Now as they went on
their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha
welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at
the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was
distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord,
do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by
myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her,
“Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things;
there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part,
which will not be taken away from her.”
(Luke 10:38-42)
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
From time to time, I've seen people wearing t-shirts that have this message on them:
I know it's a joke, of course, but
still it makes me wonder. Is it only me – or do others find it a
little bit uncomfortable to think of Jesus playing favourites? It's
kind of like saying “God so loved the world,” and then going on
to say “but God loved [this group or that group] more than any
other.” I just have difficulty thinking in terms of Jesus playing
favourites. It makes me uncomfortable. I reject the very notion. But
then sometimes I get challenged. And when I get challenged by
Scripture I have to do some pretty heavy duty thinking about this.
That's what happened this week as I contemplated this story of Mary
and Martha. It's a passage that's often spoken about as an example of
two ways of discipleship – Martha serves Jesus (literally!) &
Mary learns at Jesus' feet. Both are equally valid forms of
discipleship. Some are gifted in the areas of service and
hospitality, and those are legitimate gifts of the Holy Spirit. But
what takes me aback a little bit with this passage, and what I spent
a lot of time reflecting on over the last few days is that Martha's
ministry of hospitality (at least on the surface) seems to be
declared less important by Jesus; Mary seems to get the better of the
deal from Jesus. “...there is need of only one thing. Mary has
chosen the better part,” Jesus said. Mary's way of discipleship is
better. Is Jesus saying that things like service and hospitality
don't count? I don't think so.
Jesus understood that Martha's
ministry was important and that she put everything into it. She’d
actually been trying to be a very gracious hostess to Jesus and His
disciples. They had been traveling across the countryside as Jesus
taught the crowds, and they’d stopped by Martha’s village. She
had invited them into her home to rest. And she began to prepare a
meal for them. Now, this was quite a task. She hadn’t expected them
and nothing was prepared for such a large group. And it wasn’t like
she could run out to the local Chinese restaurant to put takeout on
the table. Everything she cooked for them had to be made from
scratch. But she did it happily, because Jesus and his disciples were
honored guests. So what was the problem?
Well, Christian service has to
flow from learning – it should be a thought out response to Jesus
and our relationship with him and what he teaches us rather than just
a flurry of work. It's not enough for a Christian just to do things
without any real engagement with Jesus. Our relationship with Jesus
should be both our engine and our guide to the works we do for Jesus
in the world around us. I don't think Jesus wanted Mary to spend her
whole life at his feet listening to him and doing nothing. But at
that moment this was her calling: to learn more and more about
discipleship and what it really calls us to. For Mary, that was the
right thing to be doing, because that's what Jesus was calling her
to. But Martha had forgotten about being a disciple and had become
consumed with her work rather than her relationship with Jesus.
Martha didn’t share Mary’s
enthusiasm for sitting and listening to Jesus. I’m sure that it
wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy listening to Jesus, but Mary’s own
gift or calling was service and hospitality. She had guests. There
was work to be done – and Mary wasn’t doing it. The passage only
gives us a barebones account of what happened, but let me speculate a
little bit. Martha was running around in a flurry of work, and Mary
seemed to be doing nothing. And little by little – Martha got
upset. Perhaps there were a few noises in the kitchen to express her
displeasure: maybe she set a pot down on the table - really hard!
Maybe she banged a few of the eating utensils into the wash bucket. A
small frown began to appear on her face, as she sees Mary in the
other room – just sitting there, doing nothing. Maybe some dirty
looks are directed Mary’s way. She works; Mary sits. She works;
Mary sits. She works; Mary sits. And then, finally, she’s had all
she can take! She stomps over to Jesus and she says: “Lord, don’t
you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell
her to help me!!!!!”
It seems to me that Martha had
missed the point. Martha had fallen into the trap of thinking that
her work and her own unique ministry should be shared by everyone,
and Martha's problem was that she had forgotten that Jesus calls
people to different ministries. Martha wasn’t upset because Mary
wasn't doing what Jesus wanted her to do; Martha was upset because
Mary wasn't doing what Martha thought she should be doing. She's not
valuing Mary's unique gifts and calling. Martha herself had
impressive and important gifts and talents. As I said earlier,
service and hospitality are among the things listed by Paul as gifts
of the Holy Spirit. They are valued and important ministries, and
those who possess them are to be honoured for the contribution they
make to the life of the church. But Martha had forgotten that Mary
had her own gifts and talents and ministry. “Tell her to help me,”
Martha said to Jesus. But Mary had chosen a different way – or,
perhaps more accurately, Mary had been chosen to follow a different
way. It’s fascinating to compare this story with the story of the
dinner in Bethany after the resurrection of Lazarus. You see the same
dynamic taking place there, which just confirms that these two women
had very different callings. John 12 tells us that on that night,
“Martha served,” while Mary poured perfume on Jesus’ feet and
wiped his feet with her hair. These were women who understood their
gifts and who used them. It’s just that in the incident we read
today, for whatever reason Martha got frustrated and lost her cool.
Was she jealous? Did she think that Mary was thinking too highly of
herself? It’s interesting to reflect that in the story Martha was
doing what would have been the traditional woman's work of serving in
the kitchen; while Mary had taken on what would have been the
traditional male role of learning and being served. Martha
essentially told Mary that her place is in the kitchen, but Jesus
disagreed. He challenged the traditional gender role of women.
Traditional roles and stereotypes mean nothing to the Kingdom of God.
We serve as we are called to serve.
Our “actions … [flow]
naturally from who we are.” (Mikael C. Parsons, Baylor University –
Waco, Texas) Perhaps even more importantly, our actions should flow
from how we are gifted and called by God, because if we forget that
first and foremost we are to discern and use the gifts we’ve been
given in God’s service, then whatever we do becomes little more
than busy work that doesn’t really serve God – it just makes us
think that we’re accomplishing something. In this case, Jesus said
that Mary’s way was “better” – but what did he mean? Why was
it better? It wasn’t better because it was more important than
Martha’s ministry of service and hospitality, and Jesus never said
that Martha’s ministry wasn’t important. He simply said that Mary
had chosen “the better part.” It wasn’t that it was better than
Martha’s ministry – it was simply better for Mary, because it was
Mary’s ministry. What we have here really is a call for disciples
of Jesus to discern the gifts we’ve been given and the ways in
which we’re called to serve – and then to fulfil them, humbly and
happily to the best of our ability. Honouring our own gifts and
abilities and celebrating other’s gifts and abilities. That’s
what makes the church the church.
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