as being distinct from men and different from men as we recognize even today, but they weren't inferior to men.

Well, as we've seen in our encounters with the Pharisees thus far in our study of Luke, over time various man-made traditions began to develop around the Law of Moses. In other parts of the Hebrew Scriptures as well traditions formed around the Psalms and the prophets. In fact, we encountered one of these man-made traditions earlier when we went through Luke 6. There we saw that by Jesus's day it was considered a violation of the Sabbath, the day of rest which had been instituted by God to simply pluck a head of grain and then to rub that head of grain between one's fingers and then to pop that head of grain into one's mouth. To go through that process of plucking and rubbing and popping was considered work, it was considered labor and therefore a violation of the Sabbath.

Well, by this time, by Jesus's time, a number of other man-made traditions had formed and developed on the subject of women, on what they were to do and what they were not to do. In the years of our Lord's earthly ministry a number of traditions and teachings had arisen which had been enacted by certain rabbinical figures, and which were protected by the Pharisees of His day. But these traditions went far beyond what God's Word actually said as they drastically restricted what women were or were not to do. For instance, by Jesus's day women when they showed up to the temple were confined to a very specific area of the temple complex called the court of women. That wasn't in the original blueprint designs for Solomon's temple. Women of Jesus's day, unlike Hannah in the book of Samuel, were no longer permitted to, they were discouraged from praying in the temple. Women of Jesus's day had become progressively more illiterate, and I mean by that Biblically illiterate. There was this command in Deuteronomy 4:9 that the Law of God was to be “made known to your sons and to your grandsons.” Well, that was taken by Jesus's time in certain rabbinical writings to mean that that meant there was no need to teach the Law of God, to teach God's Word to women, to your daughters, but rather only to sons and only to grandsons. In fact, in the Talmud which developed years later it says this, “It is foolishness to teach the Torah, the Law, to your daughter.” Women in Jesus's day did not have the ability to testify in court, that put them in the same class or category as Gentiles, gamblers, the insane, the deaf and other undesirables in society. Women, by Jesus's day, were progressively expected to stay exclusively in the home, not engage in any form of commerce whatsoever, notwithstanding the Biblical example given in Proverbs 31. Women by Jesus's day were expected not to be seen except on rare occasions outside of their home, and if she were to be outside the home she was to be heavily veiled. As one Jewish commentator from this era notes, and he's not saying this disapprovingly he's just commenting on the state of women in this time, in this time where tradition had overtaken what God's Word actually said, he speaks of the typical woman during this time being swathed like a mourner, isolated from people and shut up in prison. Again, he's not saying that is a bad thing. Then there is this prayer which the Jewish rabbis of Jesus's day prayed with regularity, “God, I thank You for not making me a Gentile, a slave or a woman.”

That sort of sheds some light, I think, on what Paul was getting after in Galatians 3:28 where he says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek nor slave nor free nor male nor female. We are all one in Christ Jesus.” Paul, recall, was Saul before he was Paul. He was a Pharisee, a chief of Pharisees, a Pharisee of Pharisees, he says in Philippians 3. Then when the Lord got ahold of him and the Lord saved him and God made him a new creation, Saul, now Paul, had this new perspective on the extent and the truth of the reach of the Gospel. Paul would have been one of those people, one of those Pharisees who did pray that prayer, "God, I thank You for not making me a Gentile, a slave or a woman.” But then later as a new creation and now as an apostle of Christ he is saying there is neither male nor female. We are all one, one body in Christ Jesus.
And it's against that backdrop, that tradition heavy backdrop, that Jesus walked on the scene. It is against that backdrop, that tradition heavy backdrop that Luke, a Gentile, documented Jesus's life and ministry. It is no accident that as Luke is now writing to Theophilus, another Gentile, about Jesus that Luke really accents and brings to life the ways in which Jesus taught and ministered to and interacted with women. Not only that, the ways in which women were entrusted with His message.

