As they continued their journey he entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.” The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken from her.” (Luke 10:38-42)
There are a number of potential lessons we can learn from this exchange between our Lord and the busy Martha.
Some people believe Martha is an admirable but misunderstood character. After all, there are always people who need to be served, and someone has to do it. Too many individuals are sitting on the sidelines not serving others, so maybe we could all be a little more like Martha.
This is certainly the view of Martha. In fact, she even goes so far as to provide our Lord some friendly advice on the proper priority of daily activities.
Lord, tell her to help me.
Another perspective argues that we should each be a combination of Mary and Martha. In other words, we should have a Mary heart and a Martha work ethic. In that way, we would combine the best attributes of both personalities.
Unfortunately, neither of these two interpretations is very satisfying. More to the point, neither of them accurately incorporates the clear guidance Jesus provides.
If we choose to use the story of Martha and Mary as a metaphor for life’s priorities, we could only come to one conclusion. Life is not about finding a balance between work and Jesus.
At the same time, this story also reveals what are not our priorities.
First, we should not adopt Marthas’ perspective on the priorities of life. Jesus makes clear that in the midst of her charitable chores, Martha allows herself to become anxious and worried. This is directly opposed to what Scripture teaches about the appropriate reaction to life’s burdens.
Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)
Martha completely loses her perspective on the hospitality she is performing. She views her efforts through the eyes of the world; all she can see is the amount of work she has to do and the apparent injustice of Mary’s lack of support. This causes her to lose her peace and what could have been joy in her labor.
Second, Martha allows her anxiety and worry to blossom into judgment.
Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving?
Again, we see in the response of Martha a violation of basic Scriptural principles.
For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you. (Matthew 7:2)
So, the real lesson in this story, far from adopting Martha’s perspective, or even combining Martha and Mary within ourselves, is to labor to minimize the Martha within all of us.
We know it is never going to be a good conversation when the person speaking to us begins by uttering our name twice as Jesus did. “Martha, Martha.” It is clear His next words are not going to be a compliment about Martha’s generous hospitality.
This is not to suggest Martha is a bad person, we all have faults that need healing. Jesus makes clear we must each learn to overcome the Martha tendencies in our nature. Anxiety, worry and judgment cannot be part of our relationship with Jesus Christ or one another.
If we reflect carefully on Jesus’ words, we can only conclude that He is counseling us to always choose the better part, sitting at His feet like Mary. She is a model of those who continually live in what is known as The Practice of the Presence of God.
Yes, we must fulfill the obligations of our work, but our first priority is to remain with Jesus while we labor. We must allow Him to be the very center of our work, asking Him to remove our anxiety and worry, and to help us overcome our tendency to judge others. If we find ourselves anxious or judging others as we go about our daily tasks, then we know we have left Jesus’ presence. But if we remain in His presence, in the depths of our hearts, no matter what we are doing, we will glorify Him in work, and He will never be taken from us.
Copyright © 2024, Deacon Mark Danis
Image credit: “Christ in the House of Martha and Mary” Johannes Vermeer, Public domain, via WikiArt