The Kingdom's Supply Lines: Luke 8:1-3
Introduction: The King and His Unlikely Courtiers
The modern world, and sadly much of the modern church, is deeply confused about the nature of Christ's kingdom. Many treat it as a sentimental, ethereal concept, a floaty feeling in the heart, disconnected from the grit and grime of actual history. Others see it as a future, far-off reality, something to be hoped for after the great escape, but with little bearing on how we conduct our business now. But the Lord Jesus Christ did not preach a kingdom of wispy platitudes. He preached the kingdom of God, a concrete, historical, advancing reality that makes tangible claims on every square inch of creation, including our bank accounts.
When Jesus began His public ministry, He announced that the kingdom of God was "at hand." This was not the proclamation of a new philosophy club. It was the announcement of an invasion, a D-Day for the cosmos. The rightful king had landed and was taking back His territory from the usurper. And like any king on a military campaign, He had an entourage, a traveling court. He had His general staff, the twelve apostles. But as Luke takes pains to show us here, the kingdom's advance was not funded by ethereal goodwill. It was funded by grateful, redeemed sinners who put their money where their miracle was.
This little passage in Luke is a revolutionary one. In the ancient world, respectable women, particularly women of means, did not traipse around the countryside following an itinerant preacher. It was simply not done. But the kingdom of God has a habit of overturning the world's tidy, respectable categories. Christ's kingdom is not built with the world's power players. It is built with forgiven sinners. It is not financed by Caesar's treasury but by the free-will offerings of those who have been liberated from the deepest kind of bondage. This passage shows us the engine room of the gospel advance. It demonstrates that from the very beginning, the work of the kingdom was a partnership, a beautiful and complementary union of apostolic preaching and the practical, gritty support of redeemed discipleship.
Here we see the King establishing His beachhead, not with legions and swords, but with the Word of God. And we see that His supply lines were not maintained by angels, but by a band of women who had been brought from the deepest darkness into His marvelous light. Their story is our story. Their gratitude must be our gratitude. And their service is a pattern for all who would claim to be subjects of the King.
The Text
And it happened that soon afterward He was going around from one city and village to another, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with Him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses: Mary who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s manager, and Susanna, and many others who were ministering to them from their possessions.
(Luke 8:1-3 LSB)
The King's Proclamation (v. 1)
We begin with the central activity of our Lord's ministry:
"And it happened that soon afterward He was going around from one city and village to another, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with Him..." (Luke 8:1)
Notice the relentless, itinerant nature of Jesus' work. He was "going around," from city to village. This is not a static, defensive posture. This is a victorious, offensive campaign. The kingdom of God is not a fortress to be defended; it is a seed that grows, a leaven that spreads, an army on the march. Jesus is taking the fight to the enemy, invading one town after another with the truth.
And what is His weapon? It is the Word. He is "preaching and proclaiming." The gospel is not a suggestion; it is a proclamation, a royal announcement. The Greek word for proclaiming is kerusso, which means to herald, to announce as a king's messenger. Jesus is the ultimate herald, announcing the good news, the evangelion, of the kingdom. And what is this good news? It is that God is King, that His reign has come to earth in the person of His Son, and that through repentance and faith, men can be transferred from the kingdom of darkness into this glorious kingdom of light.
This kingdom is not just a future hope; it is a present reality. Jesus is not just telling people how to get to heaven when they die. He is teaching them how to live under God's rule right now, on earth as it is in heaven. This is the foundation of our postmillennial hope. The Great Commission is not a desperate rescue mission to pull a few souls from a sinking ship. It is the marching order for the victorious church to disciple the nations, teaching them to obey everything Christ commanded. What we see Jesus doing here in Galilee is the beginning of a process that will not stop until the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea.
And He is not alone. "The twelve were with Him." These are His chosen officers, the apostles, the foundation stones of the New Covenant community. He is training them, preparing them to carry on this work of proclamation after He has ascended. The kingdom is personal, but it is not individualistic. It is a corporate reality, a body, a church. Jesus establishes His leadership structure from the beginning.
The Kingdom's Benefactors (v. 2-3a)
But the apostolic band was not the whole entourage. Luke, who consistently elevates the status and dignity of women in his gospel, immediately introduces us to another crucial group.
"...and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses: Mary who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s manager, and Susanna..." (Luke 8:2-3a)
Here we see the raw material that Christ builds His kingdom with. He does not recruit the self-sufficient, the righteous, or the powerful. He recruits the broken, the sick, and the demonized. These women were not following Jesus because it was a fashionable cause. They were following Him out of profound, life-altering gratitude. They had been personally and powerfully delivered from the clutches of the enemy.
