Amy C Walters

Martha and Mary | Luke 10:38-42

When Jesus goes to Martha’s house and teaches, Martha rushes around playing host. But her sister, Mary, sits at Jesus’ feet listening. So Martha tells Jesus to tell Mary to help her. Instead, he affirms Mary’s choice to listen. Because Jesus welcomes all learners.

Jesus’ teaching in the book of Luke is heavily focused on the kingdom of God. He often reveals a culture that is totally different from the normal cultural values and expectations of the day. The way of the kingdom flips things on their head.

Luke 9 ended with Jesus resolutely heading toward Jerusalem, stopping at some other towns and villages along the way. He travels through the town where Martha lives and she welcomes him in. 

Martha’s sister, Mary, sits at Jesus’ feet, listening to him teach. This idea of sitting at Jesus’ feet shows she’s in the position of a disciple. This was really unusual, because this is a position reserved for men in that culture. Women did not become disciples of a teacher. Men did. Mary’s actions are highly unusual and probably made some people in that room rather uncomfortable. 

It certainly made Martha uncomfortable and frustrated, because she “is distracted with much serving.” As the host, Martha is rushing around, trying to do all the things that she thinks need to be done. And she gets to the point where she’s frustrated enough at Mary that she says something to Jesus. “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the serving by myself? Tell her to help me.”

Martha is making two assumptions. The first is that Jesus doesn’t care. He hasn’t said anything to Mary yet, because he doesn’t care about what I’m experiencing. He doesn’t notice my frustration and my anxiety. 

The second assumption is that Martha is doing what is right and Mary is doing what is wrong. “She has left me to do the work by myself. She is sitting there when she should be working.”  This assumption lines up with the culture of that time, that women don’t sit as disciples, they serve. And since Mary is not serving, she is in the wrong. 

But Jesus’ response is going to challenge both of those assumptions. He says, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, and it will not be taken away from her.” 

Jesus’ repetition of Martha’s name is not from exasperation or critique. Instead, the tone is caring and concern. Remember, Martha is distracted by all the things that need to happen. So Jesus is slowing her down and getting her attention. 

And he does notice her frustration, her anxiety. He says, “You are anxious and troubled by many things.” So it’s not that Jesus doesn’t care. He sees her situation, but he has a different solution to it than she’s proposing. 

What does Martha think will fix her situation? Mary getting off her butt and helping Martha! But Jesus’ solution is different. He says, actually, “Mary has chosen the good portion, and it won’t be taken away from her.” Mary is doing what she should be doing. 

This would have been shocking to the audience because of that cultural expectation. Jesus is totally disregarding what’s “normal,” and he is affirming her sitting as a disciple to learn.

Now, at first blush, we really don’t find this as shocking. We too have an expectation that yes, women should also be learning as well. We affirm women’s Bible studies and going to Sunday school and women reading their Bible and learning. 

And yet, sometimes we do have a little edge of surprise when it’s deeper things of theology or when we hear of women going to seminary. Maybe deep down we expect women to stick to the basics. 

For my undergraduate degree, I studied at Moody Bible Institute. I was telling someone about my systematic theology class. And this person’s response was, “They let women study theology there?”  I responded that they not only let us study theology, they expect us to. This is part of the core requirements for every student Moody. And I was so grateful for that because I was hungry to learn that theology.

The reality is we all have beliefs about God, and theology is what helps us to refine those beliefs to match the Bible as closely as possible. We need theology. Theology is for everyone.

What about the saying, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” What do we mean by that? That at some point, as you grow older, you lose your ability to learn new things. It’s not even worth teaching an older person something because they just can’t learn it. It’s sometimes said in jest, and yet, I have seen this used as an excuse to not participate. 

How does that fit with the culture of the kingdom that Jesus is teaching about? This would say that no matter your age, young or old, you can and should be learning from your Lord.

Another dangerous idea is that I’ve learned everything that I need to. Now I’m just going to teach other people. Again, we might not admit it out loud but we can see evidence of it. Like when we are in a Bible study or Sunday school class and we seek with our answers to teach everyone else. Or we ask questions, not out of curiosity, but to show off how much we know. 

We would never say it out loud, but we need to ask ourselves, are we coming as learners? Even those of us who are teaching need to have a learning heart. I know that as a teacher.

I was recently teaching through the Book of Hebrews in a women’s Bible study. That was my third time teaching through it, and I was still learning new things. And if I teach it again, I’m going to learn new things still because God’s Word is so rich that it can keep giving and giving and giving no matter how many times we read it and study it. 

There’s one more cultural value that can sometimes be an obstacle to learning. It’s our value of productivity, that doing is better than sitting. We are impressed with people who are able to get it all done. 

But what Jesus is saying here is kind of the opposite of productivity. He’s saying, actually, the real work that I want you to do is to sit and listen. And that can take time. It can be a slow process, because sometimes what Jesus has to teach us is very difficult. Are we willing to invest the time it takes to learn from Jesus? 

Our key truth for today is that Jesus welcomes all learners.

Imagine you are Mary in this story. You are hungry to learn from Jesus, but you see your sister giving you the skunk eye because she’s busy working and you’re not helping. Then she goes to Jesus and calls you out. How would that feel? My heart would drop! I want to be learning.

But then Jesus gives his response, welcoming you to sit and keep learning. It’s not going to be taken away from you. 

This is the attitude that we need to cultivate in ourselves and encourage in others, that learning is a top priority. That learning from Jesus and learning the deep things of theology is important for men and women, young and old, educated and uneducated.