Abstract
‘Angst through Misunderstanding’
While on a journey, Jesus encountered two sisters named Martha and Mary. Like many siblings in a common household, disputes arise. As indicated in the text, Martha sought out a prominent person who could potentially intervene in her favor. Mary wanted to Jesus for his prominence to alter the dynamics. However, the source of Martha’s angst was simply a misunderstanding. On this journey, Jesus was teaching crowds about love and about justice. ‘Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home’ (Lk 10:38). In the ancient world, a village setting entails a setting with kinship bonds that extends to the broader community. As a breach of Middle Eastern culture, which deemed the mingling of men and women beyond immediate family as inappropriate, Martha saw something in Jesus that was worth the risk of public scrutiny. Martha was feeling a sense of angst, as life circumstances was taking its toll. Not deterred by public opinion or the presence of judgmental tendencies, Jesus did not address that matter. Afterall, Jesus already had a history of having his character tested.
The text paints the picture that Martha welcomes Jesus into her home not so much for who Jesus is nor for fresh spiritual knowledge and wisdom through his teachings, but rather for what Jesus can do for her personally. Martha was looking out for Martha. However, ‘she had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying’ (Lk 10:39). For Mary’s very posture functions as a display of reverence to Jesus. The writer of Luke refers to Jesus as Lord. Lord as an honorific title acknowledges a degree of authority. As one who exercises authority, Jesus was known for his public discourse and rebutting those with rhetorical skills and expertise regarding everyday societal and spiritual matters. Martha welcomed the Lord, yet Mary was the one who was attentive ‘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’ (Lk 10:40). One cannot assume that everyone’s level of business exists as qualitatively equivalent to one’s own. Life has a way of placing demands on individuals that can expose the natural limitations of both the mind and body. While Martha is listening to what the Lord is saying, she wants him to tell her to help. Although Martha had the faculties to tell Mary herself ‘come and help’, she has greater confidence in Jesus’ ability to get her sister to provide some relief.
This text does not intend to attack those whose circumstances do not provide them with the luxury to look up and see what is happening. There lies a plurality of the population who suffer wage suppression and wage theft such that they must work long hours for the economic survival. Because of such conditions, other aspects of their lives may become prone to neglect. Such overworked and underpaid persons grow less attuned to others due to the pressing need to meet society’s demands. ‘But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things;’ (Lk 10:41). The Lord refrains from discrediting the severity of Martha’s business but does draw special attention to two problems which arise from an excess in tasks. First, an excess in tasks becomes problematic when it becomes a source for worry. Second, an excess in tasks becomes problematic when it becomes a source for distraction. Worry has a disabling effect because it has a way of consuming the entire person, such that one becomes of no earthly good to others or self.
However, task-related distractions can cause the individual to miss critical opportunities. Such distractions have a way of blinding eyes to the perilous experiences of others both far and near. Such distraction has a way of deafening ears to the sounds of people weeping and crying out from the depth of their souls, while they remain unheard. With respect to the pain that many endure through unfulfilled needs, the Lord expresses through comparison that ‘there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her’ (Lk 10:42). In the words of Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder, this better part refers to ‘attention to the Word of God’ (Crowder, p. 171). When compared to the task that has functioned as a source of worry and distraction, the Lord emotively informs Martha that there lies something more critical which overrides all other concerns. The Lord addresses the root of Martha’s angst by providing her with an opportunity to understand Mary’s behavior of not helping her in her task at that time. Although Martha wants help from her sister, the Lord meets a greater need by providing a unique perspective on another.
This familiar passage has historically been taught and proclaimed as part of a greater message about hospitality. However, the narrative presents the Lord as one who provides the ancient and now modern world with a timeless message about understanding. This message of understanding another complements Jesus’ parables about love and justice. In the meantime, families, communities, nations, and even the Church has harbored bitterness and immersed in angst to the collective refusal to temporarily suspend one’s pain in exchange for the empowerment of embracing a point of view that differs from our own. Nevertheless, such empowerment rests as a source of hope. ‘Hope becomes indistinguishable from cheap optimism if it fails to recognize and to share the present agony of the world’ (Migliore, p. 238). Even a glimpse of the present agony of the world, our neighbors, and those in our immediate midst at the very least will provoke broad repentance against individual egoistic tendency such that growth and development as disciples of Jesus as Lord can come into fruition.