Mary Magdalene is listed first, and her condition was severe. "Seven demons had gone out" from her. In Scripture, the number seven often indicates completeness or perfection. This was a case of total demonic oppression. We are not told the exact nature of this bondage, though popular tradition has often associated her with sexual sin. While that is possible, the text does not require it. What is certain is that she was in a state of utter spiritual ruin, a captive of the enemy. And Jesus, with a word, set her completely free. Her devotion to Christ, mentioned fourteen times in the gospels, flows directly from this radical deliverance. She is a living, breathing picture of the church, the bride of Christ, rescued from utter degradation to become a follower and worshiper of the King.
Then we have Joanna. And here we see the reach of the gospel into the strangest of places. She was "the wife of Chuza, Herod's manager." This is Herod Antipas, the corrupt tetrarch who would later mock Jesus and have John the Baptist beheaded. Chuza was his steward, a high-ranking official in that wicked court. Imagine the courage of this woman. Her husband works for the enemy, for a petty tyrant who is a pawn of Rome, and yet her allegiance is to the true King. Her presence in this group demonstrates that the gospel infiltrates every level of society. No institution, no matter how corrupt, is beyond the reach of the kingdom's advance. The light of the gospel was shining even in the dark, snake-pit of Herod's palace.
And then there is Susanna. We know nothing else about her, which is itself a beautiful lesson. She is simply named as one who was there, one who was healed, and one who served. The kingdom of God is full of countless Susannas, faithful saints whose names are not famous in this world, but who are known and cherished by the King they serve. Their reward is not earthly fame, but the joy of knowing their names are written in the Lamb's book of life.
The Kingdom's Economics (v. 3b)
Finally, Luke tells us the specific nature of these women's contribution to the kingdom's advance.
"...and many others who were ministering to them from their possessions." (Genesis 8:3b)
This is the punchline. These women, and many others unnamed, were the financial backers of Jesus's ministry. The word for "ministering" is the Greek verb diakoneo, from which we get our word "deacon." It means to serve, to wait on, to provide for practical needs. This was not a formal, ordained office, as the office of deacon would later be. But it was a true diaconal ministry. They were serving the Lord and His apostles by providing for their food, lodging, and other necessities from their own resources.
This is God's ordained pattern for financing His kingdom. The ministry of the Word is to be supported by the material generosity of those who benefit from it. Paul would later argue this same principle at length: "the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel" (1 Corinthians 9:14). These women understood this instinctively. Their hearts, overflowing with gratitude for their salvation, naturally led to open hands. They had been given everything in Christ, so they gladly gave back a portion of what God had entrusted to them.
Notice the phrase "from their possessions." At least some of these women, like Joanna, were women of considerable means. God is not against wealth. He is against the love of money. Here we see wealth being sanctified, put to its proper use, which is the advancement of the kingdom. These women were making friends for themselves in eternity by means of unrighteous mammon, just as Jesus would later teach. They were converting their earthly treasure into eternal treasure. Their generosity was not a transaction to earn favor, but a joyful, grateful response to grace already received. They were not giving to be saved; they were giving because they were saved.
Conclusion: Gratitude in Action
This passage is a profound rebuke to our modern, feminized notions of ministry and our compartmentalized piety. First, it shows us the proper role of women ministering in the cause of the gospel. These women were not seeking to be apostles. They were not trying to preach or exercise authority. They were engaged in glorious, essential, and deeply feminine work of support, provision, and service. They were the logistical backbone of the gospel campaign. This is not a lesser role; it is a different role, one assigned by God and essential for victory. A biblical patriarchy does not silence or sideline women; it honors their distinct contributions and protects them so they can flourish in their God-given design.
Second, this passage demolishes any notion that our faith can be separated from our finances. Discipleship costs something. Following Jesus means putting all that we are, and all that we have, at His disposal. Our checkbooks are a theological document. They reveal who or what we truly worship. These women worshiped the one who had healed them, and their giving was an act of worship, a fragrant offering to the King.
The principle remains today. The work of preaching the gospel, of discipling the nations, of building Christian culture, requires resources. It requires the cheerful, sacrificial, and generous giving of God's people. And the motivation is always the same: gratitude. Have you been healed? Have you been rescued from darkness, from sickness, from the dominion of demons, whether seven or seventy? Has the King proclaimed the good news of the kingdom in your heart? If so, then the only sane and logical response is to say, "All that I have is yours." The question is not how much of our money we should give to God, but how much of God's money we should keep for ourselves. May we, like Mary, Joanna, and Susanna, be known as those who ministered to the King from our possessions, fueling the advance of His unconquerable kingdom.