Two Sisters’ Responses and Transformations
(Luke 10:32-48, John 12:2-3)
Watching Mary:
When awareness
gives rise to attentiveness,
it fosters attunement,
rooting a deep attachment,
yielding flowering affection
breeding mutual abiding
amid Holy Spirit aroma
and worshipful abandonment.
Watching Martha:
An invitation accepted
begins excited activity
distracting attention,
giving way to anxiety,
observed by guest’s awareness,
who corrects with tender agape
that leads to adjustment
of attachment and abiding,
freeing servant’s abandonment
to hospitality and appreciation.
(with gratitude to JD Walt of Seedbed’s Wake-Up Call 10/28/22 for giving us this perspective.)
Each of us is uniquely gifted, equipped and called for the purpose GOd intends, for His glory, our good, and others’ gain. I’ve often felt an affinity for Martha though. For many years I would have simply done the work and stewed about the unfairness of it. Mary is to be applauded for having the courage to come forward and speak her complaint. Jesus will not address what we refuse to acknowledge. A stony heart or bitter root must be brought to the surface, exposed for the hazard it presents. By his correction in love, she discovered her own true worth and the obstacles to holiness that needed to be chunked, making the field a better soil for the Spirit’s seeding. Martha’s service turned from pridefulnes, eagerness to impress, annoyance and jealousy of Mary’s duty-free abandonment to wonder and joy perhaps, as she was led to see the bigger picture and truth seasoned with Christ’s wisdom and grace. Martha believed enough of Jesus’ Messianic mission as prophet, priest, king, and righteous judge to trust him with her complaint. He did not indulge her emotions or grant her desire or justify her view of a fair distribution of labor. Instead he focused her attention on the relationship between himself and her, aligned her desires with the heart of God while allowing her to learn to delight in her own unique gifts, abilities and calling, transforming and sanctifying them for the kingdom’s glory, her good, and other’s gain. Jesus takes whatever we bring to him and reorients it in alignment with grace and truth. His doesn’t fundamentally change what we do, but completely upends where, how, why, for what benefit, among whom, alone but for the sake of its productivity for the harvest to come.
Picking and chunking roots and slivers for kindling on the pile of debris out of the hearts (and eyes) of others is a task of Christ-like proportion, one most of us, would avoid because we have to have done the work in our own field before pointing out the debris in others’ fields. But when the turmoil and turning within us exposes them, Christ is right there to help us spot, hoist, and chunk them on the pile.
For quite a few years after my adult surrender of all to the Lordship of Christ, I would come to the communion altar feeling conviction, grief, and pain as one chunk of an obstacle to grace after another was exposed and had to be dealt with. I came to the altar again and again in self-examination with chunks of root and limb in my heart and eye. Finally, I cried out to God, kneeling in pain again, “Will it always be this way, coming to this place of surrender with yet another bitter root or blinding sliver? Will it always hurt this much? In that moment I felt a warm essence flow over me from the top of my head, over my shoulders, down my body, all the way to my kneeling legs and extended feet. I saw in my mind the words “wet clay” as if written across or stamped on my forehead and I knew God was telling me that the hard work of plucking and chunking was done. Now would begin the more refining work of molding me into a vessel he could use. It completely changed the experience of communion for me from that day forward. I come now reverently, adoringly, joyfully before my Lord, who receives me as I am and blesses me, but always brings forth more good from having had his fingers gently sift through the soul-soil of my life, keeping it aerated by the breath of his Spirit and exposed to the purifying light of his love.
Whether we are more Martha or Mary…….. when we bring who we are to Christ He takes us as we are, transforms our lives, bringing forth from them the flower and fruit planted within. We are not called to be like another, only to be in His hand what we were created to be.