Today, thanks to the vagaries of the Lectionary, our gospel reading jumps from the rather exciting Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem of yesterday to the beginning of Luke 8, and the pre-amble to the parable of the sower. In 3 verses, we’re told quite a lot:
Jesus is travelling from village to village proclaiming the Kingdom of God.
There are a lot of people with Him, including some women who have been cured/delivered of all sorts of things.
These women are supporting the men from their own means.
What is the meaning of the women supporting the men of their own means I wonder for us today? I think it speaks of the way that ministry in whatever form or sense, is a team sport. Jesus and the Disciples were the ones who were, perhaps, up front, but without the crowds who followed and supported them, continued ministry, perhaps even existence, would not have been possible. In all the fashionable arguments we find ourselves involved in about the validity of ministry of different sorts by different people and social groups, it is easy for us to forget that we need each other for this task of partnering in the growth of the Kingdom of God, the task with which we have been entrusted. In the diaconal role taken on by the women in this passage, we see Jesus turning upside down, as usual, the social conventions of His time and His culture. What a shame, if we as contemporary Christians become so pharisaical about our traditions and wonts that we forget the simplicity of giving our lives to, literally or figuratively, to travel from village to village proclaiming the Kingdom of God.
Who knows what tomorrow will bring?!