The company of women who risk following Jesus

Morning: Psalms 140, 142; Micah 3:9-4:5; Acts 24:24 – 25:12

Evening: Psalms 141, 143:1-11; Luke 8:1-15

Among Jesus’s followers are women: Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Chuza and Susanna. For women to risk following him is shocking for Jesus’s culture. Yet his teaching takes root and bears fruit in the lives of women. Many cultures exclude women from leadership or significant roles in their societies, but Jesus calls women perhaps as much as he calls men, expecting their lives to bear fruit for God. Jesus’s own male-dominated culture does not celebrate female leadership any more than our culture does. However, both then and now, women are central figures in the Jesus movement, often “bearing fruit with patient endurance”.