A HARMONY OF THE GOSPELS

Q. The Sanctifying Witness Of Other Women About Jesus

(Luke 8:1-3)

I. Introduction

A. Since Luke 7:36-50 presents Christ’s great impact on a sinful prostitute, the reader might conclude that Jesus ministered on a purely carnal level to vulnerable women in His ministry to affect such a woman like He did.

B. To counter such a conclusion, Luke in Luke 8:1-3 testified of Christ’s impact on a wide variety of other women in addition to His disciples, people of various ranks and backgrounds, demonstrating the truly spiritual nature of His ministry to Israel as God Incarnate.

C. We thus view Luke 8:1-3 for our insight, application and edification (as follows):

II. The Sanctifying Witness Of Other Women About Jesus, Luke 8:1-3.

A. It is unfortunate that there is a chapter break in the English Bible between Christ’s ministry to the sinful prostitute in Luke 7:36-50 and Luke 8:1-3, for the autograph text readily flowed from one passage to the other.

B. Accordingly, Luke sensed that the display of intense emotion by the prostitute in Luke 7:37-38 and Jesus’ moving response in telling her that she had been saved by faith and that her sins were forgiven in Luke 7:48-50 might be interpreted by the reader that Jesus’ influence on the sinful woman was just a natural one, that He as a dominant male man had influenced a vulnerable woman, that no true spiritual discipleship had occurred.

C. To dismiss that idea, Luke told of Jesus’ spiritual impact on many other women of various ranks, Luke 8:1-3:

1. The Greek word rendered “afterward” in Luke 8:1 KJV is kathexes, meaning “in orderly sequence” (Arndt & Gingrich, A Grk.-Eng. Lex. of the N. T., 1967, p. 389), so in Luke 8:1, Luke implied that right after Christ’s interaction with the sinful prostitute in Luke 7:36-50, He returned to His regular ministry begun back in Luke 4:14-16 of going throughout every city and village in Israel, preaching the good news of the kingdom of God with His twelve disciples following along after Him.

2. Furthermore, Jesus’ ministry to the Luke 7 sinful prostitute was just one ministry to a host of other women who were in dire need as had been the sinful prostitute, and some of them were of the nobility, Luke 8:2-3:

a. Certain women who were healed of evil spirits and illnesses followed Jesus and His disciples, Luke 8:2a.

b. Luke then named and described details about some of them in Luke 8:2b-3c:

i. One of these women was Mary Magdalene out of whom Jesus had cast seven demons, Luke 8:2b. Dan Brown’s book, The Da Vinci Code claimed that “she is the wife of Jesus and the mother of His children, and that is a secret the church wanted to cover up to protect the divinity of Jesus. In the novel, she also is directly associated with the Holy Grail. The association with the Grail comes through the idea of Holy Blood and its bloodline (p. 250), the Sangreal. A word play on the term Sang Real gets us to a connection to the Holy Grail. The hypothesis is that the story of the Holy Grail really points to the holy bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene coming into France” (Darrell L. Bock, Breaking The Da Vinci Code, 2004, p. 13). However, the presence of the other women and Jesus’ disciples counters the view of a marital union between Mary Magdalene and Jesus, that Mary along with many other women was devoted to Jesus due to His deliverance of her.

ii. Another woman named Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod Antipas’ steward, a woman of obvious nobility in contrast to the formerly demon-possessed Mary Magdalene, was another woman whose life had been greatly impacted by Jesus, and she also followed Him His ministry, Luke 8:3a.

iii. Still another woman who followed Jesus was Susanna, Luke 8:3b. By implication she was another woman of nobility like Joanna whose life had been transformed by Christ’s work, so she and Joanna represented women of high rank along with Mary Magdalene who was of lower rank.

iv. In addition, Luke claimed that many other women of various ranks followed, and they ministered unto Jesus and the twelve disciples out of their finances, Luke 8:3c. “This would have been viewed as a scandalous situation in Palestine in that day,” but “like the forgiven woman (7:36-50), these women had also been forgiven much and they loved much. They were responding positively to Jesus’ message about His kingdom” (Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 224-224).

Lesson: Many women of various ranks whose lives were transformed by Jesus followed and supported Him.

Application: (1) May we believe that Jesus’ ministry was just as holy as it was powerful in salvaging the lives of all kinds of people. (2) May we rely on Him and His power to transform our lives regardless of our spiritual needs.