The unfairness of Christ [Luke 10]

I don’t watch the news on TV. I tend to look at the paper electronically — local in the morning and the US/UK in the evening — and skim the headlines. The two magazines I buy are weekly. For I worry enough.

Now worry is not a sin, nor is wanting to serve. Martha is distracted by her wish to serve, to feed Jesus. We know that Mary and Martha had a brother called Lazarus, and that Jesus loved all three.

What Martha wants, however, is fairness. She’s worried and busy serving, and Mary darn well better be just as fussed about this. But Mary is at the feet of Christ.

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Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

(Luke 10:38-42 ESV)

Martha thinks she wants fairness. She is busy, Calvin speculates that she has made a great feast, and needs a second set of hands, when it was not needed — noting that there was a duty of hospitality, but also that it had been taken to excess. But to remove Mary from her occupation and employment would be unjust.

There is no comparison here, as unskillful and mistaken interpreters dream. Christ only declares, that Mary is engaged in a holy and profitable employment, in which she ought not to be disturbed. “You would have a good right,” he says, “to blame your sister, if she indulged in ease, or gave herself up to trifling occupations, or aimed at something unsuitable to her station, and left to you the whole charge of the household affairs. But now, when she is properly and usefully employed in hearing, it would be an act of injustice to withdraw her from it; for an opportunity so favorable is not always in her power.” There are some, indeed, who give a different interpretation to the latter clause, which shall not be taken away from her, as if Christ intended to say, that Mary hath chosen the good part, because the fruit of heavenly doctrine can never perish. For my own part, I have no objection to that opinion, but have followed the view which appeared to me to be more in accordance with Christ’s design

Martha was loved by Christ. Martha cared for Christ: like many, she wanted to give him her best. And the household needed work: preparing the food and keeping things clean was (and is, in agricultural areas) a full-time job — for it is the grinding of the grain before the baking of the bread: it is the need for continual cleanliness so that the filth from the farm does not infect the field workers. I don’t think Mary or Martha left the bolts Kipling mentioned untightened.

But there are higher things. There are greater priorities. And the trouble for those of us who worry, who have a fair amount of Martha in us, is that we can be so busy dealing with what the think needs doing now and so resentful of the unfairness of it all that we forget that there are more important things.

Such as the people we are feeding, such as the God we should thank for saving us. We forget to kneel at Christ’s feet, and substitute busy-ness for worship.

This is another reason to meet as a congregation: and to worship. It is a reason to keep times off and days off. It is a reason to not get too elaborate in your ceremonies and in your daily life. There are things we need to do today and every day to survive: we have tasks to complete, both in the household and outside it. But start the day in the word; start the day in prayer. Before the troubles of the day drive you to exhaustion.

And resent not those who sit at the feet of Christ in worship. Join them instead.