URC Daily Devotion 3rd January 2025
St Luke 8: 1 – 3
Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.
Reflection
I recently went to Dublin, and visited an exhibition of Biblical scrolls found in Egypt. Part of the exhibition discussed errors that crept into the Bible, and how comparison of multiple ancient manuscripts can help us to identify them. In some cases, the text was even intentionally changed.
One of the errors we might spot in our Bibles today is a passage in Romans 16, which describes a woman called Junia, ‘outstanding (or prominent/of note) among the apostles’. Some scholars believe that the Junia mentioned in Romans is the same person as the Joanna we meet here in Luke, one name being her Hebrew name and the other her Roman name. After the Reformation, some considered it so scandalous that the Bible might be describing a female apostle, that they changed her name to Junias, and said she was a man. Junia’s renaming and misgendering occupied a prominent place in the Dublin exhibition.
Today’s passage from Luke reveals a truth about the ministry of Jesus and the early Christian Church: women were important. In Luke we meet some of the women who spent time with Jesus, as well as caring materially for the work ‘out of their resources’. Without the influential and generous women of the first century, the early Church would have struggled. As well as the women we’ve already named, there’s Phoebe – a deacon who was a benefactor and protector of many, Priscilla the missionary, Nympha – who had a house church, and many more.
In the Church today there are many women who serve us as ministers and elders, as well as those who are generous with their time, resources, skills and care in other ways. May we be grateful for all the women, past and present, who have led, served, supported and inspired us.
Prayer
God,
We thank you for the women who cared for Jesus,
who led the early Church, and who inspire us today.
We pray for the women in the wider Church
and in society who have yet to achieve true equality.
We pray for everyone working to build a bigger table,
in which we acknowledge and nurture the gifts of all people.
We pray in the name of Jesus,
who treated women with profound respect. Amen