Seeing Yourself as God Sees You

In the book of Luke there is a short, but powerful story that is probably familiar to many of you and one that may stir up an emotional response. You can read it yourself in Luke 10:38-42.

Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem when he stops at a home in an unnamed village for dinner. He has been greeted and welcomed into the home of Martha who is probably the head of her household. She then busies herself with the task of hospitality, an important part of the Jewish faith and tradition. Martha appears to understand that Jesus is more than a teacher by her address of “Lord” to him. She is certainly honoring her guest with a heart of servitude as she prepares the meal.

Her sister Mary, on the other hand has neglected her duties, as a woman in the 1st century. Mary’s place would not have been at the feet of Jesus listening to him teach as Martha scurried around in the background doing her work as well as sister’s. Only men would have filled that role as student, sitting and listening to the radical teachings of Jesus. Yet instead of Jesus praising Martha for her heart of servitude he appears to reprimand Martha when she asked Jesus to get her sister to help her.

I cannot ever hear this story without thinking about my baby sister. I have a sister who is extroverted and funny. She has always entertained us with her stories. She also wasn’t required to help in the kitchen when we had company because she would be busy entertaining all the guests in the living room while the rest of us were working in the kitchen. I was angry about that for a long time until I began to understand that God made her that way and I had other and different gifts. I bring that history to this story because I know many other people have similar experiences they too bring to this story. If fact the story of Mary and Martha is often dismissed all together.

I would like to challenge you all to hear this story differently today. I would like you to first acknowledge if you struggle with this story and then open your hearts to hearing again, but maybe in a little differently. Let’s begin with the gift being offered to Martha and Mary. As we have already said, the Jewish tradition along with the Roman culture of the first century was a patriarchal system. Women were not given the same rights and opportunities as the men. Women were not educated. The culture of that period did not embrace women as equals nor did they think they could have the understanding and wisdom that men held.

Now Jesus, in a radical stance, stands in their home and invites both women to come and learn from his teaching, but Martha is tied to the tradition of the culture and instead of receiving the extravagant gift being offered to her, she chooses to instead maintain a false picture of herself. That false picture is that she is defined as a woman by her ability to be a gracious hostess. Mary on the other hand, wisely chooses to not worry about how others defined her, even her sister, and instead she chooses to be defined by her true self, as a child of God.

This story should challenge us to consider where we are limiting God in our lives. Do we see ourselves as a member of God’s family or do we only see ourselves through the lens of our mistakes or our limitations? Maybe we can learn from Mary and allow ourselves to enjoy time with Jesus simply as He sees us as His children.

#MaryandMartha #hospitality #grace