![]() ![]() The implication in the study was to discern whether you were a good disciple or, instead, someone who was distracted by details and continued to let matters of hosting and kitchens get in the way of your personal walk with the Lord. When I was growing up, there was a popular women’s bible study series that poignantly asked: “Are you a Mary or a Martha?” It referred to the Luke 10 passage. Whether she kneels before Jesus to wait for his teaching, anoints his feet with her alabaster jar and dries them with her hair, or, in the passage today, is consumed with overwhelming grief, Mary is so full of feeling and impulse she cannot help but express it and cannot be bothered with anyone else’s needs around her. She is the one who frets most about the details at hand. Martha, the eldest, is a perpetual caregiver, hostess, and likely the family accountant and business leader. Perhaps, the great author Jane Austen even took some of her cues from Mary and Martha. I’ll admit, as a former English Literature major in college, it’s hard for me to not be reminded of two other notorious sisters who also epitomize the strident characteristics of Sense and Sensibility. ![]() Mary has chosen rightly, and it will not be taken from her.” Martha, busy and worried in the kitchen, comes to Jesus with a demand: Jesus, make her come help me. Jesus responds by saying, “Martha, you are worried about much, but only one thing is needed now. In that passage, Jesus is visiting Mary is at his feet, an eager disciple. We have met this family, Mary, Martha and Lazarus, in the Bible before, in Luke 10. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Let us read the word of God for us today. When Jesus finally does arrive, he immediately meets both grieving sisters. ![]() Officials had been on the look out, threatening to arrest or stone him. Jesus, at that time, was keeping clear of Jerusalem. But Jesus didn’t come when they summoned him. Their brother, Lazarus, has died and they know – Jesus could have saved him. In our passage today, we find the famous biblical sisters – Mary and Martha. ![]()
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