I was searching for my copy of Luke
Timothy Johnson’s commentary on Luke. In it, he remarks that Luke has the
capacity to unearth depths of human psychology in a few bold strokes. Such has
been my experience with the story of Mary and Martha in Lk. 10”38-42.This
little story is a miracle of concision. With almost no information, we feel as
if we know the characters in this family. It always amazes me how easily we
place Martha and Mary into familiar types and can read into them quite easily.
It is also instructive with whom we tend to identify. Do you tend to align
ourselves with Mary or with Martha?
I do not think it an accident that
Luke places it between the Good Samaritan story and the Lord’s Prayer. These
people are at the cusp of merging spiritual life and everyday physical needs
together. At Easter we noted that Thomas is a twin and has a split in his
belief system. Here Mary and Martha are two parts of a whole life. Martha is
anxious-too tied up with all the work and is putting herself in an uproar, getting
herself all flustered and frustrated.
I hear Jesus being tender with
Martha when he calls her name twice. He is being kind, as her many tasks are
overwhelming her. She’s trying to do too much at one time and is feeling put upon because she isn’t getting
the help she feels she needs. My guess is that as soon as someone helps
here she corrects them and drives them out because they don’t fold towels her
way. Her frustration creates a relationship tension because she tries to
recruit Jesus as an ally against her sister. Jesus will not take the bait, as
he wants people to resolve issues themselves without recourse to triangles of
pressure.
I still remember that I missed a
Bruce Springsteen concert in college as I was writing so many papers that
semester. Mary would have figured out a better way. I am always astonished at
how those who see hard work as a primary moral quality quickly dismiss her as
lazy. She has Jesus in front of her and is not going to miss out on his
teachings and sheer presence. I do get a sense that she is a bit oblivious to
all of Martha's work. Ethereal spirituality has to be connected to earthly
needs in our incarnational religion. At the same time, Martha’s concern with
the mundane and its attendant anxiety prevents her from recognizing the gift of
Jesus’s presence in her home, for she is blinded by tasks. Her concern for
hospitality is getting in the way of her hospitality to the words and presence
of Jesus. she is not be a good host for his words to be appreciated, not just the
appetizers.
In the great hymn of Colossians 1 we get a sense
of Jesus Christ as what helps all the cosmos hold it together. Jesus Christ
helps the Mary and Martha in us hold it together and points us to wholeness
beyond the ken of either side of us. All of us need both sides to be a complete
person. When I do some pre-marital work, I often quote the movie Rocky where he
says that the gaps in the two are hat attracts them. Put differently, a good
marriage creates a whole relationship where the quirks, strengths, and gaps in
individuals of the couple are made whole and respected. A good marriage creates
a whole. The soul has two sides, two faces. One face needs to be turned to the
practical, and there is God, but the other face needs to be turned to the
sublime, the deep quiet; there too we find God.
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