Mare-eeee!

As I’ve confessed earlier, my view of Mary and Martha is probably tainted slightly by my Martha-like personality. I’ve always pictured Martha as a very with-it, organized, color-coded type of girl who talks like I do, and is basically me in early AD clothing. And I wonder if the Mary of my mind has been similarly influenced by my sisters. (I have two.) Now, my sisters are great. They are hard-working, sweet girls who are my best friends in the world. But, as is common with siblings, we see things differently from time to time. My idea of an urgent project or need is different from theirs. When I am on a cooking or cleaning bent, I want it done right then, and they don’t always share my urgency. Whatever productive or noble pursuit they are engaged in is clearly (to me, at that moment) not as important as dinner, or the dishes, or whatever I want their help with. J So I holler (in a slightly irritated tone), “Bonn-eeee! Beck-eeeee!” to hurry them to my aid. In my mind’s eye, Martha’s in the same boat. She’s slaving away, convinced her sister is too busy, lazy, etc to do to the things that need to be done. Since Martha and I are so similar, I have seen Mary that way, too. Not just on the day Jesus came, but all the time. I have seen Mary as a girl who sits and chills while her sister does all the work.  I see Martha coming out of the kitchen on a daily basis, wiping her hands on her apron, hollering “Mare-eeee!!!” while Mary sits and daydreams, oblivious to the mountains of work waiting.

Have I been fair to Mary? Was she really that bad?

Probably not. We only see snippets of Martha and Mary’s life. We don’t know how they interacted with each other most of the time. They are only described a handful of times in the Bible. The first is the famous scene where Martha tattles to Jesus in Luke 10. The second is when their brother Lazarus dies (John 11), and a third is shortly after that, in John 12. In John 12, we see a scene where Jesus has joined his friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus for a special dinner, at some point after Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.  (It is possible this may be the same dinner described in Luke 10, but stay with me.)  NIV reads: “Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him.” (John 12:2 b) We see Mary in the next verse, “Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.” I find it interesting that here we are told more about Mary and less about Martha, but it is still mentioned that Martha was doing the work. Now, she may not be doing all the work, but that is the way I have always read it.  Then Jesus proceeds to (again) tell everyone how Mary has her priorities right, but this time he is preaching to the disciples instead of Martha.

            So there is no resolution to how Mary acts in relationship to her sister, but we do have at least 2 accounts of Mary doing the “better” thing of listening to and honoring Jesus, while Martha works. As I’ve said before, doing the work is not bad, but it’s about balance. And to this “Martha”, neither Martha nor Mary is shown with much balance. So, while I will continue to work on my Martha-like tendencies, I will still hear a nice, clear, and loud “MARE-EEEEEEEE!” in my imagination. And in my opinion (except for the instances Jesus was involved) it would be warranted. J