The Story
In the book of Luke at Chapter 10 versus 38-42 we get an account of a moment where Jesus is teaching his disciples, and there becomes an issue with two of the women in attendance. Mary and Martha are two sisters and brother Lazarus of Bethany. Lazarus was a good friend of Jesus. This is also the same Lazarus whom Jesus later brings back to life after being dead (sleeping) and buried in a tomb for four days. In the lack of true understanding of the magnitude of this incident by the leaders of this time, Lazarus and this family played a critical role and were a major turning point in the plot to attempt to kill Jesus.
In Luke’s account, Martha is spending a lot of time preparing and serving those who are in attendance in her home. She gets upset at her sister Mary, who is sitting in the room listening to the words of Jesus as he taught his disciples. Martha, who is respecting the teachings of those days, asks Jesus to intercede and make Mary help her with the serving. She asks if he is troubled that Mary has left her alone to serve.
The Background
This moment may bring some people back to Genesis chapter 4 at verses 1-15 in the recounting of the story of Abel and Cain. In this story, we’re shown two brothers who both make an offering to God. Both offerings are very different. Cain offers God fruit that came from the ground that he tilled, and we know it to be cursed based on what happened with his parents in the previous story of Adam and Eve. For reference, see Genesis 3 14-19.
Abel offers God the firstborn lamb of his herd. When reading this story literally, we can overlook the significance described in it that Abel was a keeper of sheep and Cain was a tiller of the cursed ground. Jesus is often noted to be the true shepherd of his sheep. We can even jump to John chapter 21 verses 15-23, where Jesus appoints Peter (Simon) in the role of tending to his sheep. The term shepherd is a major role and title in the Bible. While many people today have a negative stereotype about sheep following people blindly, the truth is that the Bible actually uses this because of the significance of sheep and shepherds. When a shepherd raises sheep, they learn the voice of the shepherd so well that if another person calls those sheep, the sheep will not know what to do. The flock knows the voice of their true shepherd. The modern culture will tell us this is a sign of a cult or listening blindly, but this is and has never been the point of this comparison. Jesus points out that if we listen to him and let him guide us, he will take care of us. God has more than proven he is a good shepherd, both on this planet we call Earth and before his time in physical form.
In this story, Jesus points out that Mary understands the magnitude of the teacher (Rabbi) in her presence. Like Cain and Abel, Mary and Martha both offer Jesus something, although very different in nature. In both stories, it is clear God doesn’t have an issue with what any of these four have offered him. However, it is important to look at the differences in the various offerings presented. All four people offer something good to God, but what God values is often different from what we think he wants. We see from this story that while Martha taking care of the serving is a good thing, he also values Mary’s judgment in listening and learning from him. Jesus would have been fine if Martha served one meal and then spent the rest of the time learning from him. In the Cain and Abel story, it is often mentioned in sermons that Abel was the righteous one; however, I challenge people to go back and read that story again. God never says what Cain did was bad or evil. He merely notes that what Abel did is more in line with what he desires.
Later on we get to the story where Lazarus is raised, and we learn of a very different Martha in this story that often get overlooked.
Points to ponder
Psalm 1 tells us not to trust humans but to rely on and meditate on the words of God daily.
KEY TAKEAWAY AND QUESTIONS –
I want you to open your mind and meditate on these following points. Remove any lessons you’ve learned about this story and step back and look at it from a big-picture standpoint.
1) Why was Mary even in the room with Jesus? In these days, it was forbidden for women to be in a room with men when they were learning from a rabbi. Martha was doing what was right in her eyes based on what she was told the laws were. Why doesn’t Jesus make Mary leave the room?
2) Mary wasn’t just in the room, but the scripture goes further, so as to say that she was sitting at his feet. Why did the male disciples not have an issue with this?
3) In these days, women were not taught to read and write. They were not allowed to be educated. This may not have been the case with Lazarus, since this was not a financially poor family. Later on, we know that Mary anoints Jesus with very expensive perfume for his burial and subsequent kingdom reign. See John 12 1-11; Matthew 26 6-12; Mark 14 3-9. Why is it that a presumably uneducated female recognizes the significance of Jesus versus the educated men in the room?
4) If God found Abel’s offering pleasing, then how is this moment different when again he finds one offering more pleasing in nature than the other?
I will add here that I take issue with self-titled pastors and modern church leaders who say woman are not equal to men. Often churches will point out three verses and ignore this story. Why? If we are to strive to live like Jesus, it seems to me this story is very relevant to that example. Not only did Jesus not have an issue with Mary being in the room, but his male disciples seemed to not have an issue either. Even more, they all seemed to compete with each other for favor with Messiah Jesus. The fact that Mary is sitting in a prominent position at Jesus’ feet seems to be an excellent reason to question Jesus along with Martha, and yet the Bible never suggests there was an issue with this from the perspective of God.
Therefore, I ask the often asked question and purpose of this website. Is Jesus still relevant?
It was forbidden for women to be in a room with men.
Jesus didn’t have an issue with it though.