What we're going to do now as we gradually meander our way back to our text, Luke 8, is I'd like to consider and survey how women were singled out in Jesus's ministry as reflected and recorded through the pen of Luke. Turn back with me to Luke 1. Luke 1, where we have this account of starting with Zechariah the priest. And not just Zechariah but of course Zechariah's wife Elizabeth, who God chose to carry in her womb the forerunner to the Messiah, the one who would later be called John the Baptist. Look at Luke 1:24, it says, “After these days Elizabeth his wife conceived and she kept herself in seclusion for five months saying, ‘This is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when He looked upon me to take away my disgrace among men.” That's Elizabeth. There was another woman, a young woman, Elizabeth's relative in fact, and of course her name is Mary. Mary was afforded a special privilege. Look down the page at verse 30 of Luke 1. Luke 1:30 says, “And the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and there will be no end to his kingdom. But Mary said to the angel, how will this be since I am a virgin? The angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you and for that reason the holy child shall be called the Son of God.”

Now to any skeptic here this morning who might be thinking how is this any different than how Jewish women were treated during the first century. Didn't you, Jesse, just say that during these times Jewish women were expected to stay in the home? Are not these accounts of Elizabeth and Mary right in line with what was the culture and the ethos of this time, of women just sort of staying in the home and being chained to the kitchen sink and having babies? Well, no. That's not what's happening in these accounts at all. Rather, these women are being presented in Luke's Gospel as distinctly privileged individuals, distinctly privileged individuals through whom Messianic prophecy would be fulfilled. Not only that, each of these women, both Elizabeth and Mary, are being presented as these paragons of faith and piety. These were godly women, they were faithful women, they were thoughtful women, women who eagerly sought to use their unique privileges as women to serve the Lord. In fact, look down the page at verse 38, we're not even going to get into Mary's Magnificat, but look at what she says in verse 38. Mary said, “Behold the slave of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then look at Elizabeth's words down in verse 45, this is after she and Mary have that interaction. Luke 1:45, these are Elizabeth's words, “And blessed is she who believed that there would be fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.” So, Luke in his Gospel account is presenting both of these women, Elizabeth and Mary, not merely as moms, not as housebound domestic slaves, he's presenting them as these trophies of God's grace, as these grateful instruments who were eager to be used in the hands of the God they worshiped.

How about Anna, look at Luke 2:36. We’re going to have Anna here who is presented not as a doormat, not as a domestic engineer, but as what? A prophetess. Luke 2:36, “And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin and then as a widow to the age of 84. She never left the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers. At that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God and continued to speak of Him to all those who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.” So, despite the Jewish traditions which had developed by this time which prohibited and outright discouraged praying by women in the temple, there is Anna this faithful old widow “serving night and day with fastings and prayers.” She is functioning much more like Hannah of old who also prayed in the sanctuary of God.

Next in Luke's Gospel we meet Simon Peter's mother-in-law over in Luke 4. Turn with me to Luke 4:38 says, “Then He stood up and left the synagogue and entered Simon's home. Now Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Him to help her. And standing over her, He rebuked the fever and it left her. Immediately she stood up and began waiting on them.” Now the grumpy feminist today, those who have a perpetual scowl on their face except when their WNBA team is winning 14-9 in the fourth quarter, those women, they will pounce on that last sentence, that last sentence especially that “immediately she stood up,” and you see it there, “began waiting on them.” To those in that camp, what they'll say is this proves that Jesus came to really reinforce male dominant patriarchal power structures. They will say that the Christian faith, Aha! this just proves it is all this man-made scheme to oppress the weaker sex. And by the way, how dare you call us the weaker sex, we're not weaker than you. Right? Well, how about this. The point of this passage is about Jesus’s healing of Peter's mother-in-law. The point of this passage isn't to highlight or suggest that Peter's mother-in-law was shackled by some societal expectations in a male dominated power structure. No, the point of this passage was to communicate that Jesus healed a person who just happened to be a woman, but whether a woman or a man was completely undeserving of the healing He granted her. That's the point of the passage.

