Section 85

Section 85
JESUS THE GUEST OF MARTHA AND MARY
Bethany, near Jerusalem
LUKE 10:38-42

To this day, when I read the story of Martha and Mary, my gut sides with Martha.  Maybe it's because my husband is a "people person" and enjoys talking with them on so many levels while I am scurrying around pulling together food and drinks. But as several of the commentaries below point out, the message is not serve/no serve.  It's in the kind of service and in recognizing the value of the moment, something the Greeks called kairos.  Here, Mary "gets it" and sits down to listen.  Martha's busyness and preconceptions miss the bigger moment:

"In Martha there was an error of judgment: not of that kind which proves the entire want of real piety, but which implies great oversight, and a disregard to existing circumstances." Essex Congregational Remembrancer

"The narrative teaches us in what way we are to expect the notice and approbation of our Divine Redeemer. Not when pursuing our own plans, not when devoting ourselves to worldly concerns; but when honouring His word, when learning His will and seeking His grace."-Essex Congregational Remembrancer

This was a helpful distinction for me:

" Martha honored Christ as a Guest, but Mary honored him as a Teacher." -Fourfold Gospel

Upon a quick reading, it's easy to feel that Martha is offering the higher service by tending to Christ's needs and encouraging others to do the same, but the observation above points out that it's more about heart service vs. physical service.

Is my current method of reading the Bible an extension of this---I have become a slow reader, pondering and letting the scriptures breath, like Mary might, as opposed to moving through scripture efficiently as Martha.

The Essex Congregational Remembrancer goes so far as to suggest Martha's conduct was sinful:

"There was evil passion in her conduct. It was the warmth of her temper which prompted her to make the appeal, “Lord, dost Thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone?” She felt irritated because her sister did not think and act like herself. She measured her sister’s conduct by her own line, and hence her rash reflection on Mary’s composure." 

Our Lord's rebuke is not aimed at hospitality, nor at a life full of energy and business. It is intended to reprove that fussy fretfulness which attempts many unneeded things, and ends in worry and fault-finding. It does not set a life of religious contemplation above a life of true religious activity, for contemplation is here contrasted with activity put forth with a faulty spirit. The trend of the New Testament teaching shows that a man must be a doer as well as a hearer of the Word. -BI

'Christ in the House of Mary and Martha', Vincenzo Campi

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Spurgeon's Commentary:

The Martha spirit shows itself in the censuring of those persons who are careful about Christ’s word, who stand up for the doctrines of the gospel, who desire to maintain the ordinances as they were delivered unto them and who are scrupulous and thoughtful, and careful concerning the truth as it is in Jesus. Mary, treasuring Up every word of Christ, Mary, counting each syllable a pearl, is reckoned to be unpractical, if not altogether idle. Contemplation, worship, and growth in grace are not unimportant. I trust we shall not give way to the spirit which despises our Lord’s teaching, for if we do, in prizing the fruit and despising the root we shall lose the fruit and the root too. In forgetting the great well-spring of holy activity, namely, personal piety, we shall miss the streams also.

The Martha spirit crops up in our reckoning so many things necessary. To bring us back to first principles, “one thing is needful,” and if by sitting at Jesus’ feet we can find that one thing, it will stand us in better stead than all the thousand things which custom now demands. To catch the Spirit of Christ, to be filled with Himself, this will equip us for godly labour as nothing else ever can.

 THE MARTHA SPIRIT INJURES TRUE SERVICE.
1. It brings the least welcome offering to Christ.
2. It brings self too much to remembrance.

The manner of her action was being refined. Her estimate of Christ was truer than Martha’s. Those who think not, who meditate not, who commune not with Christ, will do commonplace things very well, but they will never rise to the majesty of a spiritual conception, or carry out a heart-suggested work for Christ....She struck out a spark of light from herself as her own thought, and she cherished that spark till it became a flaming act.-C. H. Spurgeon

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The story of the good Samaritan had an unexpected twist to it. It started off to answer the question “Who is my neighbor?” But it ended by posing the question “To whom do you prove yourself a neighbor?” BB