There’s this interesting story from the life of Jesus. It has been interpreted many times, but I find something a little different from the usual insights:
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But 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!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Luke 10:38-42
Strangely enough, books have been written about the whole Martha/Mary thing, kind of becoming a sort of pop Christian psychology topic. The typical explanation of this story goes something like, “Martha is industrious, which is good, but also maybe a bit too mired in her busyness, or perhaps obsessive. Mary is contemplative, which is good, but also perhaps a little lazy, or maybe passive. Both need balance.”
Using this framework, I’ve always identified more with Mary: quiet, reserved, and patient to a fault (a nice way of saying “passive”). But as I meditate on the passage I find something else entirely.
One of the great dangers of trying to live out the Bible is that there is no shortage of people who are willing to tell you what this or that chapter or verse means. And that makes it pretty easy for the “layman,” who doesn’t really have the time to read the Bible for himself and see firsthand what is being said. So what is really being said here in this little story from Luke’s version of the Gospel?
Is the lesson here one of balance? I don’t think so. Jesus doesn’t rebuke Mary; only Martha. And she isn’t rebuked for her busyness, but something else. The entire lesson of the passage is in the last two sentences: “You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
So, Mary has chosen the “one thing” that is needed, and in doing so, gained something that Jesus is unwilling to take from her.
And what is the one thing that is needed? Psalm 37:4-5 says:
Take delight in the Lord,
And he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord;
Trust him and he will act.
Worship, obedience and trust are what is required. Although I believe I have the first of these down, the other two come much harder to me. There are areas where obedience is difficult and sometimes seems impossible. So am I to feel shame?
Psalm 138:8 says,
The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me;
Your steadfast love, O Lord, endure forever.
Do not forsake the work of your hands.
The transparency of so many of the Psalms often surprise me. The first two lines of this verse are full of confidence in and assurance of God’s love and purpose, yet the last line has the tone of a plea for mercy. Is it possible that the psalmist struggled with these things also?
Just imagine: Jesus stops by unannounced… and of course he isn’t alone. He’s got twelve men with him. And the hospitality of the day demands that the hostesses prepare a meal for all of them (and remember—no microwave ovens back then). So Martha wasn’t necessarily doing anything wrong in bustling about to provide for her guests. Mary, on the other hand, chose to ignore her duty as a co-hostess and sat down at Jesus’ feet, presumably among his disciples. We can understand why Mary was upset.
But here’s the thing, and it has to do with the concept of peace. Although the gospels were written in Greek, the events of the Gospels were happening in Hebrew; that is, Jesus, his disciples, and most of the people they encountered, like Martha and Mary, were Jews, speaking and thinking in Hebrew and Aramaic. And the Hebrew concept that is usually translated as peace is conveyed by the word shalom. And the concept of shalom also translates into something like “the presence of God.”
And so I realize that I identify more with Martha than with Mary, not because I have allowed busyness to interfere with my relationship with God, but because of worry and upset. I find that my “Marthaness” is caused by lack of trust in God’s ability to restore me and to rescue me from the situations I find myself in. I don’t come to God with my anxieties… I rather let my anxieties keep me from coming to God.
And it’s not for lack of a desire for that shalom. I Identify very strongly with this verse:
As a deer longs for flowing streams,
So my soul longs for you, O God.
Psalm 42:1
And that’s it. I find that I am longing—thirsting!—for God’s presence.
More to come on this subject later.
