Pentecost 6 C: Listening to Jesus Today
Dear Partner in Preaching,
What if their names were Matt and Marty, rather than Mary and Martha?
I’m talking, of course, about the two characters interacting with Jesus in this week’s Gospel reading. Because they are two women, and because they seem – at least momentarily – at odds with each other, and because Jesus appears to take a side, we have for centuries tried to read this story as about discipleship and yet somehow regularly made it about women’s roles. Women’s roles in the church, in leadership, in society, and beyond. Goodness, but the pull of this interpretation is so strong that it has escaped Scripture and entered popular culture. (Consider, as just one example, that the women assigned to be household servants in Margaret Atwood’s dystopian The Handmaid’s Tale are called “Marthas.”)
But what if these two weren’t women? I mean, how different are Jesus’ words to Martha – “You are worried and distracted by many things, but there is need of only one thing”(10:41) – than his words to his would-be followers, all of whom are distracted by urgent “but first…” tasks to which they must attend before following Jesus (9:56-62). Because they happen to be women, we have unfortunately let the narrative dichotomy of the story – work or sit, be busy or be still – become a functional dichotomy in how we understand, characterize, and far too often restrict the options facing women. (Again, think of the clearly prescribed and painfully limited roles afforded women in Gilead, the religiously oriented country in which The Handmaid’s Tale takes place.)
So I’ll ask again: what if these two weren’t women. Then this story might not be about a conflict between Mary and Martha, or between two sisters, or between two options for how women should behave – busily attending to the “woman’s work” of running a household or listening attentively to the male leader – or about any of a number of other themes we’ve placed on this story in order to validate our own cultural assumptions. Instead, this story might be about timing and priorities, about circumstances and contexts which demand different behaviors, even about the paramount call of Jesus to his followers then and now.
Jesus, after all, has set his face for Jerusalem, and the urgency of his mission is paramount. At this particular moment, both disciples – indeed, all who would be his disciples – cannot afford to be distracted but must attend to his mission, his ministry, and his impending sacrifice. I mean, here’s the thing: even those closest to Jesus misunderstood so much of what was about to happen. They assumed strength would be demonstrated by a show of power, that God’s justice would be made manifest through violence, that vulnerability equated weakness, and so on and so on. Of course they – from those who would bury a parent first to those who would run a household efficiently in order to offer hospitality – need to pay attention, need to be called from the ordinary, even if important, details of daily life to see God’s surprising, unsettling revelation unfold and challenge our assumptions about God, about ourselves, and about how we relate to one another.
I’m not sure things are all that different twenty-centuries later. We still get so easily caught up in the ordinary, if also important, details of raising families and getting our work done and making sure our congregations are at least functioning if not always flourishing, that it’s easy to buy into cultural assumptions about meaning, purpose, identity, and potential. Which is why Sunday worship and other opportunities to gather as fellow disciples matters. No matter how busy we are, not matter how caught up we may get in pursuing our careers or taking care of our kids, no matter how preoccupied we may get with headlines and all the rest, it’s helpful – no, actually, needful and necessary as Jesus says – to attend to Jesus’ words, to have our culturally-shaped assumptions challenged, and to be introduced once again to the God whose power is made manifest in weakness, whose love triumphs justice, and whose peace is achieved and offered without resorting to violence.
Having suspended for a moment our awareness that the two characters in this story are women in order to better hear Jesus’ words to all of his disciples today, perhaps this is the point to return to Mary and Martha as two women. Because, in the end, that matters, too, but perhaps not for the reasons we assumed. What I find meaningful is not that these two women are offered, let alone represent, two options for being disciples – because I just don’t think that’s Luke’s intention – but rather that Jesus is addresses these two women as significant actors in the story. Notice, they are not portrayed as Lazarus’ – or anyone else’s – sisters in Luke’s story. They stand on their own. Mary chooses to listen to the words of the teacher, in the company of all those men, and is not scolded but commended. Martha is invited to put aside the tasks of running a household to do likewise. Both women deserve and receive Jesus’ attention. Both are invited into full discipleship. Both have things to contribute no less valuable or significant than any other disciple. Jesus teaches Mary and invites Martha to join her because his words are for all, his call is to all, his invitation is for all, and he lives, works, dies, and is raised again so that we know there is room for all.
And that, my dear Partner in Preaching, matters, because we seem, at the moment, to be having a really hard time in the church and larger society to recognize that “all” really means all.