Or what about the widow at Nain. Turn with me to Luke 7. Now we worked on this one just a few weeks ago. Luke 7:11 says, “And it happened that soon afterwards He went to a city called Nain, and His disciples were going along with Him accompanied by a large crowd. Now as He approached the gate of the city behold a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a sizeable crowd from the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion for her and said to her, ‘Do not cry. And He came up and touched the coffin, and the bearers came to a halt, and he said, young man, I say to you arise. And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.” Now I kid you not, this is part of the job. I have to read a lot of bad stuff all week as I read the good, spit out the bones as I chew the meat for you to get ready for Sunday morning. So, I read bad stuff, right? There are those who will say with a straight face that even this account is an effort by Luke to get after women, to suppress women, to oppress women. The reason there are those who will say that is because this woman in verse 13 is depicted as doing what. Crying. The argument goes Jesus is saying here, “Do not cry” and that is yet again reinforcing male dominant existing cultural norms and stereotypes. How dare Jesus assume she was crying to begin with and how dare He assume that this is just some sort of a rational fit of emotion that she is having and how dare He as a man speaks into her life and encourage her, actually tell her not to cry. What a chauvinist. There are those who will say that's what is going on. Well, notwithstanding the cries of outrage from the short-haired Subaru driving crowd, that's not what is happening here, that's not what is going on. The point of this passage, verse 13 says, is “He felt compassion for her.” Right? He felt compassion toward this woman, and a Gentile woman at that. His own people would have despised her. Remember that prayer, God, I thank You that I am not a Gentile, a slave or a woman. But Jesus did not, He showed compassion for someone, He showed compassion for someone who likely wouldn't have experienced a whole lot of compassion in her day.

Last week we encountered the woman who approached Jesus in the house of Simon the Pharisee, the one who shed her tears on His feet and then dried her tears with her hair and then anointed His feet with perfume. Simon the Pharisee we saw in Luke 7, he had a real problem with this woman, didn't he. He sure did. Luke 7:39 we have Luke here capturing Simon the Pharisee's inner monologue where it says, “If this man,” this is Simon speaking to himself. “If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of person this woman is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.” Well Jesus did know what sort of person this woman was, including the fact that she was a woman and the fact that she didn't have a Y chromosome didn't forbid Him or prevent Him from forgiving her sin. She had faith, that is what mattered.

On and on it goes. Turn with me to Luke 8:43, we'll get there down the road, but Luke 8:43 we have this encounter that Jesus had with this woman with the hemorrhage. Verse 43, “And a woman who had a hemorrhage for 12 years and could not be healed by anyone came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His garment. Immediately her hemorrhage stopped. And Jesus said, ‘Who is the one who touched Me?’ And while they were all denying it, Peter said, ‘Master, the crowds are surrounding and pressing in on You.’ But Jesus said, ‘Someone did touch Me for I knew that power had gone out of Me.’ And when the woman saw that she had not escaped notice, she came trembling and falling down before Him she declared in the presence of all the people the reason why she had touched Him and how she had been immediately healed. And He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace.” Now this woman was an outcast on multiple levels. Not only was she a woman but she was an unclean woman, and we see here that Jesus ministered to her anyway on account of her faith.

Or Luke 10, starting in verse 38. Here we have the account in Luke's Gospel of Martha and Mary over this little squabble these sisters were having over whose faith was more important. In verse 41 we have Jesus addressing Martha saying, “Martha, Martha.” And by the way, simply addressing her that way, saying her name, using her personal name and even saying it twice indicates that Jesus is showing her, according to her dignity and compassion and even affection, showing He cared about her. Then He gives this gentle yet firm insight saying, “You are worried and bothered about so many things, but only one thing is necessary for Mary has chosen the good part which shall not be taken away from her.” People often miss out though, the fact that He is even having this conversation shows the dignity He accorded to her.

