At this past weekend’s women’s retreat (the one on the island on the way to which my phone flew off the car and into oblivion), I preached my first sermon. I was super nervous, but when Pastor Babette asks you to preach, you do it. Not because she’s bossy but because she’s the boss and usually knows what you need to do before you do, and so she is how you figure out what you need.
Anyway, so then one of the planning team told me the weekend’s passage was Luke 10:38-42 about Mary and Martha and I visibly cringed and asked her if she was serious because SERIOUSLY? Another women’s retreat concentrated on this story of the “distracted busy body Martha who needs to be more like her sweet sister Mary who’s always sitting at Jesus’ feet”? Gag.
I am an enneagram 4 and the youngest of four sisters and I need exactly no one and nothing telling me to be more like my sisters, sorry not sorry.
But I decided that if I’m going to be a preacher-pastor, I'll have to preach some texts I don’t like so I might as well practice with women who love me. I dug in intent on finding something new and powerful for Mary AND Martha and I found this incredible public theologian named Mary Stromer Hansen who literally wrote the book about these sisters and this passage. And what I found was stunning and made me LOVE this text because what we’ve been handed (especially as women) is just full of garbage mythology and patriarchal projections onto the past that strip two powerful sisters of their agency and place in their context -- and realtiy is powerful.
So I’m going to share it with you. Bear with me, because it’s not short and it involves some Greek.
“As they went on their way, he came to a village where
a woman named Martha received him. She had a
sister named Mary who ALSO was one who sat at the
Lord’s feet, always listening to his words." (10:38-39)
Firstly, two things are immediately clear from the intro verses: Martha received Jesus alone, and BOTH she and Mary were his disciples. Lots if not most translations totally skip the word “ALSO” which is clearly present in the Greek, indicating that Mary AND Martha were “sitters at the Lord’s feet.”
Secondly, this notion of “sitting at the Lord’s feet” isn’t a literal, physical thing — Mary wasn’t actually sitting at Jesus’ feet when this all went down. Instead, this was common vernacular at the time indicating discipleship. These two sisters were disciples of Jesus — Martha in the village of Bethany; Mary out with other disciples in the countryside as a traveling disciple.
Third, we know that their discipleship was active. These women were doing full time ministry. How do we know? Because verse 40 says this:
“But Martha was constantly PERSIPAO concerning
much DIAKONIAN.”
Again, most translations turn “perispao” into “distracted,” but what it actually means is “greatly troubled” — which according to biblical scholars indicates persistent, ongoing stress. So Martha is perpetually stressed out by burdens directly related to…DIAKONIAN.
You guys. Throughout the New Testament this word “Diakonia” means “ministry.” The work of ministers — apostles, disciples, pastors, prophets. And yet in THIS passage, for some reason this word is translated as “tasks.” I’m not gonna call the bible translators sexist, but they definitely are.
Reality is, Martha, a disciple of Jesus, is overwhelmed not by menial tasks but by M I N I S T R Y.
So, she EPHISTEMI. She “set upon” or “attacked” or “confronted” Jesus, saying, “Lord! Does it not make YOU anxious that my sister has KATALIPO alone to DIAKONEIN?”
This Greek word “katalipo” means “to leave” — to go away, to physically abandon or desert a place and go to another.
Again: Mary is so not in the home right now. Sister is gone. And she has left Martha alone to DIAKONEIN.
Diakonein is a variation of “ministry” reflecting the actions and practical work/service related to ministry. It’s not just cooking and cleaning; it’s all the work related to ministry. Meaning, while Mary is gone, Martha is making meals for the community, getting groceries for the poor, praying with people, visiting prisoners, taking care of kids, and doing all the other daily labor of a minister. AND SHE IS TIRED. So she tells Jesus to go find Mary and "EPO" -- command -- her to come home so she can help.
This is where it gets kind of amazing. Because Jesus answers her saying,
“Martha, Martha. You are MERIMNAS and
THORYBAZE about POLLOS.”
Jesus names Martha -- twice — calling her out of the Mary narrative and into her own body.
And he sees what’s **actually** going on. Up to this point all we’re told is that she’s overburdened by the daily work of ministry.
But Jesus peels back that layer and names the True Truth:
Martha is MERIMNAS
— anxious to the point of being divided into pieces —
and THORYBAZE
— agitated to the point of panic —
about POLLOS
— many things. This last word, "pollos," is unrelated to ministry and is just (as my dear friend Sara likes to say) “all the alls.”
Martha has confronted Jesus and told him to command Mary back home, and instead he calls her into herself and names all the real anxiety and agitation that’s tearing her apart — the anxiety and panic that she’s tried to bury with the busyness of ministry.
