Mini: The Spy Who Funded Me
277 | “Mole in the Room”
Invest in the Kingdom With Joanna
Ever wonder how thirteen guys without jobs traveled around for three years without starving? We’re diving into the "shadow cabinet" of Jesus’ ministry to meet Joanna, the wife of Herod’s own household manager. It’s a story of "The Spy Who Funded Me," where we see God’s brilliant irony at work — using Herod’s resources to sustain the very Gospel he tried to suppress. But as we’ll see, Joanna wasn’t just a distant donor. She was a devoted disciple who stood by the cross and was among the first at the empty tomb. Let’s explore what it looks like to leverage our status for the Savior and find our true identity in following Him.
Takeaways
The Big Idea: Joanna’s story reveals how God uses even the most unlikely political and financial connections to sustain and advance the work of the gospel.
This Week's Challenge: Identify and reach out to an "unseen MVP" in your community whose behind-the-scenes service makes the mission possible.
-
Welcome and Setup
Bryan: you know, I won't I won't necessarily call her like the mole in the room or the, you know, this is kind of like leaning into the, the spy analogies here, Well, hello everyone and welcome to the Bible Geeks Podcast. I'm Bryan Schiele.
Ryan: I'm Ryan Joy.
Bryan: And thanks so much everyone for tuning in. You know, when we picture Jesus ministry. We usually see 13 dudes walking around the dusty fields with no money and no plan. But behind the scenes there was this sophisticated network of gospel protagonists making it all possible.
Ryan: Today, we are geeking out on Joanna, the woman who probably took Jared's money to pay for Jesus' lunch. It's time for a mini dive into what Bryan calls the shadow cabinet of the Friends and Followers Regional. I love that.
Meet Joanna
Bryan: The Spy who Funded Me. Okay, so Ryan, we are getting into a discussion about the Friends and Followers Regional. And boy, Uh, there are lots of women who were in Jesus' inner circle. Almost all of them were named Mary, as we've talked about uh, previously.
Ryan: The other, this is my friend Mary. This is my other friend Mary. This is also Mary.
is my mom,
Bryan: my mom? Mary. Okay, Uh, so one of the things that I think we talk a lot about, uh, especially on this uh, show, is kind of the, uh, the theology of the New Testament and of Jesus' life and everything. But I am a logistics guy, and I like to know like how we're gonna make all this stuff happen and how we're gonna make it go.
And I like planning and everything else. And one of the things logistically that we don't often talk about in Jesus' life is how on earth he was able to make all of this happen in his ministry for three years, traveling with a whole bunch of dudes and some ladies. Um, How did he do all of this without a job?
And so,
Um, you know, they weren't just like living on manna out there in the work that they were doing. God wasn't like sprinkling bread from heaven for them. But today I kind of wanted to talk about this, what I'm calling a shadow cabinet, here in uh, what might be one of the most politically connected people in the New Testament, this woman named Joanna, and uh, how she was able to fund what Jesus was up to.
Have you have you considered Joanna, Uh, my servant Joanna, as she is, uh, as she's talked about in Luke chapter
eight.
Ryan: I had never thought about this aspect and what it might mean before you put this note. I was
just looking at it this morning about what it means that she was supporting Jesus and along with some other women, right?
Susanna, Mary Magdalene, all of which Jesus had, it
seems like the way Luke puts it in Luke 8? it seems like Jesus had brought healing or cast out demons for maybe all of them,
but they'd all experienced Jesus transforming power, his goodness, their followers, disciples, and they are taking care of him. He has to eat.
He has to, and they're not just taking him into their
house like and Mary does.
They're bringing money and making sure that Judas has the pouch, right? The money bag.
Where did, how did that money bag get filled? Well, these ladies were a big part of
Luke 8 Patronage
Bryan: So let me just read this because I know this kind of falls under the radar, and that's really why I wanted to highlight Joanna hearing this story. But uh, Luke chapter eight, the first three verses says, "Soon afterward, he went on through the cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God."
So of course, that's the work he's doing. " and the 12 were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmity. so like you were saying, "Mary called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chua, Herod's household manager, and Susanna and many others who provided for them out of their means."