Down in Luke 13 Jesus heals a sick woman in a synagogue, starting in verse 10. It says, “And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath and behold there was a woman who for 18 years had a sickness caused by a spirit. And she was bent double and could not straighten up at all. But when Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her, Woman, you are freed from your sickness, and He laid hands on her and immediately she was made erect again and began glorifying God.” Now of course to our 21st century ear the fact that Jesus addressed this woman as “Woman” sounds a bit harsh. But it really wasn't in context. This would be no different than you or I am addressing a female stranger and calling her Ma'am or Miss. But for some today those who believe that having the door held open for you is some sort of sign of sexism or oppression, this is just too much. The fact that Jesus addressed this woman as “Woman” must mean that He was misogynist and Luke was a misogynist and everyone is a misogynist. That is the philosophy of those who take and twist these words and have steam coming out of their ears as a result. But again, they miss the point. The point is that Jesus healed this woman, He healed a woman who was desperate for healing and when He healed her, her reaction is what her reaction ought to have been. She began glorifying God.

What about this, we can drop all the way down to Luke 23, all the way to the end of the book where we see, of all people, women who were there not only when Jesus died but when He rose. Luke 23, we'll start in verse 46. Here we have the account of Jesus drawing His final breath on the cross. Luke 23:46, “And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice said, Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit. Having said this, He breathed His last.” Then we get the response of the centurion and the crowd in verses 47-48. And then look at who else was there in verse 49. “And all His acquaintances and the women who accompanied Him from Galilee were standing at a distance, watching these things.” So, women were there at His crucifixion.

They were also there when our Lord was laid in the tomb, look at verse 53. The setting here is Joseph of Arimathea taking the body of Jesus down from the cross and then wrapping it in a linen cloth. Then we pick it up here in verse 53 where it says, “They laid Him in a tomb cut into the rock where no one had ever lain. It was preparation day and the Sabbath was about to begin.” Now look at verses 55-56. “Now the women who had come with Him from Galilee followed and beheld the tomb and how His body was laid. Then after they returned, they prepared spices and perfumes and, on the Sabbath, they rested according to the commandment.”

So, Luke has now described the women being there for Jesus's crucifixion, Luke has women being there when Jesus is laid in the tomb. As we celebrated just a few Sundays ago on Resurrection Sunday, on Easter, that tomb was ultimately found empty. Here's how that scene is recorded over in Luke 24, we're going to pick it up in verse 18 and for context here, Luke 24:18, this is that road to Emmaus scene where you have these two men who are on the road to Emmaus. Though they don't know it they've just had this encounter with the risen Jesus and then one of these men named Cleopas, unaware he's talking to Jesus, says this in verse 18. He says, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days? And He said to them, ‘What things?’ And they said to Him, ‘The things about Jesus the Nazarene who was a mighty prophet in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to the sentence of death and crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this it is the third day since these things happened.” Then look at verse 22, “But also some women among us astounded us. When we were at the tomb early in the morning and not finding His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it exactly as the women also said, but Him they did not see.” Now on what basis, on which basis did this man report this story of the empty tomb? On whose authority? On whose account? It's all based on the authority and testimony of women, women who otherwise would have been ineligible to testify at this time in Israel, but women who are testifying as having seen a vision of angels and having seen an empty tomb.

So, by way of review, again this is all background. We have seen Elizabeth and Mary, and we've seen Anna, and Peter's mother-in-law, and we've seen the widow at Nain. We've seen the woman who anointed Jesus's feet with perfume, we've seen a woman with a hemorrhage, we've seen Martha, we've seen Mary, we've seen the sick woman who was healed on the Sabbath, the women who viewed the crucifixion, the women who prepared the body of Jesus for entombment and we've seen the women who witnessed the empty tomb. All throughout Luke's Gospel women are portrayed as grateful recipients of Jesus's ministry, an essential part of Jesus's ministry, testifying witnesses to Jesus's ministry. And by the way we haven't even gotten to the fact that throughout His teaching, through His parables, through His illustrations Jesus regularly referred to women in making the major point He was trying to land. Three different parables, right? The parable of the lost coin, Luke 15, involves centrally a woman. The parable of the widow and the judge, Luke 18, involves a woman. The parable of the widow's mite, Luke 21, involves a woman.

