Martha and Mary—Luke 10:38-42

Please read today’s passage here: Luke 10:38-42

This is a story that I am tempted to title “A Tale of Two Women”. It is one of the incidents in Jesus’ life that only Luke of the four gospel writers has preserved for us. It gives an intimate glimpse into a part of Jesus’ life and ministry that is generally not focused on in the gospels.

Jesus had no “pets” toward which he showed favoritism in his teaching. But it would have been unnatural if he did not have good friends. When I was a student in seminary many years ago, we were warned as future pastors not to have as our closest friend a member of the congregation, lest we be tempted to give special favors to that person or his family, or at least to be perceived as giving special favors. Instead, it was suggested that we find a neighbor not in our churches and make him our closest friend. Whether or not such advice would ever be workable—the close friend would probably eventually join our church—the concern about favoritism is a legitimate one. Pastors have to be evenhanded and fair and loving to all their flock. Jesus was certainly that.

But that the household of Martha and Mary—which (we learn from another story) was also the home of their brother Lazarus— was a place Jesus loved to visit seems clear. There he could relax away from the crowds and “be himself”. Notice I put quotes around that last phrase, because I do not think that Jesus “put on” a public image that was deceptive. But those who have to interact with large numbers of people who they do not know well understand how good it is to come home, take off their shoes, and relax with those who know them well. The home of the three siblings—Lazarus, Martha and Mary—was such a place.

Perhaps I should tell you a little bit more about this little family. The names they bear were exceedingly common ones in Palestine in Jesus' time. Lazarus is a Romanized form of the Hebrew name Eleazar, and was second in popularity only to Simon among Palestinian Jewish males. Mary and Martha were also extremely common names among Jewish women.

The brother and two sisters lived together. No spouses are mentioned. But it is possible, of course, that one or more of the three was married, and the spouses remained unmentioned. The Bible rarely mentions the ages of people in its pages. No parents are mentioned either. The text also doesn’t tell us anything about the economic status of this family. No slaves or servants are mentioned, yet it doesn’t seem that they were really poor either.

What Luke does want us to see in this story is that the whole household, especially the women, were disciples. Luke has been sharing with us many incidents in the ministry of Jesus that have to do with what it means to be a disciple: what the demands and the privileges are. In the last example he used a despised Samaritan to teach us the lesson that disciples care for the needs of all those they encounter in life, regardless of their identity, background or station in society. In this story he uses two women to teach us a lesson about the priorities of a disciple.

It’s a funny thing about priorities: responsibilities that are lower on the list are not unimportant, they are simply less important and less urgent. When Jesus arrived at the home of the sisters, they knew that not only as good disciples, but also as simply good Near Eastern people, they needed to be good hosts. This meant providing for the guest, even at the expense of providing for oneself—giving them whatever they needed or desired, even if it meant depriving themselves.

So Martha set about doing just that. She looked after whatever animal Jesus might have been riding (a donkey), gave him a drink of refreshing water, washed his hot, dusty feet as he entered her house, and retired to the cooking area to prepare whatever food was available for the meal. If her brother Lazarus was present—he is not mentioned—he may have done some of this. And it is possible that at least initially her sister Mary may have done some of it.

But eventually, as Martha continued to work hard and become more and more nervous that Mary did not join her in the kitchen, she realized that Mary was not working at all! She was just sitting close by and facing Jesus, listening attentively to him as he taught her and whoever else may have been present. What was Mary thinking? What was Jesus thinking by letting her do this?

Can you put yourself in Martha’s shoes and imagine how she felt?

Now you should also know that in Jesus’ day rabbis did not teach women. Women had a role to play in spiritual and religious matters: they lit the candles on Sabbath eve, they said the group prayers with everyone else, they taught their young children, and they learned from their parents and husbands. But they did not join the men in study groups with the rabbis. Jesus did not observe this custom. He included women in most of his teaching situations, although he did not include a woman in the innermost circle of Twelve Apostles.

Martha knew this and was not appalled that Mary was listening and learning. But she was appalled that Jesus had his priorities wrong. Why was he letting Mary study, when there was work to be done? Why was he leaving Martha to do all the work?

What you can really appreciate about Martha was that she was not timid about asking questions. In John 11:21, when she met Jesus, after he had arrived too late to keep her brother Lazarus from dying, Martha scolded Jesus for not coming sooner. So she was not one to remain quiet when an apparent lapse was causing harm to someone, especially if that someone was herself!

Martha said to Jesus: “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me!” Martha realized that she could not tell Mary to help her. But she thought it was surely Jesus’ job to scold Mary and send her packing.

Jesus’ answer must have taken Martha aback: “Martha, Martha! You are worried about so many things. Only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the right thing, and I will not take that away from her.” Only one thing is necessary! For Heaven’s sake! You mean you don’t care if we have nothing for dinner? Are you going to do a miracle like that of feeding the 5,000, and just magically fill our table? Mary has chosen the right thing, and I have chosen the wrong by spending my time trying to serve you?

What thoughts went through Martha’s head? Luke ends the story without telling us how Martha took these words. Was she angry? Did she snap back at Jesus? Or did she ask him to explain what he meant? Isn’t it tantalizing how Luke leaves us to figure that out for ourselves? The fact that Martha continues to appear later in the stories of Jesus’ life shows that she was not offended, but eventually learned what he meant.

And what was that? There are good things, and there are better things, and there are absolutely vital things. Creature comforts such as food, drink, clean beds, and a roof over our heads are on one level. Being hospitable and kind is on a higher one. But the highest of all is learning from the Savior’s own lips how to live our lives. That is NUMERO UNO. There is no activity more important to a disciple than spending time with his or her Lord: in meditation on the words of Scripture, and in prayer. That, my brothers and sisters, is our lifeline. If we pull out the IV drip of Scripture and prayer and fellowship with other believers from our veins, we will wither and die spiritually. We must establish our priorities early in our lives of discipleship, or we will never grow and become the kind of disciples that truly please our Lord.