Jesus at the home of Martha and Mary

Description

Jesus at the home of Martha and Mary (also referred to as Christ in the House of Martha and by other variant names) refers to an episode in the life of Jesus which appears only in Luke’s Gospel (Luke 10:38–42), and can be read immediately after the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37). Jesus visits the home of Lazarus, Martha and Mary of Bethany, the latter typically conflated in Catholic medieval tradition with Mary Magdalene, though the New Testament probably means a different person.

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Mary chose listening to the teachings of Jesus over helping her sister prepare food. Jesus responded that she was right because only one thing is needed, “one thing” apparently meaning listening to the teachings of Jesus. This goes in line with words by Jesus that Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God (Matthew 4:4), and The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life, meaning eternal life (John 6:63). To simplify, this is frequently interpreted as spiritual values being more important than material business, such as preparation of food. Martha represents the anxious life associated with materiality. Two different verbs describe her distress, “worry” and “distract,” and Luke doubles her name and uses alliteration to draw attention to her anxious behavior (Greek: Μάρθα Μάρθα μεριμνᾷς, Martha, Martha, merimnas in Luke 10:41).