Luke 8:1-8: a reflection

1Soon afterwards, he went about through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good news of God’s Kingdom. With him were the twelve, 2and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out; 3and Joanna, the wife of Chuzas, Herod’s steward; Susanna; and many others who served them from their possessions. 4When a great multitude came together and people from every city were coming to him, he spoke by a parable: 5“The farmer went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell along the road, and it was trampled under foot, and the birds of the sky devoured it. 6Some seed fell on the rock, and as soon as it grew, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7Some fell amid the thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. 8Some fell into the good ground and grew and produced one hundred times as much fruit.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

As Jesus travels through towns and villages preaching the good news, Luke pauses to name a group often overlooked: the women who traveled with him and the twelve. Some had been healed by Jesus, like Mary Magdalene, freed from deep torment, and Joanna, the wife of a royal official. And Luke notes that they, along with many others, served Jesus and the disciples out of their own resources. These women supported the whole ministry from their own means.

There is quiet beauty in this. These women had received much from Jesus, healing, deliverance, restoration, and their gratitude took the practical form of generous support. They did not merely feel thankful; they gave, funding the work of the gospel out of their own possessions. Luke thought it worth recording their names and their service, because their generous gratitude was an essential, if unglamorous, part of how the ministry of Jesus went forward.

Gratitude for what God has done is meant to become generosity. These women, having received grace, gave from what they had to support the work of the kingdom. Ask how your own thankfulness might take practical form. What has God done for you, healed, freed, restored, forgiven? Let that gratitude move you, as it moved them, to give generously of your resources to support his work. The quiet, faithful giving of grateful people is often what carries the gospel forward.

Lord, the women who had received healing and freedom from you served your ministry generously out of their own means, and their grateful giving carried your work forward. Let my gratitude for all you have done for me take that same practical shape. Show me how to give generously of my resources to support your work, and make my thankfulness overflow into faithful, quiet generosity. Amen.