Joanna: Wife Of Cuza Series

Joanna: wife of Cuza

Luke 8:1-3.

The teaching of Jesus for today is a radical call to live and think and feel in a way that is counter-cultural; i.e., that radically contradicts the prevailing culture within which we live. The lives we are to live are, however, a continuation of the spirit of those men and women who followed Him around Palestine 2000 years ago. They, too, were counter-cultural in their following of Him; they too walked out against the wind of prevailing wisdom and the expectations of those around them.

When we turn to study Joanna, we find ourselves right up against an example of this. Lk. 8:3 implies that the women who followed Jesus, and Joanna is named as one of these, basically supplied the funds and material backing for His mission.

The male disciples had left their homes and their families were expected to manage economically without them, whilst they followed the Lord around Palestine. The group who followed Jesus were generally poor. Yet their expenses were being met by these few wealthy women.

Generally, the man was seen as the economic supporter of the family. It must have been hard for those men to accept the ministrations of Joanna and of the other women for them. It was almost a sociological impossibility that wealthy women should support men in such an itinerant lifestyle. But this was just the kind of inversion of values which Jesus sought to inculcate in the new community which He forged. Further, the wealthy simply didn’t mix with the lower classes; it was unthinkable for a woman to go travelling around with a group of lower class men , and added to that some of the women were former prostitutes. It could only have been the compelling personality of Jesus which led Joanna to do something as scandalous as she did.

Joanna is introduced as “the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza” (Lk. 8:3). Yet as a married woman the right to dispose of her money and goods lay not with her but with her husband; and it’s unlikely that a man of such great social rank as Chuza would have allowed his wife to use his wealth like this. And not only this for his wife to go wandering around the country with a band of men was unthinkable. Thus if Joanna was married at this time, she braved public condemnation by leaving her husband to follow Jesus.

The Jewish rabbis taught that women should not socialize with men who were not their relatives, much less travel with them. In fact, Jewish men were to say little to women. Disregarding such traditions, Jesus allowed Joanna and the other believing women to accompany His group.

All who set out with Jesus had to be prepared to make adjustments in their everyday life. Regarding such followers, though, Jesus said: “My mother and my brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.” (Luke 8:19-21; 18:28-30)

“From their belongings,” Joanna and many other women ministered to Jesus and the Twelve. (Luke 8:3) Luke is not telling his readers that the women cooked the meals, washed the dishes, and mended the clothes . Perhaps they did . . . , but it is not what Luke says..

Neither Jesus nor his apostles did secular work during their preaching tours. Hence, they probably did not have the means to pay for all the food and other things needed by a group of perhaps 20 people. Although they may have been received hospitality, the fact that Christ and his apostles carried a “money box” suggests that they did not always rely on hospitality. (John 12:6; 13:28, 29) .

A question arises how did these women especially Joanna - a married woman- fund Jesus' ministry.

Contemporary texts indicate that among the Jews, a woman may have acquired resources in various ways:

(1) as an inheritance if her father died without sons,

(2) as property given to her,

(3) as money stipulated in a marriage contract as due her in case of divorce -ketubah

(4) as maintenance from a deceased husband’s estate, or

(5) as personal earnings.

Someone like her may have provided the expensive seamless garment that Jesus wore. This was an item that fishermen’s wives could not have supplied.—John 19:23, 24.

It is hard to understand, how Joanna got the right to use wealth in the way that she did. Perhaps she simply left her husband and insisted on taking some of their wealth with her. Perhaps he was supportive; but at such an early stage in the Lord’s ministry, this seems to me unlikely. However we have the story of the royal official in John 4 where the entire family believed. Even if a woman made money from her own business, the money would be under the control of her husband. So we are left with the question, from where did Joanna get her money?