It was news to me that the Joanna mentioned in Luke's gospel is thought by some to be the same as the Junia of Romans 16; she who was 'outstanding among the apostles.'
I'm not really into conspiracy theories but I find it worryingly easy to believe the scholars who say that for the first 1300 years of the church's history, Junia (female) was celebrated as such an apostle, but that afterwards it was claimed she was a man (how else could she be an outstanding apostle? Apostles were all men....does not compute...)
So given that 'he' (Junia) has now been reclaimed as a woman, one might get rather excited about Junia/Joanna after all.
Here are her credentials as a woman of faith whose life coincides with the earthly ministry of Jesus, and whose faithful service continued alongside her famous co 'apostle', Paul.
Being wealthy she gave of her own means to the band of disciples as they followed Jesus from place to place. When the men fled, she probably stood at the foot of the cross keeping the dying Christ company and she was there in the garden of resurrection - telling the male disciples the great news but being disbelieved (Luke 24:10). After Pentecost she appears in Rome, still serving alongside other co-workers in the gospel.
We get a snapshot of her commitment pre and post-Easter therefore. She was there through everything. She didn't know it at the beginning, but for all her self-sacrificial service, she was on the winning side...
Myths first: probably not a red head; not a prostitute; almost certainly not married to Christ, or a mother of 'the blood line of the Holy Grail' (oh please...)
So, facts: she accompanied Jesus on his travels and provided for him out of her own means; Jesus cast seven demons out of her; she stayed at the foot of the cross while the men fled, and was the first witness to the resurrection.
This latter was a big hint that now, in the new age soon to be inaugurated by the gift of the Holy Spirit, women and men would be equal partners in spreading the Good News. To Mary Magdalene even belongs the epithet 'apostle the the apostles' as Jesus gets straight on with urging her to witness to the new resurrection life: 'Do not hold onto me (...) but go instead to my brothers and tell them 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God' (John 20: 17).
(NB. and he didn't add 'But make sure you don't give systematic bible teaching to gatherings of men or at any point in history preside at the altar, as you are only a woman after all and I am a complementarian not an egalitarian...')
Being delivered of evil spirits, spending your own money on someone who was violently killed; seeing them alive again as they send you out out personally with a special mission - all these add up to a paradigm of discipleship which is about transformative and passionate involvement with Jesus.
He seems to like it.
