Joanna’s Choice

Joanna’s Choice

Tonight I want to give the women their due, whose report of the angelic messengers’ announcement of the Resurrection was dismissed by the men as an “idle tale,” or more bluntly, “nonsense.” In the Orthodox Church, the Second Sunday of Easter is focused on the Myrrh-bearers, of which we know by name: Mary Magdalene, Salome, mother of St. James the Son of Zebedee and one of our patrons, Mary the wife of Clopas and sister of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mary the mother of the other Apostle named James, and finally Joanna. They stood with Jesus at the cross; they waited with Jesus’s corpse, and were prepared to keep vigil at Jesus’s tomb. Tonight I especially want to speak of Joanna; mainly because she is mentioned elsewhere in Luke’s Gospel, and she might also be mentioned in Paul’s Letter to the Romans.

In chapter 8, Luke identifies her as the wife of Chuza, the household manager of Herod, the same Herod Antipas who the Roman Emperor had installed as Tetrarch of Galilee, who had executed John the Baptist, who had wanted a magic show from Jesus when Pilate sent him to Herod. As part of an arranged marriage, she likely brought a large dowry into her marriage with Chuza. And according to Luke, Joanna, along with Mary of Magdala, Susanna and “many others,” presumably women, financially supported Jesus and his itinerant apostles, from the Greek meaning, “one who is sent.”

In our reading from Luke, Joanna also became an apostle, when she, Mary, and Salome, delivered the angelic messengers’ news to the other disciples and apostles who refused to believe the women. To be an apostle is to be someone “sent” to spread the Good News of the risen Christ whatever obstacles there may be of skepticism, incredulity, disbelief, even hostility and hatred.

Once Joanna embraced her call to be an apostle of the Good News of Jesus’s resurrection, that call would have strained her relationship with Herod’s household manager to the breaking point as the early Church became more conflicted with the Jewish leadership.

Which brings us to the 16th chapter of Paul’s Letter to the Romans, written at least 25 years after the Resurrection. Ingratiating himself to a church that he actually didn’t start himself, Paul greets every possible member of the Church in Rome that he knows, including “Andronicus and Junia, my fellow-countrymen and comrades in captivity, who are eminent among the apostles and were Christians before I was.” This husband and wife team are fellow Jews; they were not just disciples but apostles, and being Christians before Paul, they would have had to be among Jesus’s earliest followers.

Junia is the Latin equivalent to the Hebrew Joanna, as Saul became Paul when he moved into the more Latin-speaking parts of the Roman Empire. Several scholars that I consider highly credible have subscribed to this theory of Joanna and Junia being the same woman. In a more speculative vein, it’s been suggested that Andronicus might be Andrew the brother of Simon Peter.

I believe that Joanna was called by Jesus to be a disciple and student of the Good News, and then through God’s messengers, called to be an apostle of that Good News, which was first dismissed as nonsense. I believe that Joanna had to make a choice between the status quo of hoarding power and wealth, force and fear, and the Good News of love, of justice, of truth, and of mercy, revealed in the crucified Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed Liberating King, Jesus of Nazareth. With that choice came disbelief, harassment, even captivity. But with that choice also came comrades in love.

That was the choice made by Joanna/Junia. I presume you understand that by following those faithful women in the darkness to the empty tomb, and by renewing our baptismal Covenant with God and each other, we have made that choice. Who knows what disbelief, harassment, or captivity may come of that choice. But there will also be comrades in love. Let Joanna’s choice be yours this Easter night.

April 19th, 2025

Easter Vigil

The Rev. David Kendrick