Herod Funds Jesus
Bryan: So we're zeroing in here on Joanna, who was, it says, "the wife of Chua, Herod's household manager." So, we learn about this woman, that her husband was basically working for Herod, and yes, you guessed it, that Herod. The Herod who winds up killing John the Baptist uh, in Luke 13. So, Herod is basically paying her husband, so she's taking her family's money, Joanna is, and funding Jesus with it.
So in a weird way, Herod is actually funding Jesus' ministry, and I don't know that I've ever really made that connection, but I, as I was looking through some of these sort of not really commonly known people that we picked for this Friends and Followers Regional, Joanna just like stood out to me as this uh, really politically intriguing figure in Jesus' early ministry.
Ryan: It's so interesting. I have so many questions and connections and everything. Thinking about how Simon the Zealot was dealing with her as
But she's this insider that knows, that she has connection. When she goes to her husband's work party,
right, she is hanging out with, you might say the enemy, I mean, but at the highest levels of power And so when you put this in, I started looking up a little bit, like what does this patronage idea mean and all of this supporting?
Wealth and Risk
Ryan: And I found that maybe about 10%, like one in 10 of the patronages that would happen where someone is supporting someone else, like this relationship, were from women in the culture. Very wealthy,
highly, high society women. But you would do that to, like strategically, right? You're like trying to create political connections, social advancement, but that is not at all what Joanne is doing
because there is no advancement.
This is like dangerous, it's the opposite. Her supporting him, who she's considering her teacher, her rabbi, who she's gonna follow, and it puts her at risk,
Bryan: Oh, and and like you were talking about there, wealthy women were often patrons, and of course they were you know, providing for others out of their means, and I just wanted to like highlight here how often Jesus talked about money, and how he talked about the the struggle that we have when the love of money takes over, and you know, more difficult than a camel going through the eye of a needle, those kinds of ideas.
Um, And for her to be such a well off person as she was, you know, politically connected and all of the things that she was, for her to use that in the way that she was, I mean, that is like, that's the ideal, right? That's what that's what I think Jesus was really calling for people to do, not calling you know, wealth and, and money just like this pure evil that no one should have and give it all away, but like, boy, if you have it, use it in the most strategic way possible to advance the gospel, and that is exactly what she's up to here in Luke eight.
Ryan: beginning like a whole tradition of this happening throughout the rest of the New Testament,
right? And in the church today, but ongoingly, there's so much of this, and we could highlight other people throughout the story, but yeah, it's really cool what you brought out.
I heard somebody say something there's a great gift in the world whenever a Christian is wealthy.
Bryan: Oh
Ryan: Because a Christian is going to think about how to properly steward that wealth and use it for good, use it for the needs of others, for a Christian to have a nice big house is a great blessing.
For a Christian to have two cars is a blessing.
Whatever it is, right?
Bryan: I, well, and I can appreciate that. I think, you know, highlighting all of that for our modern audience, I think is important because we do have blessings. We do have things that God has given to us, and how are we going to use it if we have our minds straight, and if we have our attention focus on Jesus, then I think we can use these things in positive ways.
So for her example to to come to the table here, I think is super important.
Spy Network Angle
Bryan: Also, can I just even go beyond financial means and like power or political connectiveness? You know, like here's this woman who her husband is basically the steward, which, you know, would have at the time been way more than like a butler or something like that.
He would've been managing the estate. He would've been doing the taxes or like, you know, involved in the payroll. Like he was the COO basically of Herod's operation. And so like you were saying, she was connected to these people, for her to use those connections in the ways that she was able to, you know, I won't I won't necessarily call her like the mole in the room or the, you know, this is kind of like leaning into the, the spy analogies here, but like she kind of was in a sense.
Like she got the inside track on maybe a lot, a lot of stuff going on.
Ryan: I saw you put in the notes, the spy who funded
me. Kind of like a James Bond picture.
it's such a cool idea. It's like that, what we were talking about in the Winter Watch Party, about Simon the Zealot, and
you have one word, and all of a sudden, you've got a whole picture of the intrigue of relationship, and I love what you're pulling out here.
This storyline about this woman, and there's, like we talked about with Hagar, or with any of these, every person is this whole story that God, whenever we give our lives to God, there is something he's going to do with it. And everybody has a different calling, or sphere of opportunities, and gifts, and ways to serve. He works with whatever we bring to him.