So, against that backdrop we navigate back to our text, Luke 8, where again we see this language. Luke 8:1-3, “And it happened soon afterward He was going around from one city and village to another, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God. The twelve were with Him and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses; Mary who is called Magdalene from whom seven demons had gone out and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's manager and Susanna and many others who were ministering to them from their possessions.”

Now note that what we have here is a purely descriptive portion of Luke's writing. This is raw narrative, there are no red letters here, there are no commands given, there are no statements made, there are no questions asked. There aren't even any clear-cut definitional principles that we are supposed to take home from this. So why are we bothering to work through it? Well, it's the Word of God and II Timothy 3:16 says that all Scripture is profitable for teaching, it's all God-breathed, it's all been given to us for our edification, our teaching, reproof, correction, training in righteousness and the like. What this Scripture teaches us and as we've seen here already up to this point this morning, what all of Luke's Gospel teaches us is that Jesus during His earthly ministry valued the ministry of women. Here those women being Mary who is called Magdalene, Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's manager and Susanna. Jesus in this scene in Luke 8:1-3, He has surrounded Himself with a few good women. As we've just surveyed, it's more than a few as we look at the entirety of His earthly ministry through the lens of Luke. That's not even to mention how Mark and Matthew and John report on the ministry of women.

So, let's now take some time to work through this text. He begins verse 1 by saying, “And it happened that soon afterward,” soon afterward meaning soon after that encounter Jesus had with that sinner, that sinful woman, likely a prostitute in Simon the Pharisee's house at the end of Luke 7. Soon after that we're told that Jesus was “going around from one city and village to another.” That geographic reference would still be to Galilee, the district that hugs the western and northwestern edge of the Sea of Galilee and shore. Still in verse 1 Luke tells us that as Jesus was going around from one city and village to another He was “preaching and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God.” Now this matter, this topic of the Kingdom of God is a truly massive subject, in fact about a year ago when we were in Luke 4:43 I devoted an entire hour, an entire sermon called “The Keys to the Kingdom” where we worked through ten different realities of the Kingdom of God as laid out in Luke. Even then I can tell you I felt like that wasn't enough time to address the matter of the kingdom. I won't take you through those ten realities of the kingdom this morning, but I will say what I said then which is that just as we're told here in Luke 8:1, the message that Jesus came to deliver in preaching and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God, it truly was and it truly is a good news message because at its core that message of the Kingdom of God is about the fact that there are vile and wretched sinners in this world, i.e., you and me. It is about vile and wretched sinners who were once wallowing in that sin, being delivered, being rescued from the domain of darkness. It's all about sinners like you and me once walking on a path that surely would have led us to destruction and fire and eternal hell, but now being redirected to an entirely new path and a path that's not just going to take us to heaven but to a future everlasting kingdom where there will be no pain and there will be no sorrow and there will be no tears. But instead in that new kingdom, that reality of the coming kingdom, we are going to experience the blessed presence of being in the presence of God forever. This coming kingdom is described as a place where righteousness will dwell. That ought to be a really sweet promise to anybody here this morning as we think of all the unrighteousness in the world in which we live today. Jesus was preaching that message, this message of the good news of the Kingdom of God, and He was doing so by “going from one city and village,” it says, “to another.” As He did so, as we've been exposed to over and over again in this Gospel, Jesus had this crowd around Him. The end of verse 1 we're told that “the twelve were with Him.” That would be the same twelve that He appointed on the mountain back in Luke 6 before He came down the mountain and delivered the Sermon on the Plain. The twelve would be Peter and Andrew and James and John and Philip and Bartholomew and Matthew and Thomas and James the son of Alpheus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James and then the other Judas, Iscariot, who would betray Him. So, the end of verse 1 those same twelve are depicted here as being with Jesus.

