Jesus entered a village
where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.
It was a good and honorable thing for Martha to show hospitality to Jesus himself, to welcome him into her home. May we too welcome Jesus into our own homes by the hospitality which we show to others.
Martha, burdened with much serving
The risk we face when showing hospitality is that of getting so caught up with the work that we forget the purpose of the work. We begin to work for work's sake rather than for the sake of Jesus. Then, rather than being concerned only about the one thing necessary, the guest, we become anxious and worried about many things. We can become so self-involved in this process that we lose the ability to stop when things are sufficiently sorted and instead multiply superfluous and unnecessary chores that could have waited and need not have distracted us from the guest whom it was our original purpose to receive. It can in fact quickly become all about us, and about our work. We subtly shift from preparing a feast to proving our worth. The external actions may indeed not look all that different. But the difference in our hearts is dramatic.
Lord, do you not care
that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving?
Tell her to help me.
This complaint from Martha is not the mark of someone exercising the gift of hospitality as the love language that it is meant to be. It may seem natural to us that Martha should compare herself to Mary, natural that she should she feel jealous of Mary who did not work but simply sat at the feet of Jesus. Yet it was only her scattered heart, focused on her efforts, and not he for whose sake she performed them, that caused such thoughts to arise in her. Service became a burden because of her relationship to it, because it was not ordered to the one needful thing. By contrast, we probably know people who are so gifted in hospitality that this sort of comparison would not even occur to them, though few of us may in fact be such people. We nevertheless have seen others who seem to prefer nothing to the gentleness and tenderness they are able to show their guests by their service. There is a real sense in which the Lord can be sought both in service and in contemplation, and as long as he is the first priority there will be no fault, no burden, and no anxiety.
The Lord said to her in reply,
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.
There is need of only one thing.
Mary has chosen the better part
and it will not be taken from her.
We can both serve Jesus and sit at his feet and listen to him. The important thing is to be fully present to the task at hand, and to practice the presence of God in that task. If Mary had allowed her heart to be preoccupied with other work that needed to be done she would not have been able to receive what she heard at the feet of Jesus. This may describe many of our own attempts at having times of prayer with Jesus. If Martha had focused her heart on him whom she served she could have done so without jealousy, knowing that there would be time for her to listen to Jesus, to feast with him, and to sit at his feet and hear him teach.
Our Lord does not then forbid hospitality, but the troubling about many things, that is to say, hurry and anxiety. And mark the wisdom of our Lord, in that at first He said nothing to Martha, but when she sought to tear away her sister from hearing, then the Lord took occasion to reprove her. For hospitality is ever honoured as long as it keeps us to necessary things. But when it begins to hinder us from attending to what is of more importance, then it is plain that the hearing of the divine word is the more honourable.- Theophylact
It is true that receiving the Word of God is the ultimate priority, the thing that gives shape and structure to all of our active efforts. But many times serving is also needed. We are not meant to always seek the Word exclusively, although it is best, but to order all things, our active efforts of hospitality, our works of mercy, and everything we do, toward the hearing and reception of that word.
Without the active work of Jonah the word would not have been heard in Nineveh. He might well have preferred to sit and receive the word for himself alone, and to leave it unshared, especially with his enemies. But while the one thing needful can be chosen it cannot be hoarded. Any attempt to keep it in and prevent it from spilling over into mercy for others perverts it and prevents it even from having its full impact in us.
“Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,”
when the people of Nineveh believed God;
they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small,
put on sackcloth.
May we seek first the Kingdom, whether by hospitality, by prayer and contemplation, or by our own efforts at evangelization. When the Lord is truly first in our hearts he will reveal to us how to order these efforts to his glory.
Let Israel wait for the LORD,
For with the LORD is kindness
and with him is plenteous redemption;
And he will redeem Israel
from all their iniquities.
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