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What is the Bible? Part 58: Who paid Jesus’s bills?

After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, 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. 
-Luke 8

There is so much here, where do we start?

First, Jesus rolled deep. 
The literal Greek word here is posse. (I couldn’t resist.)

As Jesus went from town to town, he was accompanied by a large group of people, both men and women. The disciples were referred to as the twelve. (Get it? There were twelve tribes of Israel, and Jesus is calling Israel back to her roots and mission, and so he starts by surrounding himself with…twelve.) And then a group of women…

These women helped pay the bills.
When the check for the meal came to the table for this large group, it was the women who took care of it. (For the record, do you see how crazy it is when churches don’t allow women to do certain things like lead or teach or preach or be elders or priests? This movement started with women not only being fully empowered participants but bankrolling the ministry. How insane is it when a church has a list of what women can and can’t do?)

These women had fascinating stories.
Like Mary Magdalene, who had previously been possessed by seven demons. (Someone counted.) Can you imagine her perspective on things? You can feel Luke’s perspective in a line like that, can’t you? He wants you to see what Jesus was about, what he’s doing, the kind of people he attracted-the kind of people this message is for…

And then there’s Joanna…
Ah yes, Joanna. 
Who is Joanna again? 
Oh yes, the wife of Chuza. 
And who is Chuza? 

The manager of Herod’s Household!

Now that is a bomb, dropped right there in the middle of the paragraph.
Why?

A little background: Herod the Great was the king of the land who died around the year 4. He was a towering figure who dominated the socio-political landscape for years, building massive palaces and theaters and fortresses and killing lots of people. (He’s the one who ordered the execution of those children when Jesus was born.) When he died, Rome decided to divide his kingdom among his sons. Philip got the east, Herod Antipas got the Galilee, and Archelaus got Judea which included Jerusalem. Archelaus quickly made a mess of things and was ultimately replaced by a Roman governor named…Pilate. (Yes, that Pilate.)

So when Jesus came on the scene, Herod Antipas was the ruler of the Galilee. And Herod Antipas was a very, very rich man. He owned lots of land and had palaces and guards and servants and a massive household, the biggest in the country. 

And who managed this king’s household?
Chuza.

So Chuza would have been responsible for a massive amount of wealth which would have brought him wealth. He shares this wealth with his wife, who is traveling with an itinerant rabbi and his formerly demon possessed friend, among others, paying the bills. 

Let’s pause for a moment and let that sink in: Joanna would have been the elite. Her husband is the president’s chief of staff. That’s lavish banquets that go on for hours with singers and dancers. That’s various homes scattered around the country. That’s the best clothes, the best art, the best furniture…

That’s a life she apparently doesn’t find that interesting because she’s sharing a room at the Motel6 in Cana with Mary Who Used To Have Seven Demons. She’s sitting around the dinner table with small town fisherman who would probably been in their late teens, early twenties.
She’s hanging out with lepers.  

Everybody has a story, don’t they? 

Now, one more detail: Notice this verse from Luke 13:
At this time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him 

“Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.”

Now, let’s connect all the dots:

Herod 
wants Jesus killed because
Jesus is proclaiming a kingdom other than Herod’s and that makes Jesus a threat-
Jesus is able to travel around giving this message
because there are a group of women who travel with him and pay his bills, including a woman named Joanna who pays his bills whose husband just happens to be the household manager for…
Herod. 

Herod, in other words,
ends up indirectly funding the very thing he’s trying to stamp out.

All that, in a little paragraph is the eighth chapter of one of the gospels… 

Next: Sin. With a period.

Start at Part 1 of this Series