Luke 10:38-42
Webster’s Dictionary defines “hospitality” as the practice or quality of being hospitable, which means being friendly, kind, and solicitous toward guests, favoring the health, growth, comfort of new arrivals. In that case, there is no better example of a hospitable person in the Bible than Martha. We first meet Martha in Luke chapter 10. Let’s take a look at what scripture has to say about this remarkable woman.
First, we know that whenever Jesus traveled to Jerusalem, he tended to stay at the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, three of his most cherished friends. Martha is presumed to have been the eldest, because she is always mentioned first. And, surprisingly, she is apparently the head of the household. It says that Martha welcomed Jesus to HER house. That is quite unusual. And it suggests a few possibilities. Perhaps Martha was the widow of a wealthy man, and her sister and brother chose to live with her. Or perhaps she had been made her father’s heir, even though women could inherit only if they had no brother. Some scholars suggest that Lazarus was sickly, and that explains his early death, and maybe their father made Martha his heir. In any case, Martha was the one in charge of the home.
Second, we know that Martha was good at being a hostess. And she must have loved hosting Jesus. After all, he was a well-known teacher and healer. It was quite an honor to have him stay in her home. And she would have wanted everything to be just right. That would have required a great deal of work on her part, because it says that Jesus was traveling with his disciples. Apparently they were staying at Martha’s home too. So she would have had to prepare meals for 13 extra people. That’s no easy job! And she was in the kitchen all by herself, because Mary had sat down at Jesus’ feet to listen to him teach.
Third, we know that Martha felt comfortable in Jesus’ presence, perhaps as comfortable as if he were family. Because Martha went in to Jesus, interrupted him in his teaching, and spoke her mind quite frankly and freely. She complained that Mary was leaving all the work to her and she wanted Jesus to tell Mary to come and help her. This request was reasonable and logical. It wasn’t as if she were asking something extraordinary. She just wanted Mary to come and do her part to provide the meal for their guests.
Jesus, however, does not grant Martha’s request. Instead, he gently corrects her. While Martha is busy doing a hostess’s job, she has allowed herself to get so distracted that she has forgotten that listening to his teaching is more important. And Jesus refuses to send Mary in to help her. And we are left thinking that Martha is somehow lacking in her faith or discipleship, while Mary is praised for her choice.
If that was the end of Martha’s story, we might think of her only as a good hostess. But the word “hospitable” can also mean “open, receptive.” And Martha was also a person who exhibited those traits. She was open and receptive to new ideas, specifically, to the idea that Jesus was the Messiah. The second story about Martha and her family takes place in John 11. Mary and Martha send word to Jesus that their brother, Lazarus, is sick and near death. By the time Jesus gets there, Lazarus has died and has been in the tomb for four days.
Martha hears that Jesus is on his way to the house. But she doesn’t wait for him to get there. She goes down the road to meet him. For Martha to stand in the middle of the road talking to a rabbi in public violated social norms. And she again speaks her mind to Jesus. “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.” You might hear that as a complaint or accusation, a bitter criticism that Jesus was not there when they needed him. Or you might hear it as an expression of faith, faith that Jesus could have done something to prevent Lazarus’s death.
Jesus engages Martha in a conversation. And he says to her the words we often hear at funerals, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” And Martha answers, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God.” That statement of faith, that affirmation of the identity of Jesus, is only paralleled by Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Messiah. It puts Martha on the same level as Peter in apostolic terms, as far as I can see. As Joanna Turpin says in her book, Twelve Apostolic Women, Martha “has obviously been occupied with more than pots and pans.”
It’s too easy to put Martha in a box as a good hostess; she was clearly more than that. She was a committed and aware disciple of Jesus, who understood who he was and what he came into the world to do. She was concerned to show him hospitality, perhaps because she was so aware of who he was. She wanted to be sure that he was made to feel welcome because he would be so rejected at the end.
We can see in Martha two challenges for us as followers of Jesus. First, we should also be people who practice hospitality. We do not have the opportunity to welcome Jesus into our homes or church in person, but we do welcome those who are or who might be followers of Jesus. We should do all in our power to make sure people feel safe and accepted in our presence. We should be sure that we practice inclusiveness and graciousness. Because as we show hospitality to others, we are showing hospitality to Jesus.
Second, we should also be people who understand the identity and the mission of Jesus. Jesus was an important teacher and healer, but he was more than that. He was the Messiah, the Son of God. He came to deliver his people, to deliver all people, from sin and show them the way of salvation. During his life on this earth, he practiced a radical hospitality that meant the inclusion of many who had been seen as outsiders and outcasts. He willingly sat down with sinners and prostitutes, soldiers and tax collectors, Jews and Gentiles and Samaritans. And those who would follow Jesus should do the same. And at the end of his time on earth, Jesus went to the cross to show his love for us by paying the price for our sins. He died and was buried. But on the third day God raised him from the dead, fulfilling the promise of everlasting life to those who believe in him.
Martha was made the patron saint of cooks and housewives. And in the Catholic Church she is celebrated on July 29. But I would agree in many ways with Meister Eckhart, the great scholar and Christian mystic of the Middle Ages, who said that Martha was the ideal woman. And I wouldn’t mind being just like her.
