It is indeed good to see so many of you back this week after last week’s rather feisty reading and sermon too I guess. Our reading today is less confrontational, although not without its own challenge to us, and I think there are some similar themes to reflect on.
This week we are again reading from Luke’s travel narratives. That is the section in Luke that starts with Luke 9:51, “when the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” It ends in Luke 19 with his somewhat ominous entry into Jerusalem.
As we reflected on last week Jesus starts his journey by entering Samaria. But he was not welcomed there so he moves on. Along the way the road he encounters three people who do express a desire to follow him but are not quite ready. There is something holding them back. And so Jesus basically tells them no.
It’s a seemingly pretty harsh reaction but as we discussed last week the context matters. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to die a gruesome death. It is going to be hard. Jesus is being brutally honest about what following Him to Jerusalem requires.
He needs those that go with him to be with Him. To not try, as Peter had already, to tempt him away from it. Jesus cannot and will not be drawn away from his purpose.
The truth is there is a cost to discipleship, it does call into question all our loyalties. It does require a degree of detachment from our other commitment we have — to family, to tradition, to culture, to reputation, to social norms and expectations.
One might wonder why anyone would say yes. For me it is because it’s Jesus. In Him I find peace and love, purpose and truth, grace and hope. With Him I experience light in these dark times and rest for my soul. He has given me the only life I would want to live.
And it seems there were those who experiences this then too. Those who said yes to following because they felt the cost was worth it.
After these encounters on the road side, Luke tells us Jesus sent 70 disciples ahead of him, in pairs to every town and place that he himself intended to go.” He instructs them,
“Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ And if a person of peace is there, your peace will rest on that person, but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.”
The disciples do this and they return to Jesus with excitement and joy. Together they celebrate and rejoice.
Jesus then tells the well-known parable of the good Samaritan. This parable is subversive enough all on its own. But for those who would have remembered Jesus recent rejection by the Samaritans even more so.
This leads us to today’s reading. Jesus enters the village and home of Mary and Martha. In John’s gospel Jesus goes to the house of Mary and Martha in the days before Jesus enters Jerusalem and Mary anoints his feet. I do not think we need to choose which one actually happened. They both could have. John focuses on Mary and the anointing of Jesus feet and Su Sze will speak on this in two weeks time. Later John will tell the story of Jesus washing his disciples feet and so this makes sense for him. But Luke focuses on Martha. Anyone who has seen all the many movies made about Bob Dylan will know they focus on different aspects of his life. Neither is right or wrong. Just different.
John tells us their village is in Bethpage and this is down near Jerusalem. So John’s gospel does make more sense geographically (for once).
But I think Luke places it here because the interaction between Jesus, Mary and Martha fits better with the theme of discipleship and what it costs to follow Jesus to the cross that the gospel is exploring in this section.
It might surprise some people to know that I have struggled with this story. One might think as a Sabbath loving feminist this story would have all the things for me. And of course I do love that at a time when women were mostly considered incapable of deep reflection on theology, Jesus, Mary, Martha and the other women who were following him show otherwise. But I do struggle with anything that seemingly devalues work that is traditionally female (which this passage has been used to do). I think the work of running a home and providing hospitality requires enormous skill and spiritual gifts like generosity and patience. Skills and gifts passed on by women across the generation. And this work matters. We need to eat but also nothing builds community like eating good food together. I am not amazing at it, but I am so grateful for the people who are.
Also, I just kind of love Martha. I don’t see her as a martyr, I think she’s feisty.
And I think others must have seen that too. This week when I was researching for this sermon I discovered that Martha is also renowned in Christian folklore as a dragon slayer. There is, in fact, a story of her in a collection of stories from a 13th century manuscript called, “The Golden Legend,” capturing a dragon.
The story goes that after Christ ascended to Heaven, like the apostles, Martha, Lazarus, her sister Mary — sometimes conflated with Mary Magdalene — too set about travelling the world and evangelising.
