07162022 – Luke 10. 38-42
Its “weird” what people “get out” of – or “force out” of the various gospel lessons.
For example: It is ok for women to be “pitted against one another,” for them to be in “conflict and competition,” because its in the Bible!
Mary versus Martha, it’s in there, you can read it for yourselves…
Silly me, I thought we were supposed to be supportive of one another, you know, be the girl, who fixes the other girls’ crown or tiara!
Were you aware that the Mary and Martha “solidifies the gender roles” and Martha should have been in the kitchen organizing and preparing the meal, because someone had to do it. And, at the time, that was the “assigned gender role” for all women.
Don’t throw things at me yet!
Another interpretation of the same text…says, this was placed AFTER the Good Samaritan story on purpose. Both stories step out of “the conventional thinking of the time.” The Samaritan STOPPING was totally “unprecedented,” as was that of a woman SITTING at the feet of learned scholar or rabbi.
Two very unconventional stories in a row.
Both were unheard of…and left the hearer of these stories being “totally aghast.”
Taking it another step further: someone has said “the Good Samaritan story” illustrates the second-Great Commandment, Love your neighbor as yourself…
While “Mary” clearly exemplifies the fulfillment of the first commandment…we are to “love the Lord our God, with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength.”
Quite obviously it is ok to try and “shame” one another, because that is precisely what Martha attempts to do…
Did you notice the way Martha complains outloud to the rabbi, the messiah and seemingly gets away with it? I tell you, it is ok to complain…
Complain to Jesus, he can take it… Martha commanded Jesus, “tell her then to help me!”
Try this one on for size: Mary has been seen as being illustrative of the “CONTEMPLATIVE life…”
And Martha, well she is “a WORLDLY kind of gal,” more concerned with the world and its daily on-going activities. She doesn’t have time for “the CONTEMPLATIVE.”
Therefore, some women, like Mary are “called to the contemplative life” and should be NUNS or DEACONESSES.
Oh boy, the apostle Paul, NOT ME wrote, “An unmarried woman and the virgin are anxious about the affairs of the Lord, so that they may be HOLY IN BODY and in SPIRIT; but the married woman is anxious about the affairs of the world, and “HOW TO PLEASE HER HUSBAND.”
Yep, they got ALL this from Mary and Martha…
Question for you, you Biblical scholars, if Martha is the older of the two and the owner of the house, why then does her name always appear second? Mary and Martha. And if she IS THE YOUNGER of the two, why then does she own the house?
There are some that (as a result of this narrative) see Jesus as needing to be PUBLICLY CHIDED and RIDICULED! Rabbi Eliazer a contemporary of Jesus said, “If a man gives his daughter knowledge of the law, it is as though he taught her lechery.” Better to burn the Torah than to teach it to women.”
Still a view that can be found in the Middle East today! Women do not need education. They need to be subservient to men!
(Now you can throw things…)
A female student listening to her chosen teacher and being held up as a model student does not seem at all strange to 21st century audiences.
In the first century that was considered part of the male genders role to sit and to learn.
Others say, if Jesus and his followers would have only “VALUED THE WORK” that Martha was doing, it would have transformed our world today! Jesus blew it. Missed opportunity.
At the time of the Reformation, it was said that Mary symbolized “justification by faith” and therefore, Lutherans loved her. Martha on the other hand upheld the Roman Catholic view of “salvation by works.”
Some have said this narrative was included so as to once and for all, silence women in the early church.
Today, contemporary feminist theologians say Mary has become “the first” among the male disciples…and therefore encourages women’s ministry in the eyes of the church.
Another has pointed out that this reinforces Pauline belief… “There is no longer…male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” There are no gender roles.
Luke for sure saw this as a part of Jesus’ revolutionary inclusiveness of all people.
Jesus in Luke’s gospel treats women, as people, as worthy of respect, and as equal with men. And you can clearly see this in the Mary and Martha story.
My humble take in the midst of all the theological arguments being made, is IT IS the WORD that is being lifted up…the importance of HEARING THE WORD.
Only one thing is needful or needed: READ THE BOOK. Attempt to understand the word and all of its nuances.
Know who your master is…and sit at his feet.
Amen!