It's beautiful, this picture. And it's kind of like, Egyptians funding the Israelites going out
into the wilderness. You know, here, the enemies of God.
Bryan: on them, and then that [
Ryan: laughing]
Bryan: turns into
Ryan: Yeah,
Bryan: that build the tabernacle, right?
Ryan: exactly. A darker one would be like, Haman building his own
hangman's noose. You know, like, all of this dramatic irony that God just weaves into our stories
show that he is overseeing all of this, and brings everything to a good end for his
Joanna at the Tomb
Bryan: So Luke eight is not the only time we see Joanna, though. And I think another time that she pops up, which I'm calling this like seeing the long game, she pops up in Luke 24, verse 10, when Mary Magdalene, again, Joanna, and Mary, the mother of James, so, so many Marys, uh, showing up there at the tomb,
the very first people.
on the ground after Jesus raised, and was these women and they were there. And I think it's so cool to see how Joanna was there along with these other women at the tomb, how she wasn't just like a donor. You know, if you if you imagine somebody like asking for your money and you throw money at them and then you walk away absolved of any like responsibility, right?
No, she continued to follow even to the very end. And, you know, she got out of her palace. She walked down the dusty roads and looked with her own eyes along with these other women as, uh, as Jesus had been raised. So such a cool idea that she's not just doing this small, what what I wouldn't even call small, is like pretty big act of service.
But she's also seeing it through, you know, through the whole story.
Ryan: Well, and she might be one of these women earlier in Luke, you know, it says in verse 49 of Luke 23, as all of this is taking place where he's being crucified, it says, "And all his acquaintances and the women "who had followed him from Galilee "stood at a distance watching these things." And then, you know, verse 55, "The women who had come with him from Galilee "followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid."
And it would be a very natural conclusion that she's with the ones who watch all this, check on where the grave is, so that she can then, the next day, or, you know, that Sunday morning, at least come and see. And so then when she's listed in verse 10 of chapter 24, she probably, unlike a Peter, you
know, unlike a lot of the disciples who fled, was standing and watching the cross, and then came to the tomb, and then shows up first at the empty
Bryan: I, it, yeah. I, they're like you said, kind of in the, in the Simon the Zealot idea, you know, you just pick off this this idea you start pulling the thread a little bit and you, you imagine this woman's world and how cool that would've been. I just wanna throw one more out there and we don't, we don't need to like go super deep on it.
But like I was thinking, um, the Herod connection kind of tied, tied me in 'cause there's this verse in Acts 13 um, where they're going to the church in Antioch and they're kind of listing off some of the people who were there, like Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius of Cyrene, and this man named Manan. It says a lifelong friend of Herod, the Tetra and Saul.
So this person who was a lifelong friend of Herod, why would this person have been an early convert to the church? could have been someone in Herod's inner circle, like possibly, I don't know, you know, I'm just gonna guess Joanna. I don't know. But anyway,
you know, on the last episode, you and I, we were talking about how, Emmanuel got with us, right? And, um, how God Elroy, the God who sees. But imagine Jesus is the king who receives in this story.
And I think maybe that's a cool way to land the plane, is like just to imagine that, that Jesus was taken care of by these women, by these people in his inner circle, and how he allowed that to happen. Like, you know, you imagine Jesus as being the physician. He is the giver. He's the one who's producing all of this.
Um, but boy, his humility in so many of these cases. He's completely dependent on the generosity of these women and of his disciples, and I love that so much that he, he also knew how to give, but, but he also knew how to receive.
Identity and Discipleship
Ryan: It's interesting that that passage in Luke 8 comes right after the story, also in
Bryan: Yeah.
Ryan: bracket, of the sinful woman who poured out this ointment, and was washing Jesus' feet, and was praising him. And, you know, we have several accounts of a woman doing this. Each gospel actually tells a story, and it's not always received well
that Jesus is receiving this well, you know? It's not always, like Judas does not like it, I think was the one that didn't like it
one of the stories. And, like, you could have spent this on so many other things. We could have fed the poor, but Jesus is like, "You won't always have me with you," and she's doing something important, because to worship Jesus, to serve him, to give what we have to him, is to do what we were created, is to, like, fulfill our life's purpose.
