AS JESUS AND his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
41“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Original Meaning
THIS SHORT PASSAGE is unique to Luke and gains its significance from the prioritizing that Jesus indicates in the tension raised by Mary’s lack of aid to Martha. The story can be considered from two angles. One involves the perspective of Martha, who is clearly upset at the lack of help Mary provides in offering Jesus a meal. Anyone who has seen sibling rivalry can appreciate the tone of her challenge to Jesus, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work…?” The way the question is asked in Greek makes it clear that Martha anticipates a positive answer to her question. She expects Jesus to come to her aid. Martha is performing a worthy task, but she is consumed with what others are doing. Jesus does not criticize her for what she is doing but for being concerned about others’ activities.
From the standpoint of Mary emerges the example of someone willing to sit at Jesus’ feet and fellowship with him as his disciple. There is something tranquil in what Mary does. Often in the hustle and bustle of life, we need to pause for a moment of reflection before the Lord. Jesus’ emotion-filled reply to Martha, speaking her name twice, indicates just how appropriate it is for this sister to sit before him. She has chosen a needful thing, a good thing, that will meet with her reward for time well spent with him. Discipleship sometimes requires that tasks be suspended while fellowship is maintained.
Bridging Contexts
THIS TEXT IS significant both for where it falls in Luke’s argument and for the example Luke uses to make a point about discipleship. It comes in a series of three passages, each of which treats a different key aspect of our relationship to God: how we relate to neighbors (10:25–37), how we engage in dialogue with God (11:1–13), and how we view one another and our time with the Lord (10:38–42). The example Jesus raises to prominence is someone who does not say a word—the devoted Mary sitting at his feet. Her silent testimony makes a deep impression, representing a good choice. The fact that a woman can be portrayed in such a positive light, as one worthy to sit at the Master’s feet, is also significant in a first-century culture where women were often deemed unworthy of receiving instruction. Grace knows no boundaries of gender. The openness of the Lord to cross gender and social barriers is instructive for us, for often such barriers become obstacles to potential ministry. The Lord was willing to teach all, and so should we. Instruction in the things of the Lord should be open to all.
This passage is also a key discipleship text—not in the comparison between Martha and Mary’s tasks, but in how Martha has wrongly judged Mary’s inaction and worries too much about what others are doing. The text has two distinct emphases: Martha’s consumption with assessing others as she performs what she is called to do, and Mary’s wisdom in seeking some time at the feet of Jesus. Both qualities, one negative and the other positive, are at the heart of discipleship.
Contemporary Significance
AS WE NOTED, this text is not just about the role or status of women, but about discipleship. Yet the fact that Jesus pictures women as disciples shows that they are treated with respect as people and as full disciples. In a culture that tended to regard women as little more than children, this is a significant step by itself. Luke has several accounts that highlight the value of women to the cause of Jesus (see ch. 1 and 8:1–3). Today the gender battle is often fought in a different way, as opportunities open up for women that were unthinkable in the first century. Men and women are almost at war. This is most unfortunate, for Jesus foresaw a time when men and women would both contribute to the cause of Christ, working together rather than fighting for power. When service is elevated to its proper place in discipleship, then battles over power become less relevant. Thus Mary’s sitting at the feet of Jesus portrays a person willing to learn from him, while Martha’s busyness pictures someone serving him. Disciples need to do both.
In other words, discipleship is a balanced combination of two things: service and reflection. Mary shows the importance of reflecting on what Jesus teaches. Today that translates into time in the Word and in the church’s instructing of disciples about their role in the world. It may involve moments of silence before God in prayer, listening for his voice. It is a great temptation to serve at the expense of being fed spiritually. That is what Jesus’ remark to Martha means. Some activities can wait. There is a time to work and a time to listen.
Unfortunately, often when things get busy, the first thing to go is time with the Lord. The elders with whom I serve in a local church have made a pledge to one another to be leaders of prayer. This has meant a commitment to meet each Tuesday morning together for breakfast from 6:30 A.M. to 8:00 A.M. to pray for the needs of our church as noted in the weekly prayer requests collected at our service. As I calculate it, we spend about three times the amount of time together praying or getting prepared to pray as we do in tackling church business directly in group discussion. But even the way I have put this is misleading, for when we pray, we are doing the work of leadership for the church. Before activity can be meaningful and done with sensitivity, it should be bathed in prayer. I suspect many of us could use a little more Mary and a little less Martha in our lives.
Part of Martha’s problem was that she worried too much about what others were doing. In asking Jesus to enter into her complaint, she assumed that her evaluation of Mary’s choice of priorities was right. Jesus’ refusal to endorse Martha shows that although she was doing valuable work, she should worry less about Mary’s choices. We often spend too much time evaluating the walk of others and too little time being self-critical about our own actions for Jesus. Think of how more effective the church would be if we gave half the energy to assessing our own walk than we often do to assessing the walk of others. A community suffocates when all its energy is spent being an assessment agency for one another. What is really crucial for an effective community is for each member to take individual responsibility for his or her own walk and to allow the community to minister in a positive and encouraging way to each other. That does not mean ignoring sin in the midst of the community, but it does mean being slow to make assessments in areas that have nothing to do with sin. Martha crossed this line. The Lord refused to hear her complaint. Mary needed to be honored for her choice.