In The Moment

Martha and Mary.

Familiar biblical characters from the Gospel of Luke, Martha and Mary. Jesus visits the sisters’ home and we find them to be quite different characters.

Martha welcomes Jesus, as a good host should, but then is too busy to visit with him because of the many chores she has to do. Mary, on the other hand, just sits and listens to Jesus talk. That upsets Martha, who could use a hand, so she asks Jesus to tell Mary to help her. But Jesus tells Martha that Mary’s doing the right thing. In her haste to be the perfect  hostess, Martha has lost the focus on her guest, but Mary sits, attentive and listening, with Jesus.

Martha and Mary.

Typically, I think, we tend to identify with one or the other and then struggle with the apparent favour that Jesus shows Mary. Some of us are doers like Martha, some of us are listeners like Mary and if we’re a doer, well, what’s wrong with that, Jesus?

Well, nothing. Nothing at all. Which one’s better isn’t the point. The story’s about Martha and Mary, not Martha or Mary. 

Here’s another moment when Jesus isn’t an either/or kind of guy, he’s an and/with. There's a time to be busy with work and there's a time for rest and reflection. Both are necessary. That’s even more obvious when we read what's around this story in Luke. Before Jesus is welcomed to the home of Martha and Mary, he’s talking to a lawyer about what he "must do to inherit eternal life." What he must "do." Jesus’ answer includes the parable of the Good Samaritan that challenges him to consider who his neighbour really is and what it means to love that neighbour. That story ends with Jesus telling him to "go and do likewise" (Luke 10:37). That's a whole lot of doing, a whole lot of living out the words that are spoken.

Immediately after his visit to the home of Martha and Mary, Jesus is asked to teach about prayer. He offers the words of what we know as The Lord's Prayer and a story about the importance of being persistent in prayer.

It's not that any one of these things is more important than the other, they’re complimentary. All part of the wholeness that we are. They’re siblings, just like Martha and Mary. What’s important in this story is discerning which is most important in the moment. Which is "the only one thing" (Luke 10:42) needed in this moment?

We live busy lives. There’s often so much to do that we can find ourselves missing the moment, multi-tasking in the hopes of accomplishing more and more without really noticing what this moment really needs. It’s not about more or less, it’s about what’s right for this time. 

“What gain have the workers from their toil? I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. God has made everything suitable for its time.” (Ecclesiastes 3:9-11)