And that's my biggest takeaway from this Joanna story, is to follow Jesus is not a small thing. It takes our whole life, just turns it on its side, you
it's like jerking us to a different, whole different orientation, a different direction. And, like, she's not like, "Yeah, from a distance, you know, send some money with a servant to you."
No, she's following him, she's funding him, she's with him even in death, following him to the grave,
literally, literally
to the grave. And, like, it just tells us what, I'm not all of these things, and also a Christian. I am a follower of Jesus, that's my identity, and everything else follows around. And that's what Joanna got. She did not, you know, it's not a Nicodemus thing, I came to him by night.
It's, she's all the way in.
Bryan: I love that so much. Um, just like your identity and who you are as a, servant is not just like one thing, it's everything. Right? It's
Ryan: Yes,
Bryan: out of you And we see that so much in Joanna's work.
Giving and Receiving
Bryan: and my, my takeaway from this is that Jesus absolutely could have created all of the things that he and his disciples needed.
Ryan: yes.
Bryan: to take care of him. Right. He could have Absolutely. you know, called down legions of angels to like call him off of the cross, um, he absolutely could have turned like stones into bread as, uh, you know, what he was thinking about or tempted to do during his temptation in the wilderness. like he absolutely could have provided for himself in his ministry, but he didn't. He allowed these women to take care of him. And being dependent was a, choice that Jesus made. And a partnership that he dignified their role by allowing them to, to help. And so I think, you know, for so many of us where it's like I just feel like I need to do it all, or I need to be the one man show, quote unquote, I just think that Jesus is so masterful in showing us that every person has a, part.
And boy, if that's not what Luke does really well, right? This is like the gospel of the underdog kind of on display here. He does such a good job at like highlighting these random people on the fringes that are just so integral to doing everything that needs to be done for the kingdom.
Ryan: whole theology of giving and receiving, just, like wrapped up in
this of You know, you think about how Paul talks about the Corinthian giving
and how it's like he uses the picture of manna,
of everybody collecting what they had need, and if anybody collected extra, it was for the person, the other person who was there.
And the idea here is Jesus prays in Matthew 6, "Give us this day our daily bread." He's dependent on the Father. How does the Father provide?
Through these women, through all of these other things,
Bryan: through Herod.
Ryan: lunch, through heritage, right? And so when God, you know, it's the old story about, you know, why didn't you save me, God? Well, I sent the helicopter
stuff.
You know, whenever God provides, don't turn it away in your pride.
Take it, take it with gratitude. You know, receive and give. You know, if you have extra, you are having, you have extra that God can provide for someone
Bryan: Exactly.
Ryan: You have extra, if you have two coats, give one to somebody else, John the Baptist says.
Joanna had this abundance and she realized, here's what I can do with
Unseen MVP Challenge
Bryan: And I think maybe just as an output of this, of this conversation, this little mini episode here, find somebody in your life who is the unseen MVP, who is just
Ryan: it.
Bryan: the Joanna kind of work in the church, or you know, just in life in general. They're doing the behind the scenes stuff. They're organizing, they're funding, they're hosting, whatever it. is that they're doing.
And just reach out and say, you know what? see your service and this stuff would not happen without you. moving in to support it. And if this is not like a tie in to our last conversation about Hagar, I don't know what is like, I
Ryan: Yeah, and
Bryan: on the heels of that discussion. I see you.
Ryan: I see you. And to tie into our previous one, like here, Joanna is a Proverbs 31
woman, and they're over,
and may their increase. May we all be Joannas, every one of us.
Bryan: Awesome.
Wrap Up and Bracket
Bryan: Thanks so much everyone for tuning in to the Bible Geeks podcast. You can find us. on our website at biblegeeks.fm.
There's lots of stuff there and if you want to go and vote, we are still taking submissions for our favorite Bible women, uh, Bible bracket that we're up to right now. Go to biblegeeks.fm slash bracket. Uh, that's gonna be closing soon, so get your votes in as quickly as possible. And until the next episode, everyone, may the Lord bless you keep you.
Ryan: Shalom!.