Hi there,
Almost every time I do a women’s or moms’ Bible study, the story of Mary and Martha inevitably comes up. If you need a refresher, it’s from Luke 10:38–42. Jesus and His disciples arrive in a village, and Martha welcomes them into her home. She immediately gets to work preparing everything, while her sister Mary sits at Jesus’ feet, listening. When Martha finally speaks up, hoping Jesus will step in, He gently responds by affirming Mary.
And now we have the phrase, “Don’t be such a Martha,” for anyone who gets caught up in the busyness of life.
This story has always annoyed me. There, I said it.
I really feel for Martha. She invited Jesus and who knows how many others into her home. She’s probably thinking, what have I done? How am I going to feed all these people? How long are they staying? She’s rearranging furniture, making a grocery list, pulling chicken out of the freezer, sending her husband to the market. And then she looks over and sees Mary just sitting there. I can feel my chest tighten just thinking about it.
She’s hoping Jesus will stand up for her. Instead, He turns and says,
“Mary has chosen what is better.”
The nerve.
The Bible doesn’t tell us how Martha responds. I think we like to imagine she took a deep breath, smiled, and went to sit down next to Mary. If it were me, I probably would’ve huffed out of the room and gone outside to cool off by the chickens.
But the more I sit with this story, the more I’m convinced Jesus was looking at Martha with deep love. He never said what she was doing was wrong. He never said He wasn’t grateful. He didn’t shame her for caring or serving. He simply named what was happening in her heart. Martha wasn’t wrong for working. She was anxious. Distracted. Stretched thin by many good things. And honestly, same.
It’s so easy to worry about the million things on our plates. Meal planning. Chore charts. Endless laundry. Sports sign-ups. None of those things are bad. Many of them are necessary. But Jesus reminds us there is something better. Not better as in more spiritual or more impressive, but better as in more secure. More lasting. More rooted. His voice tends to be quieter, not demanding our attention, but remaining when everything else falls away.
I love that Jesus says Mary’s choice “will not be taken from her.”
Chore charts will fail us. Meal plans will change. There will always be another load of laundry, and your kid is probably not going to the Olympics. Sorry. But the Word of God will never return void.
So today, if you find yourself moving through life like Martha, pulled thin by many good things, maybe this is simply an invitation. Not to stop serving. Not to abandon responsibility. But to remember where your worth comes from. To sit, even briefly, with Jesus, because what you receive there cannot be taken from you.