When Jesus said, upon one occasion, that He had not where to lay His
head, He was speaking the bitter and literal truth. He had really no
home of His own, but was everywhere a wanderer, dependent on others for
shelter and food; and though the New Testament draws a veil over all the
hardships which that entailed even in the hospitable East, imagination
can picture something at least of what the homelessness of Jesus must
have meant.
But He had close and warm friends who made it up to Him as far as
friends could, and of these were the two sisters, Martha and Mary, who
with their brother, Lazarus, had a house in Bethany. This place was His
haven and shelter, for "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus."
The sisters were unlike in disposition. Mary, we can imagine, was
dreamy, meditative, perhaps a little delicate and fragile, and gifted
with a quick and loving sympathy. Martha was robust, practical,
energetic. Her way of showing the Master that she considered it an
honour to have Him for a guest was to give Him the very best that her
housewifely skill could suggest. No trouble was too much for her. And
it is very possible that one of the charms which this home had for
Jesus--one of the qualities which made it a real place of rest--was its
well-ordered arrangements, the quiet, efficient, capable way in which
things were done. And whose was the credit for that? Martha's.
What would that household have been like without Martha? And what would
any home that is fortunate enough to have a Martha in it, be like
without her? The truth is our debt to the Marthas is one which we have
never fully acknowledged. You would imagine, hearing the way in which
her name is sometimes used, that it has an apologetic character, as if
the making of a home comfortable and homelike were a gift to be lightly
esteemed in comparison, for example, with the ability to write verse! It
is foolish to play Mary off against her sister in this way. Martha did
what she could do best, and showed her love for Christ in that fashion,
and you may be quite sure that He understood. Mary served Him in her
way, by giving Him what He needed more at times than food--a heart to
listen to His message, and a sympathy which made the telling of it meat
and drink to Him. Each sister was the complement of the other.
But we wrong Martha, of course, in thinking of her as always in the
kitchen. Certainly when there waas a meal to be prepared you would find
her there, and well that was for the household and the servants. But
nobody is always eating or thinking about eating; and often of an
evening, doubtless, when the labours of the day were over, Martha would
join her sister at the feet of the Master whom she loved as much as Mary
did.
The incident which has given rise to the popular misconception of
Martha's character occurred during a visit which Jesus paid in the days
before Lazarus fell sick. Something went wrong in Martha's department
that day. Perhaps it was a mistake of a servant that irritated the
usually self-controlled Martha, or maybe some oversight of her own. At
anyrate, it set up a condition of worry which straightway began to add
to itself, as its habit is, seven other devils. And as Martha went out
and in the dining chamber getting things ready, the sight of Mary
sitting there at the Master's feet doing nothing, struck her, perhaps
for the first time, as rather out of place. Things began to go further
wrong. Just when Martha wanted to do special honour to Jesus, the
ordinarily smooth-running wheels of that home began to creak and grind.
Each time she entered the room where Christ and Mary were, Martha's
steps grew brisker and more emphatic; and then the last straw was laid
on, and the outburst came! Martha asked Jesus if He really did not care
that Mary was leaving her to do everything. Bid her come and help me,
she said.
Of course, Jesus knew that it was for His sake that Martha was giving
herself all this trouble. He saw, as even we can see, that this
kind-hearted, worried woman was speaking crossly, as the very best will
do at times, because she was tired and a bit overdriven. And with a
perfect and gentle chivalry and tact He made His reply. As the
Authorised Version puts it, it jars on one, somehow. But King James'
translators have misread their text. What Jesus said was: "Martha,
Martha, you are unduly anxious and troubled. Only a few things are
necessary, or even one. Mary has chosen a good part, and I cannot allow
you to take it from her."
Martha, remember, was making a feast worthy of the Master, and Jesus,
looking upon the various dishes being got ready, said, in effect, I do
not really need so many as that. One would do quite well. And I must
not let you think that Mary is doing nothing. She, too, is ministering
to me by her sympathy and her willing ear, and you must not take away
the good part she has chosen.
Jesus was not speaking about the personal salvation of either Mary or
her sister. He was only dealing gently with a good and true friend of
His who had not served Him as she had wished to do. When He spoke of
what was needful, He meant needful for Himself, the Guest whom both the
sisters were seeking to honour.
He made no comparison between Martha's service and Mary's. He did not
say, as we have read it so often, that Mary had chosen the better part.
He said, in her defence, that Mary's was also a good part. He is not
blaming Martha, but only expostulating with her in the gentlest fashion,
and defending Mary from the charge which Martha in her heat had made
against her, the charge of being useless, and doing nothing to help to
entertain the Master. Jesus said, She is helping to entertain Me in her
own way, and, He added, it is a good way.
When Jesus having said that only a few things were necessary, dropped
His voice, as we may imagine, and added "or indeed one," He may have
meant more than He seemed to say. For there was one thing that was more
than meat to our Lord, and that was to find a soul with heart and
sympathy open to His message. And it may be that He felt, as He said
the words, that Mary's ministry met a need of His deeper than that for
which Martha was catering. At anyrate, the oldest and best versions of
this Gospel give Christ's words as we have rendered them, and they stand
here, not to be used as a peg on which to hang doctrines, but rather as
a proof of the gentle courtesy of our Lord, of His insight into
character and motive, and of His gracious recognition of the worth of
any and every kind of service that has love at its heart.
Martha went back to her kitchen, and Mary remained where she was. Mary
was not asked to go and help. Martha would have protested if she had
come. Martha was not called upon to go and sit beside Mary. Each
continued the service for which she was best fitted. But each, I think,
had learned something that day. And you and I must not leave this page
of our New Testament till we have learned it too--that we serve best
when we do gladly that for which we are best qualified; that it belongs
to our Christian service to recognise in all loyalty that, though others
find different ways of expressing it, theirs is a good part; and that we
must never either belittle it or seek to take it from them.