Her Story Joanne Guarnieri Hagemeyer

This is a six-part series, and this is the fourth installment, exploring how the calling narrative found in the Gospel of John, chapter 1 is repeated in the story of the Samaritan Woman in John chapter 4, and in Mary of Magdala's story at the end of John's Gospel, chapter 20.

There are twelve calling elements to Jesus's call to discipleship and apostolic mission portrayed in the calling of Jesus's first five disciples: Andrew, John, Peter, Phillip, and Nathanael. The synoptic gospels key in on twelve men, eleven of whom became apostles. But there were many more disciples than that, all told 120 women and men who received Jesus's Great Commission and watched him ascend to heaven.

This podcast takes a close look at another woman, one who may not have been there for Christ's ascension (but, then again, she may have been, as Luke 8:3 indicates many women traveled with Jesus), who said yes to Jesus's call.

To view the original YouTube presentation, click on "The Samaritan Woman, a Disciple of Jesus"
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Grace and Peace Joanne on YouTube
Each podcast is designed to offer background scholarship on the topic, including setting, culture, original language, and archaeology, as well as a theological study.

Grace and Peace, Joanne Website
Biblical exegesis from an equalitarian point of view

Books by Joanne
"Broken, Searching, Trusted, Powerful"
"Love Feast"

Forty Freebies
If you would like a set of forty Bible studies on Women in the Bible, complete with fifteen study questions, commentary, a bibliograp...

We don’t often think of Jesus gathering disciples together as a rabbi starting a school, but the shape of what Jesus did very much is the shape of a school. Jesus did depart from the traditional rabbinical model of his day in a few significant ways. For instance, unlike other schools, Jesus kept his table fellowship open to everyone, people in every stratum and sphere of life.

And, Jesus chose as his disciples some unexpected people. Apart from the Twelve, there is evidence Jesus had women disciples, some of whom also traveled with him and ministered alongside him and the other disciples.

Though evidence for female disciples is found in all four Gospels, it is John's Gospel which provides the most dramatic evidence for Jesus calling women to discipleship and apostolic ministry.

To view the original YouTube presentation, click on "The Twelve Marks of Jesus' Call to Discipleship"
Brought to you by Grace and Peace Joanne, LLC

Grace and Peace Joanne on YouTube
Each podcast is designed to offer background scholarship on the topic, including setting, culture, original language, and archaeology, as well as a theological study.

Grace and Peace, Joanne Website
Biblical exegesis from an equalitarian point of view

Books by Joanne
"Broken, Searching, Trusted, Powerful"
"Love Feast"

Forty Freebies
If you would like a set of forty Bible studies on Women in the Bible, complete with fifteen study questions, commentary, a bibliograp...

Did Jesus call women into discipleship in the same way Jesus called men?

Or did women simply start following Jesus of their own accord, with no formal call?

Can we say, for instance, that Mary of Bethany was actually a disciple, or was she simply acting like a disciple when she sat at Jesus’s feet?

In the same way, was Mary of Magdala only acting like an apostle to the apostles, as she is sometimes called, or was she actually sent by Jesus as an apostle?

Three years ago, as I sat down to read the Gospel of John in Greek, I didn’t know what to expect. I just knew that I had always loved this Gospel, and the Greek employed in all of John’s works is at a level I could read. But as I read, the seeds of understanding about Jesus and women began to grow. I found myself often mulling over the words themselves, and the way they are phrased. I also found myself reading as a Bible student, taking note of the way the writer had arranged his material.

The more I read, the more I saw something truly amazing!

And that has now become a four-part video series, beginning with this one. So stay tuned, I think this is going to be pretty exciting.

To view the original YouTube presentation, click on "Did Jesus Call Women to be Disciples"
Brought to you by Grace and Peace Joanne, LLC

Grace and Peace Joanne on YouTube
Each podcast is designed to offer background scholarship on the topic, including setting, culture, original language, and archaeology, as well as a theological study.

Grace and Peace, Joanne Website
Biblical exegesis from an equalitarian point of view

Books by Joanne
"Broken, Searching, Trusted, Powerful"
"Love Feast"

Forty Freebies
If you would like a set of forty Bible studies on Women in the Bible, complete with fifteen study questions, commentary, a bibliograp...

The debate continues as to whether Scripture endorses, or at least permits, or rather forbids women from certain roles within the Body of Christ. May women be deacons? May women be elders? May women be pastors? May women be bishops? May women teach or lead in church?

