Section 47--Traveling and Shifting

Section 47
FURTHER JOURNEYING ABOUT GALILEE 
LUKE 8:1-3

Women and Parables

"And it came to pass afterward." Luke 8:1

" St. Luke here notices an alteration in the Master’s way of life. From this time forward Jesus ceased to make Capernaum "his city," his usual residence; he now journeys with his little band of followers from place to place. From this time there was also a distinct change in the tone of his teaching." -Pulpit Commentary

Luke reports that Jesus traveled through the cities with his band of followers---the twelve disciples and also a group of women, three of whom are named: Mary, Johanna, Susanna, and Mary.  His message was "the good news of the Kingdom of God."  Believer's Bible defines the Kingdom of God as "the realm, visible or invisible, where God's rule is acknowledged."

Companion:Mary Magdalene 
with Joanna and Susanna, by Janet McKenzie, Luke 8:1-3

The role of Christ's female followers and the role of women in the Church in general is a divisive topic.  Some plain things are that Christ valued women much more than his culture did--sinful women, unnoticed women, and they valued him back. They are mentioned as "providing for them [the group] out of their means."

"Several of these kindly grateful souls here alluded to evidently belonged to the wealthy class; some even occupied a high position in the society of that time. It was by their gifts, no doubt, that Jesus and his company were enabled to live during the thirty or more months of the public ministry." -Pulpit Commentary

The Fourfold Gospel's commentary bridges the prior chapter with this next:

"The last phrase of chapter 7 was, "Thy faith hath saved thee." And chapter 8 picks up where this statement leaves off, as it addresses the topic of faith almost entirely. In verses Luk_8:5-21, we see teachings about faith. In verses Luk_8:22-56, we see the testing of faith. Verses Luk_8:5-21 deal with hearing the Word. Verses Luk_8:22-56 deal with heeding the Word…" -Fourfold Gospel

"Hitherto in his preaching he had occasionally made use of similes or comparisons, as in Luk_5:6 and Luk_6:29, Luk_6:48; but he only began the formal use of the parable at this period, and the parable of the sower seems to have been the earliest spoken." -Pulpit Commentary

"Professor Bruce, who has very ably discussed the reasons which induced Christ at this period of his ministry to speak in parables, says there is a mood which leads a man to present his thoughts in this form. "It is the mood of one whose heart is chilled, and whose spirit is saddened by a sense of loneliness, and who, retiring within himself by a process of reflection, frames for his thoughts forms which half conceal, half reveal them—reveal them more perfectly to those who understand, hide them from those who do not (and will not)—forms beautiful, but also melancholy, as the hues of forest in late autumn." -Pulpit

I like the way Bruce and this commentary capture the shift in season, the press of outward pressures and inward reflection, the pointed nature of parables which reveal and conceal.