Martha had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to all he said.
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord said, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her.”
Luke 10:38-41
The story of Martha and Mary. The story of the person who gets caught up with the business of life contrasted to the story of the person who chooses to be at the feet of Jesus, right? That’s what I wrote in the margin of my bible next to this story- “Doing contrast being.” Which is a message that is good for me to hear. Good for me to internalize. But maybe a slightly different story than what I always thought.
I was talking to a friend the other day about this passage. She had spent several months in Yemen and her main comment about Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus was, Man, what a social catastrophe that would have been. She went on to explain that in the Middle East when people come over to your house, the women all go in the back room and then men all go into the front room. Women could MAYBE be in the same room as their father and brothers, but if there were non-immediate-family men in the house- no way. If a woman walked into the men side, all the other women in the house would do everything they could to get the woman back into the girl room- the social humiliation of having a woman sitting with a man would be too great. It would reflect very badly on the family.
This comment caught in my brain. Mostly likely Martha wasn’t so concerned about getting all the food ready. Mostly likely Martha was concerned that Mary was tarnishing the family name.
I can just imagine Martha standing at the door, desperately trying to catch Mary’s eye…first signalling with a little cough, then maybe a stamp of her foot, finally the audacious move of interrupting the men’s conversation in order to ask Jesus to send Mary out of the room. And what did Jesus respond? Martha, you are worried and upset about many things. Worried and upset about the family name. Worried and upset what people might think. Worried and upset about the virtue of her sister. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her.
What is it that Mary chose? She chose to sit at the Lord’s feet- an idiomatic expression used to describe a disciple learning from a rabbi. Like how Paul “sat at the feet of Gamaliel”- was a disciple of the Rabbi Gamaliel. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her. Jesus approved.
Approval. Isn’t that what we want? What I want, that’s for sure. It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot, now that I’m a breath away from my master’s. Professors ask about the next step…I mumble something about a PhD. Grown up friends of my mom ask about the next step…I mumble something about kids. Old friends from college ask about the next step…I mumble something about getting out of the country. I mumble what I think they might like to hear- something that will intrigue them and think, yup, that girl’s on her way in the right direction. Approved.
But golly gee. Sometimes it feels like there are ten thousand landmines- somewhere, somehow, no matter what, people will be disappointed. But isn’t that just it. Those are the wrong stamps of approval. I have plop myself down in front of Jesus. I need to pour out all the festering, mosquito larva sludge water settled at the bottom of this broken vessel of a soul and have Him fill me up with water that is fresh. And living. And by abandoning the status quo of The Thing To Do, I can find approval. Jesus approves.
