Mary and Martha

In Luke 10:38-42 we read the well-known story of Mary and Martha.  This story is one of the most quoted stories in the New Testament and is commonly used to put down Martha.  This is how I had always understood it, but Brother Griffin helped shed new light on it and opened my eyes to a new way of looking at it.  Verse 38 teaches us to important things that we must know in order to better understand Martha’s actions.  It states that Jesus came to “a certain village” from the Galilee region; we know that the village is called Bethany.  Bethany is located just on the other side of the hill of Jerusalem, so Jesus would have spent the last day of his journey ascending to Bethany – Jesus must have been very tired from his journey. Also, we learn that the house that Jesus was received in to was Martha’s house.  This makes Martha’s actions seem much more appropriate – how often has your mom frantically started to clean up and tidy things around the house when she knows people are coming over?  That is exactly what Martha was doing – she knew that Jesus was tired from his journey, so she immediately set out to make him comfortable and work around the house.  In contrast, Martha’s sister Mary “sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word.”  Mary wasn’t helping Martha around the house, and that seemed to bother Martha, evidenced by her saying, “Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me.” Basically, Martha was trying to tell Jesus that Mary was being lazy and the He should have Mary help her.  The Lord replied, “Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” 

            Now what can we learn from the story of Mary and Martha?  One thing that this story is teaching is us that people are different, and they focus their efforts on different things.  Notice how the Lord did not command Martha to be more like Mary, but rather stated that Mary was choosing the good part.  The Lord will never command us to be the “same”, but He has commanded us to be “one.”  Different personalities and strengths are necessary in the service of the Lord.  Imagine if everyone acted like Mary – nothing would get done!  We can apply this to our ministering assignments.  The Lord wants to use your specific talents and abilities to bless the lives of those around us, but we must work in conjunction with our brothers and sisters to magnify those talents and abilities.  Some people are more go-getters (like Martha), and some are more interpersonal (like Mary). Neither is better than the other, but they are different.  We can learn to embrace and use those differences to our advantage.  As we do so, we will achieve much more than we could by ourselves.