So in replying to Martha’s protests about doing all the work herself by saying Mary chose what is better, Christ is speaking from a perspective in which a single human life is only a flash in the vastness of eternity, one in which mundane details completely evaporate in the face of the enormity of God and the movement of all creation towards its ultimate fulfillment. From the Breviary, Use of the Dominicans (‘The Breviary of Queen Isabella of Castile’), British Library, Add MS 18851, f. Martha during all of this? John writes only, “Martha served” (John 12:2). The drama in John’s portrayal is thick indeed. In this play, Christ has simultaneously the perspective of the main character and the omniscience of the author. Every step he takes is under the weight of prophecy and its fulfillment, is part of a massive dramatic ritual. Christ is constantly, increasingly aware of the massive cosmic drama he’s part of and what’s right around the corner, his every action and word heavily symbolic. Mary makes a spectacle of herself pouring half of liter of precious perfume on Christ’s feet – worth a year’s wages – and wiping them with her hair. Word of his resurrection has spread like wildfire Jesus’ followers are increasing and so are the machinations against his life. Lazarus is reclined at the table with him. In John 12, Christ is in Bethany again before Passover at a dinner in his honor. Dramatic events are unfolding, but somebody has to make the setting they’re unfolding in happen. She was pointing out that she was not the only one who could be doing these things, that she *could* be sitting at Christ’s feet right now, too, if she just gave off doing the less glamorous stuff. But somebody has to do it. (You can imagine that Jesus was accompanied by an entourage, too, all of whom also needed to eat and wash and sit.) She was determined to do her duties well for such an esteemed guest as Jesus, but she wasn’t a doormat. She was just pointing out that people needed to eat and wash and sit, and somebody’s efforts had to make that happen. She also wanted to hear him speak she was also his disciple and believed in him. She wasn’t saying nobody should value hearing him teach. In Martha’s mind and in her culture, these were her duties, and her performance of them comprised her reputation, value, and trustworthiness as a member of her culture - in a society that valued hospitality quite highly, that in fact didn’t even work as a society without hospitality as a huge part of the glue that held it together. It’s not that Martha had no imagination or faith or respect or that she was too small-minded to want to sit at Christ’s feet, too. But we need to understand this in context. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:41, NIV)Ĭhrist’s point is that in the grand scheme of things, your eternal soul is more important than social conventions and what people think about your housekeeping. “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed-or indeed only one. Martha pointed out that Mary wasn’t pitching in. She cooked and cleaned and catered while her sister Mary sat at Christ’s feet and listened to him speak. The Gospel of Luke tells us how Martha invited Jesus to her home in Bethany. “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” Martha in Scripture Woodcut by Jacobus de Man, haven’t tracked down the specific publication yet, but it’s late 600s, early 1700s and public domain.
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