Two women who were devoted followers of Jesus were the sisters Mary and Martha. Jesus spent a significant amount of time and effort in engaging their minds and helping them to independently grow. There are three stories of the sisters that specifically show Jesus' care towards them. The first, and probably most commonly referred to, is in Luke 10, the second is in John 11 and the third in John 12. First, we will follow the story of the older sister, Martha.
In Luke 10, we find Martha welcoming Jesus and His disciples into her house. She, along with her sister, work to prepare food for all their guests. From the example of a woman's duties in the Mishnah, we can assume that this included grinding, cooking, baking and serving to all the guests (Vamosh 20). We must remember that women in those times did not have grocery stores and refrigerators, so there was a lot of work to be done to prepare a meal for a large group of people. Then, while everything is still not prepared, Mary leaves Martha to go and sit at Jesus' feet and learn from Him. Martha becomes upset at this. “Martha's indignation was perfectly understandable in the light of her culture. A Jewish woman's primary role was that of homemaker. She was exempt from rabbinic training and received no merit from learning the law. Should not Martha's request that Mary help her in service supersede Mary's desire to learn (Tucker 27)?”
Yet Jesus sees this as an opportunity to engage with Martha on a spiritual level. He does not respond as Martha might have expected, telling Mary to get up and go help. Instead, Jesus turns to Martha with a gentle chiding that does not devalue her great service, but instead emphasizes the importance of what Mary had chosen to do (Witherington 101). He seems to be expressing to Martha that she too can make the same choice Mary did and that he would like for her to come and spend time learning from Him. He had fasted in the wilderness for forty days, He could probably wait on a meal for an hour.
The next time we see Martha she is at her brother's tomb, where he has passed away after being sick (John 11). Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will grant you.”
Martha shows a growing faith and Jesus responds in an encouraging manner, “Your brother will come to life again.” Martha responds that she knows her brother will come back to life at the resurrection in the last days, in light of her previous statement, she seems to be pressing the LORD for more. “Note the care that Jesus used to prepare the mind of Martha for the great miracle so that it might have the greatest possible value for her own religious life. Martha is often thought of having her chief interest in the kitchen because her service was there. But to her Jesus spoke words of transcendent value” (Southard 32). Jesus spoke these words to her in verses 25-27:
“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live even if he dies, and the one who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She replied, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who comes into the world” (NET). Martha's response was one out of only three verbal proclamations of Jesus' deity ever recorded (the other two were given by Peter and a soldier at Christ's crucifixion).
The next, and last, time we see Martha is in the next chapter, which simply states one thing about her. She served. Jesus recognized in Martha the incredible capacity to believe and claim Him as LORD. Therefore, she matured leaps and bounds in her faith, and she still found joy in serving God.
Mary, her sister, has an even more evident interaction with Jesus on the spiritual level. We see from the first story that she spends time sitting at His feet, listening and learning. The fact that Jesus let her sit at His feet is a dramatic contrast to the culture. It was a position that was assumed if one was the disciple of a Rabbi (Tucker 26). Mary overstepped her cultural boundaries in sitting at Jesus' feet, and likely made not just Martha uncomfortable but perhaps also the men around her (Stephens 35). Jesus defends her decision to prioritize His teachings above her womanly duties and her desire to be His disciple was affirmed.
In the second story, we see Mary in a less prominent role than Martha. She stays in the house until Martha tells her that Jesus wants to see her. She poses the same question as Martha, but instead of probing for deep theological truths, He simply lets her cry and also spends some time grieving, before asking Mary to take Him to the tomb where He raises Lazarus from the dead.
The next time we see Mary, she is at a passover feast with Jesus. She takes three quarters of a pound of expensive aromatic oil from pure nard and anoints the feet of Jesus. She then wipes his feet dry with her hair. The disciples are indignant at this, but Jesus defends her once again. He says, “She did it to prepare me for my burial.” It is obvious that Mary had a deeper understanding of Jesus' impending death than did His male disciples (Tucker 28). Perhaps this was due to the attentiveness with which she sat at His feet, despite its religious and cultural faux pas, as well as the emotion she shared with Jesus at her brother's tomb.
Jesus is increasingly willing to give His teaching and hope to these women, despite the effort, and risk of public scandal that may have been involved. He also felt free to have relationships with them (Witherington 114). “These conversations show Jesus' belief in the ability of women to comprehend the deep truths of life and of theological thought. They also show that He felt it so desirable that they should comprehend these truths that He put forth much effort to lead them to this understanding” (Southard 32). He never expects them to act as thought they were men, however. Notice he does not expect Martha to completely disregard her womanly responsibilities, as she continues to serve throughout her life. He lets Mary express deep emotion, and shares it with her. He allows both women to ask questions. He defends Mary's sentimentality. Jesus' attitude shows that God created women with an ability and a desire to stretch their minds and apply themselves to the practice of faith.
Works Cited:
Net Bible, Biblical Studies Press (BSP), L.L.C. 1996-2007
Southard, M. Madeline. The Attitude of Jesus Toward Woman. George Doran Company, 1927.
Stephens, Shirley. A New Testament View of Women. Nashville, TN. Broadmen Press, 1980.
Tucker, Ruth and Walter Liefeld. Daughters of the Church. Grand Rapids, MI. Zondervan, 1987.
Vamosh, Miriam. Women at the Time of the Bible. Herzlia, Israel. Palphot, 2007.
Witherington, Ben. Women in the Ministry of Jesus. Cambridge University Press, 1984.
