How Do We Define Hospitality? —Lectionary Reflection for Pentecost 6C (Luke 10:38-42)

 Luke 10:38-42 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

³⁸ Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him. ³⁹ She had a sister named Mary, who sat at Jesus’s feet and listened to what he was saying. ⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted by her many tasks, so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her, then, to help me.” ⁴¹ But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things, ⁴² but few things are needed—indeed only one. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

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                As we spend time in the Gospel of Luke during this Pentecost Season, we are moving toward Jerusalem. Each step along the way, we learn more about Jesus and what he considers to be important. In the previous reading from Luke 10:25-37, Jesus answered a question about the command to love one’s neighbor. Jesus answered the question of “Who is my neighbor?” with the parable of the Samaritan who stopped to help the man who had been mugged while on the road running between Jericho and Jerusalem. Embedded in that story is an example of hospitality, which the Samaritan in the story provides to the one who had been mugged. As we move on to this week’s reading, as Jesus and his team move closer to their destination—Jerusalem—they arrive at a village that Luke does not identify. Because the two primary characters in this story, other than Jesus, happen to have the same names as the two sisters who appear in John 11, we are tempted to fill in the blank with the village of Bethany. Bethany lay just outside Jerusalem and may have served as a base of operations for Jesus. One challenge to our use of John 11 is that in Luke’s Gospel, the two sisters, Martha and Mary, do not appear to have a brother named Lazarus. At least he doesn’t appear in the story, and Martha and Mary seem to be on their own. So, while the same pair of sisters may appear in both stories, they could be completely different storylines. We simply do not have enough information to make a final determination.

                If we stick with Luke’s version and disregard John’s story, we have before us a narrative that involves hospitality and discipleship. It appears from Luke’s narrative that the Gospel writer is pitting Mary and Martha against each other. One sister focuses on hospitality while engaged in stereotypical women’s work. In this passage, we find Martha in the kitchen preparing a meal for their guests. But there is more to the story than the traditional storyline of women in the kitchen. But let us remember that Jesus did tell his disciples in the context of the Last Supper, when addressing a dispute about greatness, that according to the world the one who sits at the table is greater than the one who serves, and yet Jesus tells his disciples that “I am among you as one who serves” (Luke 22:24-27). It might be wise to keep that in mind as we interpret this story.

Martha and Mary are identified as sisters, but Matha appears to be the head of the household. Martha takes the lead in inviting Jesus and his team into their house. Whether she is offering them a place to stay or simply a meal and a place to teach isn’t fully revealed. It is clear that Martha, as head of the household, feels obligated to provide a meal for Jesus and his companions. This is the nature of hospitality. Since it appears that there are just the two of them, it makes sense that Martha would expect her sister to help her prepare the meal. However, this is not what happens.

While Martha goes to the kitchen and begins preparing a meal for her guests, Mary decides to sit at the feet of Jesus, taking on the role of a disciple or learner. Now, Martha may have also wanted to join in the conversation, but as host, she had other obligations. For some reason, Mary didn’t recognize that Martha might need help so that Martha could join the conversation. So, perhaps we can understand Martha’s frustration. As we see here, Jesus wasn’t much help.

Seeing that she was overwhelmed by her task, Martha, out of frustration with Mary, interrupts Jesus and asks him to send Mary to the kitchen to help with getting the meal ready. You can tell the level of frustration Martha was feeling by the way she approached Jesus. “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her, then, to help me.” In other words, can’t you see that I’m overwhelmed? So, why didn’t you send Mary in to help me?

We need to stop here and acknowledge that Martha often gets a bad rap, and Jesus doesn’t help. From Luke’s description, these two women are on their own. Unlike the story in John 11, the sisters do not have a brother named Lazarus. At least in Martha’s case, she has a strong sense of the importance of hospitality. After all, she reached out to Jesus and welcomed him into their house. That Jesus accepted her invitation suggests that the sisters were known for their hospitality. It’s just that Martha expected Mary to assist her in making Jesus and his team feel welcome.

                So, how did Jesus respond to Martha’s request? Interestingly, Jesus sided with Mary. He told Martha she was distracted by many things and that Mary had made the better choice by joining the teaching session. In supporting Mary’s choice, Jesus seems to pit the two sisters against each other. Perhaps Jesus wasn’t concerned about a meal, but Martha understood proper protocol, and Jesus had undermined it and her. After all, she probably wanted to join the conversation. She likely wanted to be counted among Jesus’ disciples. If Mary helped, then she would be finished sooner and could join in this discipleship opportunity.

                Interpreters sometimes distinguish between two ways of being a disciple. Martha represents the activist side and Mary the contemplative. That form of interpretation has a long-standing history, and preachers will often do something like this. The challenge here is not to fall prey to the tendency to pit the two against each other. The reality is that for most Christians, both contemplation and activism (being and doing) go together. Unfortunately, Luke does this for us by suggesting that Martha is distracted and Mary is doing the right thing. It is more the tone than the words. Both Martha and Mary are doing the right thing; it’s just that Martha is feeling pressured and would like her sister to help her out.

                However, we should also note that Luke does tend to place women in non-traditional roles. Martha is taking what for many moderns is the stereotypically female role by being in the kitchen. However, she is also taking on the role of host. There is no male “head of the household.” That seems to be Martha’s role. As for Mary, she takes on the role of learner, which in Greco-Roman society is generally a male role. So, perhaps what Jesus is doing here is inviting Martha to also take on the role of disciple, such that food can wait. Of course, in the modern church, at least the mainline churches, both roles can and should be shared, though the kitchen seems to be the domain of women, even in churches with women in pastoral leadership. Some traditions are difficult to break.

                As we ponder this story, Fred Craddock and Eugene Boring invite us to keep the tension in place, letting the story sit with us. They write: “It is too facile to say something like ‘both are needed—sometimes we need to act, and sometimes we need to sit still and listen to the word of God.’ Luke’s technique is more like that of the wisdom teachers of Israel, who placed opposing truths side by side without explanation, with the tension itself provoking the reader to deeper reflection” [The People’s New Testament Commentary, p. 222]. What is true is that many of us are more comfortable doing than sitting in contemplation. We’re probably more like Martha than Mary.

                The Christian life requires a balance between action and contemplation. Prayer and worship are needed so that our activism stays rooted in faith. The late theologian Douglas John Hall offers a helpful word in this regard.  “Activism without contemplation ends in aimless ‘doing’ that usually aggravates existing difficulties.” At the same time, “only the unthinking could fail to recognize the myriad ways in which thought—including very serious biblical, theological, and other scholarship—regularly serves the duplicitous purposes of those who, their rhetoric notwithstanding, simply do not wish to ‘get involved’” [Feasting on the Word, p. 264, 266]. His point here is that being and doing are interrelated.

                One of the reasons why Luke may have emphasized Mary’s role as a learner over Martha’s role as a provider of hospitality is that there is urgency here. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. The next several chapters (11-18) are filled with parables and other teaching moments. Immediately following this story, Luke will have Jesus teach his disciples how to pray, offering an abbreviated version of the Lord’s Prayer (Luke 11:1-4). Before long, Jesus will enter Jerusalem, first in triumph but finally as the victim of Roman violence.  So, perhaps there is a time and place for everything. So, we face the question: “What time is it?” Is there a sense of urgency at this moment? Perhaps the potluck can wait because there are other matters that need our attention? Perhaps Martha and Mary don’t offer opposing possibilities, but interrelated ones. Getting the right balance is essential to understanding the nature of true hospitality.