Unlike his solitary, austere, denunciatory cousin, John the Baptist, . . .
Unlike his
solitary, austere, denunciatory cousin, John the Baptist, Jesus received quite
a few dinner invitations. But that
doesn’t mean that he was necessarily the life of the party, because with Jesus,
you could never tell when he might say or do something that would make everyone
else at the table cringe. For example, he
might ask the host why the guest list didn’t include the poor and the
outcasts. Or he might allow a
disreputable woman to wash his feet—right there at the dinner table, mind
you—as the other guests looked on in disgust and disbelief!
Still, there
was something about Jesus that kept the invitations coming; and I suspect it
was because he did not speak in a scolding, judgmental, holier-than-thou
tone. Even when he was challenging you
and causing you to feel a bit uncomfortable, his voice was so filled with love
that it was like he was calling out to your heart, encouraging you to become
the person God created you to be.
Consider the
story of Mary and Martha. Mary is
sitting quietly at Jesus’ feet, paying close attention to every word he says;
while Martha is back in the kitchen, rushing to and fro, busily preparing the
meal. When she complains that her sister
could be a whole lot more helpful, Jesus responds, “Martha, Martha, you are
worried and distracted by many things.”
It seems
like a harsh thing to say; but I don’t think Jesus is criticizing her work
ethic, or even her desire to be a good hostess.
What he is pointing out is that, while Mary is content, Martha appears to
be conflicted. The Greek words used here
for “worried and distracted” indicate extreme internal agitation, rather than
merely fussing about the unfairness of the situation.
So why is
Martha in such turmoil? Maybe it’s
because she secretly wishes that she could be out there sitting at Jesus’ feet
too. Maybe it’s because she’s angry at herself
for being so compulsive (after all, the dinner doesn’t have to be
perfect). Maybe it’s because she resents
her sister’s ability to ignore society’s norm (a woman’s place is in the
kitchen) and dare to act like a male disciple.
Whatever the reason, the bottom line is that Martha has one eye on the
meal and the other on Mary!
If we are
honest with ourselves, we all have a little Martha in us, don’t we? We keep envying our neighbor’s life, instead
of enjoying our own. We keep wishing we
were doing something different, instead of focusing on the task at hand. We keep thinking that our gifts and abilities
don’t quite measure up, instead of realizing that each of us has something
valuable to contribute.
We’re not
told how Martha reacted to Jesus’ words.
However, my hunch is that she did not hear them as an insult, but rather
as an invitation. Jesus was lovingly
calling out to her heart and saying, “Come, you’re welcomed to join us.” And afterwards—at least the way I imagine
it—Jesus helped with the cleanup. After
all, we know he washed feet. Why not
dishes?
3 Comments:
You're approaching the beginning of your eighth year of writing this blog, and around 300 blog posts by my rough count. I've read a lot of them over the years. It's an impressive body of work -- congratulations!
By Anonymous, at 6:46 AM
Always such helpful insights into Scripture. Thank you.
By Anonymous, at 5:39 AM
Once again you have made Jesus very real to me. I can see Jesus helping with the clean up after a meal. Be sides being GOD; Jesus wants to show us that GOD wants to be involved in all aspects of our lives
By Anonymous, at 1:12 PM
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