At stake, of course, is how to live rightly before God, how to do what God has in mind, and to live within the space and the design God has laid out for humankind. And, questions of women's roles—whatever they may be—within the Body of Christ, as experienced in church life and among believers, also touches more broadly on what God may have in mind for women and men in marriages, in families, in communities, in the socioeconomic sphere, and in the political sphere.

Years ago, I found a site that gives a basic overview of the various ways Christians have been trying to navigate these questions. These are my summary thoughts based upon that site, Adrian Warnock’s article on "Gender: Complementarian Vs Egalitarian Spectrum," posted on Patheos.

This all is by way of an introduction to my four-part series on what I discovered in the Gospel of John about Jesus's call on women to discipleship and apostolic mission.

To view the original YouTube presentation, click on "Women Disciples Introduction"
Brought to you by Grace and Peace Joanne, LLC

Grace and Peace Joanne on YouTube
Each podcast is designed to offer background scholarship on the topic, including setting, culture, original language, and archaeology, as well as a theological study.

Grace and Peace, Joanne Website
Biblical exegesis from an equalitarian point of view

Books by Joanne
"Broken, Searching, Trusted, Powerful"
"Love Feast"

Forty Freebies
If you would like a set of forty Bible studies on Women in the Bible, complete with fifteen study questions, commentary, a bibliograp...

The story of Jairus’s daughter and the woman who suffered from a bleeding disorder are told together in all three of the synoptic gospels—the gospels that more or less track with each other, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

I am going to be teaching out of Mark’s gospel, who has the most detailed account of these two stories. I believe this to be a true story, but it is a story that also reveals startling truths Jesus was teaching his disciples, revealing to the crowds of people who followed him, and driving home to the religious elite.

Through the stories of Jairus's daughter and the woman with the bleeding disorder, we learn that Jesus' response to faith is to release the power of his grace.

When you and I feel we are at the bottom of the barrel, Jesus is saying “I have established a new kingdom without ranking systems. I respond to all who came to me in faith.”

For Jesus has proven his mighty power over all evil, over every other power, even the power of death itself. Jesus is showing that no person is beyond his tender compassion and no circumstance is beyond his scope.

To view the original YouTube presentation, click on "Daughter of Jairus"
Brought to you by Grace and Peace Joanne, LLC

Grace and Peace Joanne on YouTube
Each podcast is designed to offer background scholarship on the topic, including setting, culture, original language, and archaeology, as well as a theological study.

Grace and Peace, Joanne Website
Biblical exegesis from an equalitarian point of view

Books by Joanne
"Broken, Searching, Trusted, Powerful"
"Love Feast"

Forty Freebies
If you would like a set of forty Bible studies on Women in the Bible, complete with fifteen study questions, commentary, a bibliograp...

Throughout his ministry, Jesus gathered around him men and women who became a community of 120 people joined in their love for and faith in Jesus. And one of those women was Mary of Magdala. She is mentioned fourteen times, in all four Gospels, and her name is almost always placed first, seemingly implying she was first in service, first in support. However, Mary’s most significant story appears not during Jesus’s ministry, but rather at his resurrection.

In this twenty minute talk, we’ll first follow Mary through the years she was a student and supporter of Jesus, then we will spend most of our time in the Garden with Mary at Christ’s empty tomb, and end with a deeper understanding of ourselves as members of the Body of Christ.

Mary’s first encounter with Jesus was as a deeply troubled, severely afflicted woman, in the grip of and suffering from seven demons. We can only imagine how desperate her family had become in their desire to see her healed and freed of her affliction.

After her first, life-changing encounter with the rabbi and healer, all four Gospel accounts describe Mary’s faithfulness and courage, a major financial supporter and patron of Jesus’s ministry, one of only three remaining with Jesus at the foot of his cross until his death, and among the first to arrive at his tomb the morning of his resurrection.

But Mary’s most significant story in scripture comes in her final encounter with Jesus, described in John 20, the day he rose from the dead.

I Adherent of the Messiah
The one who is freed from much, loves much.

II Apostle to the Apostles
Jesus restores the relationships of humankind—to God, to each other, and to the earth.

III Among the Body of Christ
If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.

To view the original YouTube presentation, click on "Mary of Magdala"
Brought to you by Grace and Peace Joanne, LLC

Grace and Peace Joanne on YouTube
Each podcast is designed to offer background scholarship on the topic, including setting, culture, original language, and archaeology, as well as a theological study.

Grace and Peace, Joanne Website
Biblical exegesis from an equalitarian point of view

Books by Joanne
"Broken, Searching, Trusted, Powerful"
"Love Feast"

Forty Freebies
If you would like a set of forty Bible studies on Women in the Bible, complete with fifteen study questions, commentary, a bibliograp...