Martha, Martha, Martha!
Luke 10:38-42
In the middle of Luke’s gospel is this short passage. It seems to stand alone as it does not seem to be closely connected to the passage before it which is the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Following it in Chapter 11 is Luke’s version of the Lord’s prayer. But this does not mean that it is significant. Much can be learned by this encounter.
It seems this is the earliest mention of Mary and Martha in the Gospels. Mary and Martha are also in the passage of the raising of Lazarus in John 11. John, along with Mark and Matthew mention them in conjunction with Mary anointing Jesus for burial. The composite picture of them appears consistent concerning their personalities.
We know from John 11 that Jesus knew Mary and Martha as well as their brother Lazarus and that he loved them. This implies that they has an ongoing relationship of which this passage in Luke is one of those occasions. We know from the gospels that the two sisters lived in Bethany near Jerusalem. Luke only refers to “a certain village.” How long they had known Jesus at this point is unknown, but they invited Jesus into their house. Part of the hospitality involved preparing a mean for their guest, washing the feet, and other acts of hospitality. Where Lazarus might have been, we do not know, but it seems that the tasks centered around the comfort of the guest fell upon the women. Martha understands this and attends to the many tasks. The text says she was burdened by them. Se wished that her sister would get up and help, but Mary remained seated at Jesus’ feet and was listening to His teaching. Although it could be considered hospitality to listen to the guest, there is more here involved with her sitting. She was sitting as a rabbinical student under the Rabbi. She was being discipled by Jesus.
We don’t think so much about a woman learning from a religious teacher. But this detail would be somewhat unusual in Jesus’ day, to put it mildly. Women were not encouraged to learn the Torah. Some Rabbis even held that it was better to burn the Torah than for a woman to read it. The role of women was to be a servant. They were to be busy doing rather than hearing. The expounding of the Scripture and the learing of it was for the men only. Some of the more “enlightened” synagogues would allow women to overhear the men being taught in synagogue, but they were to remain as silent observers. If they had questions, they needed to wait until they got home to ask their husbands. If the husband was willing, he would answer her question.
Martha was annoyed at her sister. Perhaps she was jealous of her. Perhaps she saw her sister acting inappropriately as far as “the rules” were concerned. She does not even tell her directly but appeals to Jesus to send Mary to help. But Jesus did not see Mary’s seated at his feet as objectional at all. Without condemning Martha’s desire to serve, He makes it clear that Mary was choosing the better part. “Martha, Martha, you are troubled about many things” He says. “It is more needful to do what Mary is doing right now than to be distracted by tasks.
We can see from the Gospel of Luke especially, that Jesus’ views of the role and status of women was unorthodox, as far as the rules of Judaism were concerned. Many of these manmade rules, called “the tradition of the fathers” were intended for the Jew to keep the Law of Moses. If one kept these rules, they wer properly observing the Law. They were a hedge put around the Torah. But instead of helping one keep the Law, they were acting as a barrier to the Law. One could not see the will of God through the hedge that was placed around the Scripture. And women were hedged out from even the hedge. Jesus’ teaching broke though these walls and brought people to hear God’s word. And women were included into learning. Women had no reason to be excluded, and even a casual examination of the Old Testament shows that God was interested in both men and women learning and obeying the Law.
Luke brings out in 8:1-4 that several prominent women provided material support for Jesus and His disciples. The women acted as breadwinners in supporting God’s new household. Mary Magdalen, who was one of these women would be the first witness of the resurrection. Other women also saw the risen Jesus and became the first preachers of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Women could not even testify in court because they were considered “hysterical,” which is the Greek word for “womb.” To be hysterical was to act like an emotional woman. But Jesus broke these barriers down. The curse of Genesis 3 was being reversed.
Women are allowed in the Christian church to sit and learn the Bible. This is indeed a step forward. But women in many churches are excluded from the pulpit. They cannot preach or teach men in these churches. The passage in Timothy which forbade a woman to take authority in the church and that they ware to remain silent is often quoted as well as 1 Corinthians. But I think there is a good answer for this prohibition. According to Dr. French Arrington of the Pentecostal Theological Seminary notes that the problem Paul was facing is that women who had not been discipled first were going out preaching. They had not taken the time to sit at Jesus’ feet like Mary did. Becoming a disciple is the first obligation of the Christian. Many heresies would have been avoided if this policy was followed. This is true for men as well as for women. Jesus spent 3 years in mentored ministry with His disciples. On several occasions He would send them out on a preaching tour on their own but was also careful to correct misconceptions they had about the results. The one who is called to preach must first learn. Even Paul had to spend several years on the backside of the Arabian desert learning. If ever one was educated and ready to preach out of the box, an expert on Scripture, it took many years before he was ready. By the time Barnabas goes to Tarsus to ask Paul to join him at the work at Antioch, more than ten years were needed.
So, the example of Mary here goes beyond the proper place of women in the church. It is the humble submission at the feet of Jesus for anyone who would be a follower of Jesus. Men need to humble themselves at Jesus’ feet and learn from Him.
In some of the megachurches today, the work of evangelism has been turned on its head. Instead of winning them to Jesus, seekers are given jobs to do such as a ministry of feeding the hungry or visiting the sick. From there, by being in contact with religious people, it is hoped that they might come to faith in Jesus. But those cumbered with the work of ministry such as this do not have the time to sit at the feet of Jesus. The Lord Himself says the better portion is to sit at the feed of Jesus. There will be time for serving later. Martha should have joined Mary at Jesus’ feet and taken time for the great privilege offered to them, to sit and learn at the feet of the Rabbi, and not just any Rabbi.
The church today in America, for the most part, is service oriented and not Word oriented. We want to jump to doing without taking the arduous labor of learning. Learning is harder work than any other task. The brain is actually the biggest muscle in the body. We tend to shy away from exercise as it is, no less than the exercise of the mind. It is much easier for us to leave our minds at the door and let someone tell us what to do. We want to get to the imperatives of the faith without studying the indicatives of our faith. We are interested in what we ought to do rather than why we ought to do it. Without knowing the “why” we soon tire of doing and burn out. Knowing the why is a great reminder. This requires study, but in the long run it produces great motivation for the doing of our tasks. We need to live a life immersed at the feet of Jesus, hearing the word. We don’t need hedges. If the teaching and doctrine of men hedge us out from the riches of God’s Word, we need to lay these burdens aside and take the yoke of Jesus upon us and learn from Him who is meek and lowly of heart. From Jesus we find rest for our souls. It seems contrary that a yoke is a means or rest. A yoke is for work. It is work indeed to learn, but it leads to finding peace and rest.
