“Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “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.”
The Mary and Martha in Me
I return to this Lukan passage over and over because it troubles and encourages me as a woman. Martha and Mary, these two sisters, seem to me to represent two responses to the cultural script for women. Martha is focused on the “many tasks” routinely expected of women—preparing meals and domestic spaces for family and guests. I’m guessing she takes pride in doing these tasks well since they would have been the accomplishments by which women were valued and praised. In contrast, Mary has moved into the masculine space—sitting at the feet of Jesus, as the men would have been expected and welcomed to do. Mary is focused on what she can learn at the feet of the rabbi. Jesus accepts Mary and validates her presence in that masculine space. Jesus implores Martha, by saying her name twice, to become his student, too. I read his “Martha, Martha” as love. Jesus knows that the gendered script of Martha’s culture has ensnared her, and he reaches toward her with imploring love to call her away from that script and toward himself and a different community. It encourages me that Jesus turns Martha away from the ensnaring expectations about gender that her culture, and even Jesus’ inner community of followers, may have ascribed to. Men and women readers can see interpretations and applications that don’t necessarily have to deal with gender here, but this passage encourages me in its deliberate attention to women, their lives and their choices. I’m glad, too, for its troubling truth about gender scripts, because it prods me to question and ponder them more deeply in light of Jesus’ imploring call of love.
Redeeming Christ, help me to see vastness of your love today. Help me to let go of the gendered scripts that bind me and all your children from experiencing the welcoming household you have built for us all.