No Matter the Cost
Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 2 Corinthians 9:13
As the wife of Chuza, King Herod’s financial manager, Joanna had status and influence. Yet she chose to step away from her comfortable life to travel with Jesus and his disciples.
What motivated her to do so? Jesus had cured her of either evil spirits or a disease, Luke explains (8:2–3). He also says she and some other women “were helping to support” Jesus and those who traveled with him “out of their own means” (8:3). The Greek word translated “means” refers to material possessions, such as money and property. The Amplified Bible says, “support out of their private means [as was the custom for a rabbi’s disciples].”[i]
Jesus’s impact on Joanna’s life must have been profound, for she seemed willing to do anything to serve the One who had healed her. She began to travel with Jesus early in his ministry. She was still serving him after he had been crucified, for Joanna was with the group of women who went to the tomb to anoint Jesus’s body. They were the first who heard that Jesus had risen and then hurried to tell the disciples (Luke 24:9–10).
Joanna’s joyous revelation to the disciples may have been only the first instance of her bold witness of the risen Christ. “Tradition has it that Chuza lost his position in Herod’s palace because of his wife’s conversion to Christianity and her courageous testimony among Herod’s servants.”[ii]
Jesus is no respecter of persons. He welcomes the rich and the poor, the sick and the well, the powerful and the powerless. All he asks in return is that we be devoted to him.
How many times did Joanna hear Jesus say, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me”? (Matthew 16:24). She willingly laid aside all that her culture deemed significant and fulfilling. She chose to follow Jesus instead.
How willing are we to follow her example?
Dig Deeper
Read Matthew 16:24–27. What is the cost of discipleship? What are the rewards? How fully committed to discipleship are you?
Joanna and the other women were generous with their time, skills, and money. What does Paul say about generosity in 2 Corinthians 9:6–15? How are you living out this teaching?
Read Luke 24:10–12. Verse 11 says that the Eleven and all the others didn’t believe Joanna and the other women “because their words seemed to them like nonsense.” Do other people consider what you say about Jesus “nonsense”? How do you respond to that kind of criticism?
Denise K. Loock
This devotion is included in our most recent collection of devotions, Restore the Significance.
[i] Luke 8:3, The Amplified Bible, Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA 90631. All rights reserved. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%208:2-4&version=AMP.
[ii] Herbert Lockyer, All the Women of the Bible, p. 78.