Photo: Bokeh / Tomedia. String Lights Hanging Under a Wooden Roof.
I understand why Martha is annoyed.
Jesus is at the house. She is doing the preparations. Her sister Mary is sitting at his feet listening to him, and Martha would quite like some help.
That sounds reasonable when you first read it. Somebody has to do the work. Dinner doesn’t appear because everyone has had an enriching afternoon.
Then Jesus answers her, and I start to recognise the problem.
Distracted by the work
Luke 10:38–42 says Martha is distracted with much serving. She asks Jesus to tell Mary to help. Jesus recognises how worried and troubled she is, and tells her Mary has chosen the good part.
And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
Mary is listening to the person Martha has welcomed into her home.
That is quite an uncomfortable possibility: I can welcome Jesus, get busy doing things for him, and barely pay attention to him.
My church notes provide a slightly ridiculous example. During one sermon I went off into a detailed idea for a Bible app. A map, a timeline, events moving as you scroll. I even started thinking about how I would store the data.
Then I wrote, “Anyway, time for actual church.”
At least I caught myself lol.
I still like the idea. I want to use what I can do to help people understand the Bible. But there is something very recognisable about becoming so occupied with what I could build for God that I stop listening while somebody is talking about him.
I also need to be fair to Martha
Going back through these notes, I had made Martha sound like somebody who keeps getting it wrong. Mary listens properly; Martha complains and misses the point.
The wider story is kinder to her than that.
In John 11, after Lazarus dies, Martha goes out to meet Jesus. She tells him her brother would not have died if he had been there. She also says she knows God will give him what he asks. Jesus speaks to her about resurrection, and she confesses her faith in him.
She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.
That is a substantial conversation. She is grieving and believing at the same time.
John also tells us Jesus loved Martha, Mary and Lazarus. I don’t want to reduce one of those people to the bad sister because it makes the lesson easier to write.
The warning I take from Luke is about the distraction and resentment that have overtaken her service. I can recognise those without deciding that preparing a meal is spiritually inferior to sitting down.
I would like to notice before I get resentful
My instinct is often to find something useful to do. It gives me direction and a way to contribute. But it can also give me somewhere to hide from the slower work of paying attention.
If I am constantly occupied, I don’t have to sit with a difficult question for very long. I can turn it into another project. I am quite good at that.
The problem comes when all that activity leaves me frustrated with everyone who isn’t working at the same pace. Martha wants Jesus to intervene and make Mary help her. I can imagine wanting exactly the same thing while being very sure I am the sensible person in the room.
This is where I need to pause. Before I decide everybody else is failing to do enough, I can ask whether I have made room to listen myself.
The app can wait while I hear the passage. The idea will still be there when the service ends. I can write down enough to remember it, put the planning aside and give my attention back to the person I came to hear about.