Christ in the House of Mary and Martha
Blake, William, 1757-1827. Christ in the House of Mary and Martha, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56210 [retrieved July 14, 2022]. Original source: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christ_in_the_House_of_Martha_and_Mary_But_Martha_Was_Cumbered_About_Much_Serving_(Butlin_489).jpg.
Spiritual Practices: Keyword Listing
Keyword listing is a method of observational Bible study. It doesn’t require any special skills, tools, or training. You can read more about the process of keyword listing here. You can choose any word or short phrase to study using keyword listing. For this passage, we suggest the following keyword(s) to start your study.
Starting Points
Keyword listing is a method of observational Bible study. It doesn’t require any special skills, tools, or training. You can read more about the process of keyword listing here. You can choose any word or short phrase to study using keyword listing. For this passage, we suggest the following keyword(s) to start your study.
Starting Points
- Martha (and related pronouns) - Discover more about Martha
- Mary (and related pronouns) - Discover more about Mary
Spiritual Practices: Breath Prayer
Overview
On his travels, Jesus stops at the home of Mary and Martha for dinner. Martha keeps herself busy serving and being the hostess. She is cooking in the kitchen, cleaning the dishes, making sure everyone has enough to eat and drink, and all of the other duties that go with being the perfect hostess. In the meantime, her sister is blatantly ignoring all of these responsibilities. She is letting Martha do all the work while she sits quietly at Jesus' feet and listens to him.
Finally, Martha gets exasperated, goes to Jesus, and asks him to send Mary to help her out. Jesus patiently points out that she is anxious and worried about many things. She is distracted by all of her responsibilities and worried about getting everything done that needs to be done. Mary has set all of that aside to focus on Jesus. Jesus tells Martha that Mary has chosen the more important thing and that will not be taken away from her.
Some of us spend a lot of time worrying about what we need to get done and focused on our responsibilities. We worry about our jobs, we worry about our kids, our homes; like Martha, we are anxious and worried about many things. All of these things may be important, but following Jesus should be the most important thing in our lives, just like it was for Mary. It's not that we ignore everything else, it is just that we put Jesus first. We don't let the the temporary things in life distract us from the eternal ones. That is what this breath prayer is about.
Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, let me always put you first
Overview
On his travels, Jesus stops at the home of Mary and Martha for dinner. Martha keeps herself busy serving and being the hostess. She is cooking in the kitchen, cleaning the dishes, making sure everyone has enough to eat and drink, and all of the other duties that go with being the perfect hostess. In the meantime, her sister is blatantly ignoring all of these responsibilities. She is letting Martha do all the work while she sits quietly at Jesus' feet and listens to him.
Finally, Martha gets exasperated, goes to Jesus, and asks him to send Mary to help her out. Jesus patiently points out that she is anxious and worried about many things. She is distracted by all of her responsibilities and worried about getting everything done that needs to be done. Mary has set all of that aside to focus on Jesus. Jesus tells Martha that Mary has chosen the more important thing and that will not be taken away from her.
Some of us spend a lot of time worrying about what we need to get done and focused on our responsibilities. We worry about our jobs, we worry about our kids, our homes; like Martha, we are anxious and worried about many things. All of these things may be important, but following Jesus should be the most important thing in our lives, just like it was for Mary. It's not that we ignore everything else, it is just that we put Jesus first. We don't let the the temporary things in life distract us from the eternal ones. That is what this breath prayer is about.
Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, let me always put you first