Which is the better part? (Lk 10:38-42)

          When it comes to the Martha and Mary story, too bad we don’t get the rest of the story.  The rest of the story has Martha taking Jesus at his word that Mary has chosen the better part.  Martha interprets this to mean that she too ought to listen to Jesus instead of preparing the meal.  So, she stops what she is doing, sits down beside Mary, and listens to Jesus as he teaches.  Then, when Jesus is finished, he looks to Martha and says, “What’s for dinner?”  Martha says, “Nothing—I have been listening to you the whole time.”  We can well imagine how a hungry Jesus would now respond to Martha.

          The rest of the story shows that following Jesus is not a way to avoid doing what needs to be done when it needs to be done.  When Jesus says that Mary has chosen the better part, he does not mean that serving others is somehow at odds with being his disciple, or that being his disciple is a good excuse for avoiding work.  For, serving others is the principle way to follow him, even at great personal cost.  This is exactly the point that Jesus makes with the story of the Good Samaritan.

          Nor does Jesus mean that pragmatic concerns are trivial matters that take a back seat to discipleship.  Jesus was not trivializing what Martha was doing in light of what Mary was doing.  Martha was serving others and this is precisely what Jesus came to do—I came to serve, not to be served, he tells us.  And, he urges us to do the same—whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me; feed the hungry, clothe the naked. The very life and mission of Jesus shows that serving others out of love is the fundamental meaning and guiding principle of discipleship.

          If Mary was not avoiding her responsibilities and Martha was not engaged in trivial matters, then what does Jesus mean when he says that Mary has chosen the better part?  The clue is in his very response to Martha.  Jesus does not address WHAT Martha and Mary are doing.  Rather, Jesus speaks to HOW they are doing it.  Jesus speaks to their attitudes. 

          As for Mary, we can be sure that she was not being insensitive to her houseguests.  She herself was a guest because Martha owned the house in which she and her brother Lazarus were living.  Thus, Mary would have been aware of what needed to be done to serve a meal and how she would have been expected to help.  And yet, she risked personal criticism from her guests and from her sister Martha to serve the one guest she thought deserved her undivided attention—Jesus.  Mary listens to him teach for her own spiritual good and without regard to the momentary cost to herself.  She did so with peace and confidence.  You might say that Mary acted out of love for Jesus. It is in this sense that Mary chose the better part. 

          Martha, on the other hand, seems to be acting out of a sense of duty.  Carrying out our duties is important of course, but when that is our only motive, we know what usually comes from that attitude.  Not surprisingly, Martha felt put upon and abandoned, alone in her efforts to please her guests.  She felt that Jesus did not notice or even care how hard she was working.  Because she is so troubled and upset about the situation, she complains to Jesus. 

          We all can relate to Martha.  She felt much the way we feel at times, especially when we do things for others only out of a sense of duty and they don’t even notice.  We hope to please them, but we often get the feeling they don’t really care. We then feel put upon and abandoned.  Whether we complain or not, we usually feel troubled and upset that no one appreciates how hard we work.  Perhaps we are not even sure that we did the right thing, and so we talk with someone about the situation.  It can be a bitter pill when that person tells us that acting out of a sense of duty alone rather than a sense of love rarely brings peace and a sense of joy. 

          We can also relate to Mary.  We too have chosen to do what we thought was the right thing to do despite the criticism and trouble that we knew would surely come our way.  We were aware of how others would interpret what we did, and yet, we come away feeling at peace and confident that we have done the right thing.  Thus, we are willing to put up with the cost to ourselves because we know that we have chosen the better part.         

          We can take comfort in the way that Jesus speaks to Martha’s attitude.  His response to her complaint is a clear show of sympathy, not judgment.  Jesus expresses his concern for Martha in her efforts to serve her guests.  As a true friend, however, he reminds her that acting out of love rather than a sense of duty is the better way to peace.  At times, we too need to be reminded that answering our call to love is the better part.