Then, as we move into verse 2, we're introduced to these few good women, these three women. Before they are introduced by name, we're told that there were some “women who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses.” That's sort of the description that precedes their being named. Now if you turn back with me to Luke 4 again, we're going to see some similar language related to Jesus and His ministry of healing the sick and those who were demon possessed with evil spirits. Now look at Luke 4:40, this is right after the healing of Simon Peter's mother-in-law. It says, “And while the sun was setting,” Luke 4:40, “all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to Him and laying His hands on each one of them He was healing them. And demons also were coming out of many, shouting and saying, ‘You are the Son of God. But rebuking them He was not allowing them to speak because they knew Him to be the Christ.” So, you see there how widespread Jesus's healing ministry was, it says He was “healing all those who had any who were sick.” Then you see how widespread His exorcism ministry was as “demons,” it says, “were coming out of many.” Well, presumably Jesus would have been ministering both to men and to women in healing the sick and working with the demon possessed. That is actually verified back in our passage in Luke 8:2 where we're told that among those who were with Jesus were some women “who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses.”

And now Luke proceeds to name these three women by name, “Mary who is called Magdalene from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's manager and Susanna.” Let's start with Mary, who is called Magdalene. What do we know about this woman. Well, the text gives us two details about her: First she was called Magdalene, she was from the town of Magdala, modern day Migdol on the west side of the Sea of Galilee. So, the same way that Jesus of Nazareth would have been called a Nazarene, Mary of Magdala would have been called a Magdalene, or we say Magdalene. The second thing we're told is at the end of verse 2 which is that from her seven demons had gone out, meaning at some point Mary had been a demoniac. She had been possessed and given that there were seven demons which possessed her this would have been a severe case of demon possession. That's what we know about this woman from the account here in Luke 8. This is not the same unnamed woman that we met last week, the woman who in a former life likely worked as a prostitute. No, Luke intentionally left her identity, the woman in Luke 7, anonymous and then he identifies Mary by name here and by doing so he is highlighting the fact that these are two different women. There is no evidence that Mary ever worked in that trade that the woman in Luke 7 worked. Nor is Mary Magdalene to be confused with other Marys in Scripture like Mary the mother of Jesus, or Mary of Bethany. What we know from Scripture about Mary Magdalene is what we see here in this text, that she was once demon possessed, that she came from Magdala. We also know as we get later into the Gospel accounts that she was one of those women who would have been following Jesus, weeping on His path up to the place of the skull to be crucified, that she would have been one of those women who stayed on that hill with the other women until the Lord breathed His last breath. That she would have been one of those women who prepared spices along with the other women to anoint Jesus's body for burial. That she would have been one of the women, in fact she was the woman, Mark 16:9 says, who was first to see Jesus in His resurrected state. And she would have been among the women who delivered the news to the other disciples that Jesus was alive, following His resurrection. So that is the extent of what we know about this woman, Mary who was called Magdalene. Despite artistic renderings to the contrary, you go to many museums and find these pictures where she is presented as this enchantingly beautiful woman who has been rescued from this immoral lifestyle she's been living, the Bible doesn't have that as its record. Then you have guys like Dan Brown and the DaVinci Code 25 years ago or so saying that Mary Magdalene and Jesus fell in love and they got married and they had kids and they moved to the south of France. And don't you know this story? Well, the Bible doesn't say it that way. So that's Mary who was called Magdalene.

Next, verse 3, we meet Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's manager. Now this woman Joanna is mentioned only one other time in Scripture, it's at the end of Luke's Gospel in Luke 24:10 where it says, “Now Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the rest of the women were with them there,” meaning at the site of the empty tomb. One thing to note is that Joanna would have been this immensely privileged woman, not only materially because Chuza as Herod's manager, but that would also be her husband, Chuza, would have had a distinguished well-paying job. That would have been a prolific job to hold at this time. But she also had an amazing experience as she was described in Luke 24 as having been a part not only of this early sorority of sisters in Luke 8 but as one of those who was there to witness the empty tomb.

Then third, and she'll only get a few seconds of this sermon, is Susanna who is mentioned only here, and we know nothing more about her.

