Mary and Martha Choices

 “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.  Mary has chosen the better part which will not be taken away from her.” Lk 11:41

 I feel like Martha gets a bit of a bad rap in this story. Martha has frequently been seen as the fretting fuss-budget. 

  My mother is a “Martha personality.”  When it came to hospitality my mother was a champion.  Whenever my brother and I would show up with unexpected dinner guests,  which was often, it was amazing to watch my mother go into action. It was as if she had a Star Trek food replicator out in the kitchen.  We would no more than walk in the door, and before you knew it she had put a three or four course dinner on the table – seemingly out of thin air. Amazing!  She had the gift of hospitality, and my brother and I saw to it she got a chance to employ that gift as often as possible. 

 During Biblical times in ancient Palestine, and even to this day, there is nothing more important than hospitality.  In 2004 America we have no concept of this.  For our fast paced, multi-tasking culture of eating on the run and wondering how-we-are-going-to-fit-everything-in, this is a totally foreign concept to us.  But if we don’t understand this we will not even begin to understand the power of this story.

 In biblical times if guests arrived in your village and on your doorstep it was a cultural obligation that you provide hospitality that provided for the person’s needs. It was considered to be a “right” of the traveler that hospitality be provided.  They sometimes even went so far as to make the traveler the temporary master of the house during his stay.  Refusing hospitality to the traveler was serious business and could alienate you from your neighbors. 

 In the gospel of John we learn that Jesus was a friend of this family, but even so, he was still a traveler on the road and their guest.  Martha was performing the cultural obligations of hospitality that were expected of her, and I think if I were Martha I too would have been a little bent out of shape that Mary was not helping but was sitting, all starry eyed, at Jesus’ feet.

 However, Jesus was not being critical of Martha’s hospitality, but rather was pointing out that she had allowed it to interfere with something even more important.

 But there is even more here than first meets the eye.  One of the most common scenes in the New Testament is when the disciples gather around Jesus.  Repeatedly we see the disciples as the inner circle of followers gathered around Jesus and the crowds standing beyond them.  Jesus was the teacher and they were the disciples sitting at his feet.  Sitting at Jesus’ feet was a symbol of discipleship. Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet indicates she chose discipleship over the expected role of providing hospitality.  Jesus affirmed Mary’s stepping out of her expected domestic role of performing acts of hospitality and stepping into (or should I say “sitting into”)  the posture of discipleship.  “Mary has chosen the better part…” said Jesus.

 This story is many things, but for this morning I want to lift up two things.

 First, even the best and most noble things of life can “distract” us from the Lord. Martha was so locked into her prescribed role of provider of hospitality she couldn’t conceive of things any other way.  She couldn’t conceive of laying aside her cooking pots and baking pans to sit at the feet of the Lord Jesus. She had become a slave to her expected role. I believe this is a huge temptation in our culture.  We too, can allow the good things of life to distract us from our relationship with God.  We are so busy; have so many options; are presented with so many choices; get so scheduled and regimented.  We too get locked in and become slaves to roles, schedules, and expectations of others – so much so we cannot conceive of life being any other way. There is nothing wrong with working hard, or giving your children many opportunities, or being involved in many things, causes and activities, but is it at the expense of your relationship with the Lord? Jesus may knocking on your door or even sitting your family room right now, but either you may not be home to answer the door; or you are so enslaved to something you simply cannot spend time with him. 

 This is a big part of what this story is about.  Jesus comes to your house and your life. He doesn’t want you to wait on him hand and foot with busy work, but rather he would like for you to take the posture of discipleship which first means just sitting before him; listening, conversing, learning, inter-acting, taking in what he has to give you.  But will you?  Are you free enough, or are you so enslaved to roles, schedules, expectations and agendas that he will end up sitting all alone in your own house?!

 The second thing is, and it’s closely related to the first, is because our lives are the way they are; running non-stop from one thing to the next; because we live with the attitude that the winner is the one who gets the most things done in a 24 hour period as if it were Olympic competition, we live very much at the surface of things.  Like water skiers we skim along the surface never seeing the wondrous and teeming life that exists at a deeper level.  We seldom take time to see past the surface, to see deeper into things; to see the deeper things.  In fact, we buy into this racing around like chickens-with-our-heads-cut-off so much, we are offended by anybody who doesn’t buy into it and does otherwise (people like Mary), or people who suggest we might do otherwise with our lives (people like Jesus).

 Jesus said, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.  Mary has chosen the better part which will not be taken away from her.”

 Everyday we are faced with Mary and Martha choices. A Mary and Martha choice is not the choice between good and evil, but rather a Mary and Martha choice is a choice between:

*Discipleship or busy work.   

*Convincing yourself there is nothing you can do about your pressured life or setting some of it aside to spend time with the Lord Jesus who is knocking at your door, or maybe even sitting right in your family room.

*Living at the surface or probing the deeper things of life that really matter.

 There were few things in the ancient world more important than providing hospitality.  But Jesus said that even it took a back seat to sitting at his feet, seeing life at a deeper level, assuming the posture of discipleship.

 This story finally gets down to discipleship.  Discipleship is not a matter of fitting the Lord into your busy life as if he was merely another thing to do; another item on the list to check off.  Discipleship begins at the feet of the Lord.  It’s there we can see life at a deeper level.  It’s there we can focus on what is really important; what deserves our attention and commitment, and what is so much busy work and wasted energy.  It is there we can begin to make connections - divine connections.

Disciples are called to live like Mary in a Martha world.

 As you find yourself racing through your day, pause to think of Mary and Martha.  Reflect on who you are in the story – Mary or Martha?  And then, I pray, have the courage to choose the better part which will not be taken away from you.