Tag Archives: discipleship

A photo of a kitchen sink at the author's family bach. The dishes have been abandoned.

Give it to your sister

I can feel my hackles rise any time someone invites us to turn to Luke 10, the story of Mary and Martha. The narrative in my head goes something like, “Here we go again, let’s take a closer look at how I’m not being enough by doing too much,” accompanied by an eye-roll that I may or may not be able to internalise.

Now I’m clearly projecting a whole lot on to the Scripture here, and on to the people who teach from it. But I’ve wrestled with this portion often enough to come away jaded almost every time it’s opened. Not because of the story or the message, but because of the naivety with which it is often applied.

What I would really like is for someone to talk about how pissed everyone would have been if Martha had taken a seat with Mary at Jesus’ feet.

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A photo of Maja's phone background with the phrase "your strength will come from settling down in complete dependence in me" on a moody sea and sky landscape

Settle down

For the last few months I’ve had this phrase on my phone’s background

“Your strength will come from settling down in complete dependence on me”

Isaiah 30:15 (The Message paraphrase)

It’s a reminder that I’ve placed before my eyes as frequently as my phone ever is (too often), in the hope that it will eventually soak into my heart. It speaks to my all-too-human impulse to make it happen for myself, to take things into my own hands and bend them to my own will. To make it work… somehow.

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children's book picture of Martha angrily baking

Martha, Martha

I often feel that Martha gets a bad rap. After all, she’s just trying to cook up something amazing for Jesus. But she turns into a stressed-out hostess, trying to make sure it’s all perfect, but poisoning the atmosphere with her grouchy attitude… that sounds a lot like me in the hours leading up to a daughter’s birthday party. If you haven’t witnessed that scenario, firstly be thankful, and then secondly (re)acquaint yourself with Luke 10:38-42.

She works hard, she gets grumpy, she complains to Jesus, and Jesus tells her to chill out.

Anyone else identifying with Martha here?

I hear the rebuke, the redirection towards peace and connection, but I’m still left wondering, What about dinner? Who’s going to take care of that?

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Jesus feminist

There are some bits of the bible that you trip over when you’re reading, thinking, “hmm… that’s a bit weird”. And then stumped you think, “oh well, better move on”. But if you sit with them a bit longer and exercise some patience, eventually some other things slot into place and a glimmer of insight appears.

One of this tripping points for me was this moment in Luke 11:27-28, where Jesus has been teaching the crowd and doing his miracles thing, when a woman cries out, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!” 

Now that’s a weird heckle.

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