Finally, we get this sentence, the second clause of verse 3 and it says, “and many others who were ministering to them from their possessions.” So, you have Mary, you have Joanna, you have Susanna and then many others who were ministering to them from their possessions. If you've ever wondered how Jesus in His humanity managed to support His three-year itinerant ministry, I think we're given a clue here that like you see in the book of Acts where people were coming around and supporting one another, something here is also happening to that effect where people witnessing Jesus's ministry, seeing the spiritual good He is doing decided to support Him and His followers, providing for their basic material needs.

What we've seen this morning in this short little three-verse interlude here in Luke's Gospel is that Jesus ministered not only to women but with women. That's what we're seeing here coming off the page in verses 1-3. We see that also in other parts of Luke, we see that in other Gospel accounts and we see that elsewhere in the New Testament. In fact, we see many other women mentioned who the Lord encountered either directly or through His apostles. And then we see these women who are used mightily of the Lord in their service to Him. I don't have time to take you there, but we have Tabitha in Acts 9, Lydia in Acts 16, Priscilla in Acts 18, Phoebe in Romans 16, Euodia and Syntyche in Philippians 4, Lois and Eunice in Timothy's family tree in II Timothy 1. The Lord has always conscripted women for His service.

Now I could end right there but I think I'd be doing a disservice as I think there's a question that's rolling around at least in some of your minds right now as we look at these Biblical examples from the Gospels and also as I just rattled off some examples of women from the book of Acts. The question I think that rolls around in people's minds is: does this mean then that in our day, in the church age, that women must be allowed to do all the things that men do both in and outside the church. I mean, that's the argument that will commonly be made. You just said, Jesse, I mean, Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Susanna, look at all the things they were doing. We know that Priscilla corrected Apollos on his interpretation of the Scriptures. And Anna, a prophetess? Hello. Right? Well, what do you do then about I Timothy 2:11-12 which will not be preached in certain churches. “A woman must learn in quietness, in all submission. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.” What do you do about I Timothy 3:1, “If any man aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a good work.” The Scriptures are clear. In Jesus's day, in the apostolic era, before we had the completed canon of Scripture there was a revolutionary spirit in Jesus in the dignity that He accorded to women. There's no doubt about it. The ministry that He did for them, the ministry that He did alongside them was counter cultural in the context in which He lived and ministered. But the Scriptures are also clear that Jesus today in building His church, that is the spiritual organism through which the Gospel is preached, and His Word goes out today, He does draw certain distinctions in His Word. Though salvation, no question, is made equally available to men and women alike, that's Galatians 3:28, though women we know, like men, I Peter 3:7, are “fellow heirs of the grace of life,” though there is equal dignity and worth and value between a male follower of Christ and a female follower of Christ, God still does, as He has always done, still draw distinctions between them, distinctions which actually highlight the unique dignity that He assigns to both.

I know this will sound quite controversial in our day, but just as a man doesn't have a uterus and therefore cannot get pregnant and cannot be a mother, a woman cannot be a husband and therefore cannot be a husband of one wife and therefore cannot be a pastor. Women, along with men are pinnacles of God's creation. That's back to Genesis 1:27, but women and men are different. That's so simple, I can't believe I have to say that as though it's this profound statement, that men and women are different. But that is ultimately a praise to the diversity and the creativity of our God's design for both. I wish I could go 40 more minutes on that, I can't, we're out of time. Next Sunday morning we'll pick it up in Luke 8:4 with the Parable of the Sower.

Father, thank You so much for this time this morning to look at Your grand and glorious design for women. We thank You for the ways in which women were used and ministered alongside our Lord Jesus while He walked this earth. We thank You and praise You for Your design for women in the church age in which we live today. God, I pray that ultimately, we would each be humble in the sight of Your Word and realize that You are God and we are not, that You are all wise and we are not and that Your design is perfect and our preferences are not. Help us, God, to be obedient followers, joyful followers, including in the ways You designed how men and women would function. Thank You again for this glorious day of worship, the testimonies of baptism, the music, the preaching of the Word. May You be honored and glorified through the rest of our day. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.