Article September 20, 1930 Issue

The Healing of Martha

EDITH J. GUTHRIE

How many weary women toiling at their tasks have said with a sigh of self-pity, "Well, I suppose I must be a Martha!" And their self-depreciation is increased when they glance at an apparently idle sister whom they consider as the type of a "Mary." Many have taken sides with Martha, feeling that the well-known rebuke was not wholly justified, and, further, that Mary's attitude was not one that could be practically followed in the work of every day.

Let us reexamine the story in the light of Christian Science. Jesus was a welcome guest at this home, and on this occasion was received by the hospitable Martha, and a meal was served him. In her anxiety to do honor to her gracious guest, Martha became "cumbered about much serving," while Mary "sat at Jesus" feet, and heard his word." Martha's anxiety about material things opened the way for self-pity and jealousy to enter her thought and ended in an outburst of petulance toward both Jesus and Mary. Then came Jesus' gentle rebuke, "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her."

In this experience with Martha what was it that Jesus rebuked? Did he rebuke her for the work she was doing in order that she might carry out her hospitable intentions and supply his material needs? Emphatically no! He who had himself been a carpenter upheld honest labor of all kinds. His commendation of the work of women is expressed in two, at least, of his parables: the parable of the leaven "which a woman took, and hid in three measures of means, till the whole was leavened," and that of the woman who lost a coin and swept the house until she found it. The work in each case required patience and industry; and in the first instance the activity was likened unto the kingdom of heaven, and, in the second, to heavenly joy. Then what did Jesus rebuke? Surely it was the wrong thinking which Martha entertained during her work, and which had taken away her first joy in welcoming Jesus and had hindered her service. Surely she, too, could have been sitting at the feet of the impersonal Christ, Truth, while she went about her work. Oh, the joy she could have had while serving such a guest, and the happy reflection that Mary would be able to tell her presently any previous word she might have missed! How light the work would have seemed, and how quickly it would have been done!

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