You see what amazing things happen when we stop to listen to Jesus? 🙂 Thanks for your attention, labor, and words to help call us to hear, be transformed by, and live God’s amazing and expansive love. Blessings on your proclamation.
Yours in Christ,
David
Post image: “Christ with Martha and Mary” by Mikhail Nesterov (1911)
Great insight, David – thanks for (once again) opening my eyes to the obvious…
I wanted to share an observation of my own that your insight triggered. I have served several congregations as a transitional pastor, and we’re all familiar with the joke, “No one likes change except a baby with a dirty diaper.” Nevertheless, no matter how much a congregation may dislike change, almost everyone is resigned to its inevitability (albeit to varying degrees) when a new pastor arrives. Yet I have sensed a concomitant assumption as well: that change ONLY occurs when there is a change in leadership. Once the new pastor is in place and has established relationships and routines, the possibility of any significant change seems almost to disappear in people’s minds. This, despite our continuing insistence that “God is doing a new thing…”
You write, “…this story might be about timing and priorities, about circumstances and contexts which demand DIFFERENT behaviors, even about the paramount call of Jesus to his followers then AND NOW.
Jesus, after all, has set his face for Jerusalem, and the urgency of his mission is paramount. AT THIS PARTICULAR MOMENT, both disciples – indeed, all who would be his disciples – cannot afford to be distracted but must attend to his mission, his ministry, and his impending sacrifice.” (emphasis added)
It occurred to me that at this point in the story Jesus was well into His third year of ministry. I think it’s safe to say that those who had been with Him (and been corrected by Him) from the beginning had, by now, formed a pretty established narrative about Jesus and His ministry. Not only the well-known and fatally-flawed strength=power / justice through violence / vulnerability=weakness / etc. narrative, but ALSO the “ordinary and important details” of simply hanging out every day with Jesus. Jesus setting His face toward Jerusalem is, of course, a significant turning point in the Gospel. And yes, Jesus foretold this chapter several times. But I can’t help but imagine Peter (and others) saying, “What? I mean – I know you SAID that, but what we’ve got right now is going so well!!” (This in addition to Mark 8:32, etc.)
Your exegesis opened my eyes to a powerful, real-life example that God engineers change EVEN WHEN God continues to use the SAME person to lead God’s people. This is not a theological epiphany for me (I mean, I KNEW this… 😉 so much as it is a pastoral epiphany, a way to help (re-?) awaken congregants to the living and active God in their midst, Whose acts are sovereign, righteous, and full of grace.
Thanks so much for your ministry —
in Christ, Brint
Great insight, Brit, and encouraging as I enter my third year of ministry with my congregation. 🙂 Thanks for sharing it!
Except…. Martha doesn’t drop everything to join her sister sitting at Jesus’ feet. And I bet everyone ate the meal she prepared. Jesus may be heading to Jerusalem, but he and his disciples are still “fully human” and have the basic needs of food, water, sleep, etc. and they rely on those around them to supply those needs.
I agree, Mary, and I am wondering how those basic human needs would have been met if Matha had dropped everything and sat at Jesus’ feet.
I read this story as a parallel to Jesus telling the person who wants to follow him but first must bury his father to “let the dead bury the dead.” The Kingdom has come near and when it does, Jesus wants us to drop everything and follow. It doesn’t mean you never provide hospitality, but in this context when Jesus has resolutely set his face toward Jerusalem and has come into your house, you notice that this is a pivotal moment. That said, I wish Jesus had gotten up and done the dishes himself. 🙂
Maybe if Martha had dropped everything to listen, Jesus would have said, “Peter, Andrew, you’ve heard this before, go and finish what Martha started so she can listen now.”
I’m reading this as a companion to the pericope from Amos, particularly the phrase “famine for the word of God.” Two meals are present in Luke’s story–Martha prepares one, Jesus presents and represents another. Both are needful, and each requires its own place and preparation. Then I wonder what we might do if either is missing. Do we grab a quick substitute, fill up with junk food, or substitute something that looks good but is really unhealthy? How many fast-food substitutes or drive-throughs do we have for the word of God? And do we really know how hungry we are? In the immediacy of the moment, Mary might chose the better part, but Martha knows another hunger also needs to be met.
David – Thank you for making the time to offer your theological insights into the Gospel each week. Know that you are making a positive impact on many people in the Kingdom through us working preachers.