Article March 16, 1957 Issue

"THE WHOLE DUTY OF MAN"

ANETTA G. SCHNEIDER

Through the pages of the Bible one becomes acquainted with a great host of men and women. Some individuals seem so to detach themselves from the printed page that they live and move again to teach us lessons in the twentieth century. Among these impressive characters are Mary and Martha.

We read in the tenth chapter of Luke's Gospel that Jesus journeyed at one time to "a certain village" where Martha and her sister Mary warmly received him into their home. Jesus had before this been a guest in the home of Lazarus and Mary and Martha. It was here in Bethany that Jesus later raised Lazarus from the dead. We can picture the group of Jesus and the two sisters, whom it is recorded he loved. Mary was sitting at Jesus' feet, listening eagerly to the Master's words. Martha, "cumbered about much serving," entered and exclaimed, "Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone?"

Now Jesus was himself the Exemplar of true service. One could never believe that he who was a good carpenter before he became the glorified would have condoned anyone's sitting idly by or neglecting a necessary duty. His own life was one of prayer in action, and Martha needed to learn this lesson of praying without ceasing as she performed her task. Her usefulness was evidently an expression of love. But Jesus glimpsed her undue preoccupation with material things on this particular occasion and her lack of placing the spiritual above the material.

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