Mary vs Martha
The question of Listening
In the Gospels, these sisters of Lazarus do appear a few times. The most famous one may be related to the raising of the dead Lazarus in the gospel of John. There is another interesting scene in the gospel of Luke, where Jesus visits their family. Mary and Martha are part of this scene, Lazarus is not there.
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed — or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10, 38–42, NIV edition).
Jesus’ appreciation for Mary over Martha is very clear in this text. Sometimes, they are connected to two dimensions of human life, prayer and work or contemplation and action. Some of the preachers would interpret this passage as showing the importance of prayer; others will show that both prayer and work (or the tasks of Mary and Martha) are important.
Yesterday I had an interesting discussion on the same passage with 2 Jesuits and 3 lay persons. One of the keyword that can help us in interpretation is “listening to what he said”. The main point is not that Mary was sitting at Jesus’ feet (or close to him), but that she is listening to him. And that is the point for which she is praised.
Now, coming to Martha, was she doing something bad? Definitely not. Probably she was trying to prepare a good meal for the guests. It is very important. For giving a wonderful hospitality (which is good in itself), we can forget a more important task, which in this case, was listening to Jesus. For the sake of giving the best food, we may forget to have conversations with the guest. The gospel also says that Martha was worried and upset about many things; but in this situation, a simple meal might be enough; more important was to listen to Jesus.
This doesn’t mean that gospel is prioritizing sacred over secular (prayer over work etc). Sometimes, a proper listening of Jesus will have an invitation to do some simple task. Listening is only complete when the hearer does give a response. Or every listening to Jesus is an invitation to some action. Or Jesus never downgrade the importance of action. The same Jesus would say, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will. enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he who. does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Listening is that keyword in this gospel that can help us to interpret the gospel without falling into unnecessary pitfalls of polarization.
NB: In this story, both the characters are played by woman. But when I look from a patriarchal style family perspective where the food is prepared by the woman. Once the guest comes, men talk to the guests (or some do a little help), and the women (mostly the mother) prepares the food or snacks. I think if Jesus was the guest there, Jesus may have responded slightly differently from the gospel scene. What he would have said is left for your imagination.