During a visit to Tarascon (in modern day France), Martha heard the region was besieged by a dragon. And so she volunteered to go and find it. When she did it was busy eating a man and so she held out a cross and doused the dragon with holy water, which left it stunned and docile. Then Martha tied the dragon up with her belt and led it back to town, where it was slaughtered by the people and the town was once again safe.
This led to the conversion of many of the townspeople to Christianity. Martha lived out the rest of her days there, where she spent her time in prayer and fasting. Her tomb is still thought to be within a crypt of the local church.
Now I don’t really know what to make of all that but it made me really happy. I won’t try to theologise on it. I’ll let you come to your own conclusion while you listen to the rest of the sermon. Most of which you won’t remember but I reckon you are going to remember that story of Martha the dragon slayer.
Ok, so returning to the story we actually have I know some people have heard a critique in Jesus words of Martha and her works, but I do not think that is what he is doing.
What he says to her is “Martha you are worried and distracted by many things”
Jesus is pointing out her worry and distraction. He is showing her all the ways she defines herself by her work, the ways she justifies her existence by being busy, the way her fretting is getting in the way of her relationships and her joy. And he is inviting her to let that go. He names this stuff because he respects her. Because he has something better for her (like dragon slaying maybe).
Sorry I will let it go.
Anyway, does any of this sound familiar to you? Are you quick to get angry and defensive? Have you become so busy and overwhelmed you struggle to give and receive love? Is your worry keeping you from being fully present, fully engaged, fully alive? Have you lost the ability to attend? Are you using your packed schedule to avoid intimacy with God?
My answer to many of these questions is yes. If yours is yes, too, then I wonder if we can hear Jesus’s words to Martha, not as a criticism, but as an invitation.
As I think most people know my verse for this year is 2 Timothy 1:7 “for God did not give us a spirit of fear, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self discipline.” This verse came to me when I was in a state a bit like Martha, worried and distracted, obsessing over how much I had to do (as usual). This is not what I wanted to hear. What I wanted to hear was something more sympathetic, something that told me my worries were understandable and fine and everything was going to be ok. This is not what this verse said to me at all. Rather what I heard was a call to grow up a little, to stop obsessing with my own stuff, it was time to let that go. And that’s been so much better. I cannot say I have fully rid my life of worry and distraction and self obsession but when I feel it coming I repeat this verse. The worry and distraction do not immediately go away but loses its power over me, slowly it loosens its grip on my heart.
Many commentaries on this passage suggest it is about striking a good balance between work and prayer, action and contemplation. And clearly this is a good thing to work toward. Without a doubt, Jesus calls us to both. As humans we need both. Some people need to hear a call to service and action in the world. Jesus says that to a lot of people too and we talk about that a lot here. But this does not seem to be what Martha needs to hear. What she needs to hear is exactly what Jesus says, “Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things, but few things are needed—indeed only one. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”
Where Luke has placed this story makes me think this story is not really about balance rather it is about discipleship, about making Jesus a priority.
Think of Jesus’s most evocative parables; they all point in this same direction. The pearl of great price. The buried treasure in the field. The lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son.
When Jesus entered Mary and Martha’s house, he did what Jesus almost always does. He turned the place upside down. He messed with Martha’s expectations, routines, and habits.
It seems Martha thought she could invite Jesus into her life, and then carry on with life as usual, trying to maintain control, privileging her own priorities, and clinging to her long-cherished agenda and schedule. What was Jesus’s response? The same as his response to the “would be followers” on the road. To all of us who say, I will follow you Jesus, but. . .
Actually no, that’s not how this works.
In contrast, Mary recognized that Jesus’s presence in her house required a radical shift. A role change. A wholehearted surrender. Every action, every decision, every priority, would have to be filtered through this new love, this new devotion, this new passion.
I think Martha longed for this. And I think she actually did.
Maybe you long for these good things, too. If so hear this invitation of Jesus, “you are worried and distracted by many things, but few things are needed—indeed only one.”
So friends let’s choose it. Let’s choose the one thing that matters. Who knows where it will lead you (remember the dragon).