And he tells her, “What Mary has chosen is a good portion, and it will not be taken from her.”
This is where that original myth of Mary physically sitting at the feet of Jesus becomes so problematic. She’s not sitting at his feet — she is a woman out doing a disciple’s work with men in a world that is not made for or kind to women. Her absence, not laziness, is what has Martha agitated. And Jesus says, “she’s chosen a good portion [i.e. NOT "the only good thing" like some translations imply] and I won’t take it away.”
And here is everything. I don’t think Martha’s burden of ministry is too much for her. I think that’s the front.
I think what’s really happening is that Martha loves her sister deeply and is anxious to the point of being torn apart over her absence. (And yeah, she’s maybe a little jealous that Mary’s out becoming a darling of the countryside while Martha’s nose is to the grindstone back at home.)
I think she wants her sister home safe.
But Jesus tells her not to worry about Mary, because what Mary has chosen is a “good portion” — she’s well-suited to the ministry she’s doing, and can take care of herself.
So I think there are two absolutely critical things happening here.
First:
Jesus is calling Martha back to her own body, her own ministry, and her own heart.
He is naming her and validating her and SEEING her.
And second:
He is 100% NOT telling Martha to be more like Mary.
He is telling Martha to LET MARY BE MARY.
The coolest thing about Mary and Martha, I think, is that these two women were pioneers of a sort — the first “apostles of the apostles.” They became well-known matriarchs of the early church and were beloved and respected as such.
But Martha? She gets such a bad rap when really her badassery is unmatched.
She is the community organizer who doesn’t sleep because police violence doesn’t sleep.
She is the church mother taking in and feeding the kids after finding their mom a suitable outfit to wear to an interview and making sure she had a ride and a few copies of her resume.
She is the pastor taking meals to the home-bound while preaching at house church every Sunday, and making sure someone is there to greet Jesus when he comes to town.
She is a woman in a man’s world doing “mens’ work” and is close enough with Jesus as his disciple to speak freely and plainly to him when she needs answers.
She is tired and overworked.
And nevertheless she persisted.
And by medieval times she was known as the Dragon Tamer, which is the legacy she leaves to us.
SO HEY WOMEN.
To you Marys who’ve been told to go home?
Don’t.
Don’t go home because Jesus didn’t call Mary home.
Whether you’re traveling doing the speaking circuit or the politics and lobbying circuit — keep doing it because it is your good portion.
To you Marthas doing the tireless, thankless, endless work of ministry and activism at home?
Don’t stop, we need all the f-ing Marthas we can get, and yours, too, is a good portion.
"This is where that original myth of Mary physically sitting at the feet of Jesus becomes so problematic. She’s not sitting at his feet — she is a woman out doing a disciple’s work with men in a world that is not made for or kind to women. Her absence, not laziness, is what has Martha agitated. And Jesus says, “she’s chosen a good portion [i.e. NOT "the only good thing" like some translations imply] and I won’t take it away.”
This is where the first blasphemy takes place to take away the Lords own words and righteous testimonies.
Mary anoints the Lords feet and wipes His feet with her hair. (yes it is a different role in life for men and women, men do not do this to men)
Martha speaks about Christ being the Son of the Father(because again, Father and Son show who God is, not mother and daughter)
Mary again falls down at Jesus' feet., speaking to Him from there.
Martha is corrected by Jesus, as Martha tries without correct faith to correct Jesus from the works of God..
John 11:1 Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.
2 (It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.)
John 11:27 She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.
John 11:32 Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
John 11:39 Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.
40 Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
"Again: Mary is so not in the home right now. Sister is gone. And she has left Martha alone to DIAKONEIN."
Mary sits at Jesus feet to hear His word.
Hearing the word of Christ saves our soul, it is the good part.
Martha is a different example, who had not chosen that good part in faith to Jesus.
Luke 10:39 And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.
40 But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.
41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:
42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
Martha served at the supper
Mary anoints the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair, so she was there, and Martha did not do like Mary to sit at His feet, to believe in Him hearing His word, to anoint the feet of Christ...
John 12:2 There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.
3 Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.
It is the soul that is lost for all people who take away from Gods word when they believe in and understand none of it. This is why the testimony is being told here, it's for that purpose so all has been told, and all has been refused, and nothing acknowledged, as Gods word prophesied, they choose men's/peoples words over the word of the Lord.
There are those who are working in some capacity for the Lord but have little, if any, relationship with Him.
Then there are those who work for the Lord, but as well, like Mary, have a deep relationship. It is only this group who will accomplish anything for Jesus even though they are little regarded by the Works or even by much of the church.
and the deep relationship is Godly fear and reverance, for God is a consuming fire
Hebrews 12:25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:
26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
