Joanna

Joanna is often a forgotten disciple of Christ.  You don’t hear much about her and today I want to take a look at her and give her some recognition and focus.

We first see Joanna in Luke 8:2-3

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.

Here we see that Jesus cured several women of “evil spirits and diseases”.  We don’t know what Jesus specifically cured her of but I believe that is on purpose?   I think several times the Bible is general on purpose.  That is what makes it timeless.  It helps us relate.  Do we have “evil spirits or diseases” in our own life? This can be anxiety, addictions, hatred, envy, pride, the list can go on and on.  If Jesus cured these for Joanna, it shows that he can cure them for us too.  You just need to pray and be specific to God on what your needs are for him to help heal you.

After Joanna is healed by Jesus, she becomes a disciple and follower of Jesus.  She leaves her life behind to follow him.  I think this is very important to see her leave her life behind and follow him.  We see she is a wife, so to leave her husband to follow Jesus is significant.  When I started writing about Joanna, I asked several of my Christian friends their thoughts on this.  Most of them said, of course she would leave everything behind, she was filled with demons..  While I agree with that thought, there is another way to view this story.  She was filled with demons and had a husband.  Wouldn’t it be more tempting to stay there and have a new lease on life?  For me, I think that showed that Joanna following Jesus was a bigger step for her than we might have thought about.

The second and last time we see Joanna is on the third and most remarkable day after the crucifixion of Christ, the morning he rose from the dead.  It is interesting to me how popular this passage is in our world but Joanna is overlooked.

Luke 24:9-12

“Then they returned from the tomb and announced all these things to the eleven and to all the others. The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James; the others who accompanied them also told this to the apostles, but their story seemed like nonsense and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb, bent down, and saw the burial cloths alone; then he went home amazed at what had happened.”

Joanna is right there as one of the first people to see the tomb empty and to know that Christ rose from the dead.  What an honor!  Can you imagine what is going through her head at this point? Her initial intent was to take spices and mourn his death but they see the stone rolled away?  Something was happening, was His body stolen, could she imagine how much her life was going to change adn the impact that she was going to have?  Not at this time. I imagine she was scared and confused, but let’s remember why she was there in the first place - her love for Christ.  Now she needed to put her full faith in place for the upcoming events.  Let’s read Luke 24:1-3

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body.

Now what has always fascinated me about this story is that they were taking spices to his body yet it was a guarded tomb with soldiers and a huge stone was there.  How did they think they would get to see his body?  Have you ever thought about that?  Christ said he would rise again but I don’t think they fully comprehended what that meant until after the fact.  Why were they bringing spices?  

In Jewish tradition, the use of spices after a death, particularly during the burial process, is primarily to mask the odor of decomposition as Jews did not practice full body embalming; essentially, it was a way to honor the deceased by covering unpleasant smells with fragrant herbs and spices, signifying respect and care for the body even in death.  In more symbolic terms, Beyond practical purposes, the use of spices also symbolized the sweet fragrance of a good life and the hope for a spiritual afterlife.

To add additional color here, one of the most popular spices for burial is Myrrh.  Myrrh was used to embalm dead bodies. Its antibacterial properties helped prevent the body from deteriorating.  Remember when Jesus was born?  The 3 gifts from the wise men when Jesus was born were Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh.  Isn’t Myrrh an odd choice for a gift for a baby?  These gifts were symbolic and Myrrh represented His death for our sins.

Back to the lead in our story, Joanna.  Christ healed her of evil spirits, she immediately followed Him and she served Him and loved Him to His death and after and she was there at one of the most amazing times in history when Christ rose from the dead! I have no doubt that her testimony about his resurrection moved many people to believe it during her time.

What can we learn from Joanna?  Staying loyal to Christ for all he has done for us and telling everyone we know about his glorious resurrection!  How can we do that?  Connect with others at work or school.  Taking that leap of faith to bring people to Christ is not easy.  Start by praying for them, invite them to church, buy them a Bible, send them a Christian song or story.  Take that leap of faith like Joanna did.

Remember due to her husband’s position in the household of Herod Antipas, Joanna lived a life of wealth.  She may have helped fund Christ and the disciples.  Giving what we can to our church and ministry is important but Joanna also showed us that giving of her time was just as important.  She spent her life being a disciple of Christ.

At the end of the day, Joanna served Christ and that is what we can learn from her.  There are multiple verses in scripture about serving.  

Deuteronomy 10:12: "Serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul". 

Joshua 24:15: "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord". 

Romans 12:11: "Serve the Lord". 

Memorize one of these today and apply it to your life.