Learning from both Mary and MarthaĪt first glance, we might assume this story invites us to be either a Mary or a Martha. Jesus welcomes women to learn at his feet. Mary, a woman in a male-dominated world, yet a disciple! Scandalous and profound, indeed! Jesus’s affirmation of Mary’s posture reveals his acceptance of Mary as a legitimate disciple. Since this was the posture assumed by a disciple, we can safely conclude that Mary was a disciple of Jesus. Mary sits at the feet of her rabbi, Jesus. In Acts 22:3, the apostle Paul tells us that he was educated “at the feet of Gamaliel.” Gamaliel, an esteemed rabbi in Israel, trained Paul who would later self-describe as a “Pharisee of Pharisees” (Acts 23:6 cf. In Jewish tradition, “sitting at the feet” was what a disciple did. Without understanding the cultural context, we might miss the profundity of Mary’s posture. Mary “sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying” (Luke 10:39). The significance of Mary at the feet of Jesus Jesus commends Mary for sitting at his feet, inviting Martha to consider the way in which she serves. Feeling justified, Martha receives an answer from Jesus she surely did not anticipate. Consumed by worry and anxiety, Martha demands that Jesus tell Mary to help her. The connection between Mary and Jesus’s feet is significant.Īs Mary sits at Jesus’s feet, Martha finds herself “distracted by her many tasks” (Luke 10:40). Mary anoints and wipes the feet of Jesus in John 12. Luke says Mary “sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching.” John 11 says she falls at Jesus’s feet. Mary positions herself at the feet of Jesus in each of these stories. If we consider the passage in its canonical order, we first meet Jesus’s friends here in Luke, and later in John 11 and 12. One commentator indicates that Mary and Martha may have been the most important and prominent women in Jesus’s life after his own mother. John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus “loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus” (John 11:5). Jesus stops in Bethany where his friends Martha and Mary and their brother, Lazarus, live. In our text, we find Jesus headed two miles east from Jerusalem toward the nearby village of Bethany. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’” – Luke 10:38-42 Introduction to Mary and Martha in the Bible But Martha was distracted by her many tasks so she came to him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things there is need of only one thing. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. “Now as they went on their way, entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. Fill us with your love that we might bring it to a broken and hurting world. Teach us to seek you wholeheartedly and to serve you without distraction or self-righteousness. Jesus, you call us to seek your presence and to serve the world in your name.
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