Mary and Martha Midrash

I'm taking a course called "Women in the Biblical World" this semester and it is maybe the best and most inspiring class I have taken in the last five years.  I love the characters that are being lifted up from the Biblical texts, misunderstandings that are being debunked and the process of wrestling through the challenges of how women are presented in the Bible.  This week we looked at the story of Mary and Martha.  For those of you not as familiar with the text, here it is, five short verses from Luke 10:

"38 Now as they went on their way, he [Jesus] entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39 She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’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 there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

In my church tradition after a Scripture is read the pastor often says, "The Word of the Lord," and the congregation responds, "Thanks be to God."  But when I read this passage now I hear the voice of my professor saying, "The Word of the Lord - Thanks be to God?"  She gives us permission to ask, what is there in this passage that we should be thankful for?  And what a relief because this passage is so frustrating!  Martha is a person that many contemporary American women, including me, can relate to.  There is always, always work to be done, we are always busy, and it can be so frustrating when others don't step in to help.  And Jesus' response to Martha in this story seems to scold her for doing her work and asking for help!  What the heck Jesus?! 

The commentary we read this week offered several different view points of how to interpret this passage beyond what we see at the surface.  There is no one easy answer for interpreting a difficult text, but here are a couple points that I found helpful:
- There are two different ways of engaging with God: through action (Martha) and through listening (Mary) and perhaps we should view them as complementing each other instead of contrasting.  Both elements are necessary and important parts of a life of discipleship, and this is not a gender-specific point.  It's a lesson for all God's children.
- Perhaps Jesus' response to Mary isn't to scold her for her work (which the original language and broader context in the Bible shows us is a good thing) but rather for her busy-ness.  Anxiety can be a detriment to the life of discipleship.
- The tension we see between Mary and Martha might actually reflect the tension in the early Christian church when this Gospel was originally written.  By having Jesus admonish Martha, the Gospel writer was confining women in a way that would have assured the Roman Empire under whose rule the early church lived, sending the message to their worldly leaders that this new religious movement was not going to "rock the boat" of acceptable gender roles in their society.

Our assignment in response to the text this week was engage in a midrash exercise and write a new ending to the story of Mary and Martha.  Midrash is an ancient Jewish tradition. The rabbis, "believed that the Word spoke to every generation anew. They allowed the biblical stories into their lives, and they let their lives enter the stories. They created midrash, interpretations of scripture, an imaginative body of literature, which enriched the biblical narrative and kept it fresh and vital. . . . God delights in the human imagination” (Sasso, God’s Echo: Exploring Scripture with Midrash, 2007, pp. 5, 14). I own a couple books with midrash stories and love how they bring Biblical stories to light in new ways. And I thoroughly enjoyed my own first stab at writing midrash, it hopefully/probably won't be my last! So here it is - how I imagine the story continued and ultimately ended on a better (from my perspective) note...

It’s night.  It’s dark. Martha lays in bed, her body physically exhausted after an intense day, yet she cannot rest because her mind is still reeling.  How dare her sister leave her alone with all that work, and why didn’t Jesus understand Martha’s frustration?! Martha rolls over, hurt and anger and disappointment circling around inside her.  As she exhales another deep sigh, she is startled by the soft sound of laughter. Is Mary still awake? Is she still sitting at Jesus’ feet?! Martha throws back her covers, viciously wraps a blanket around her shoulders, and stomps out, ready to finally let them have it.

“Martha,” exclaims Jesus in a soft, heartfelt voice as she storms in. “I know you must be tired but I am so glad you are still awake. I have been waiting to talk with you all day. Please, come and join us,”. Martha pauses, her indignation slightly tempered by Jesus’ welcome, but she still feels compelled to speak a piece of her mind.  “Jesus, I-” but Martha is quickly interrupted by Mary. “I think I could use a cup of tea before bed. How about I go make some for all of us and give you two some time to talk,”. With a look at Martha, she rises and steps away before Martha can object. She and Jesus watch Mary go, and then Martha turns to Jesus with all of the frustration and exhaustion of the day in her eyes.  “Jesus, today didn’t go at all as I had planned. Mary and I had a plan this morning, of who would do what work when so that we could both welcome you and all your friends into our home but still both be able to be with you.  But as soon as she saw you, Mary dropped the plan completely to be with you and I was left with so much work that I never had a chance to join her.  And when I asked you for help, you scolded me! That really hurt,” her voice choked.

Jesus sat in silence for a moment, looking down as he clasped and unclasped his hands.  “I’m sorry Martha. I’m sorry I hurt you,” he said softly into his lap. Then he looked up and continued, his voice stronger. “But there was no easy way for me to help you out of that situation.  If I told you to leave your work and come sit with us, you wouldn’t have listened. You would have insisted on the necessity of continuing your work, and there was great value in your service, everyone here was so grateful for the hospitality you provided them.  But I couldn’t send Mary away either to help you, for whenever one of God’s children hears the Word of God and is drawn to it, I want them to honor that tugging in their soul. That’s why I said that Mary had chosen the better thing. Time spent with me and with my Father will always be the very best thing,”.  He sat up and said, “I know that you felt that tugging at your soul too. So let’s talk now. I’m not tired yet, are you,”? “No Lord, I’m not,” said Martha as she felt her body and heart relax. Mary quietly slipped back into the room, handed our mugs of tea, and settled back at Jesus’ feet, softly squeezing her sister’s hand, both of them listening to words that would never be taken away from them.