Who Is This Man?Sample

We Are One in Christ

While attending a Marriage Weekend, a husband and wife I will call Max and Esther listened to the instructor declare, “It is essential that husbands and wives know the things that are important to each other.”

He then addressed the men. “Can you name and describe your wife’s favorite flower?”

Max leaned over, gently touched Esther’s arm, and lovingly whispered, “Betty Crocker’s Gold Medal, isn’t it?”

Stereotypes die hard. But what is remarkable about Jesus—one of those seeds he planted that keeps producing surprising growth—is his amazing inclusivity of all people. In our day, we have seen this a thousand times: men gathered around the grill or the television set, and women in the kitchen. These patterns are strong in our day; they were stronger in Jesus’ day.

One day Jesus was teaching in the home of Mary and Martha. Martha was doing all the work of preparation and hosting. “She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said” (Luke 10:39). Martha got ticked off and complained to Jesus about this. “‘Martha, Martha,’ the Lord answered. ‘You are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.’”

Many people in our day turn this into a little story about busy-ness: it is better to be the quiet contemplative Mary than the busy activist Martha. However, no one in the first century would have read this that way. The phrase “to sit at someone’s feet” is a technical term meaning to be someone’s disciple. Paul used it when he was defending himself after being arrested at the temple in Jerusalem: “I am a Jew ... brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, educated strictly according to our ancestral law” (Acts 22:3).

For a woman to join the men around the grill was unheard of back then. Mary came to the grill and Jesus smiled. Martha did what the culture valued in women: cleaned the house and cooked the food. Mary did what the culture valued in men: became a disciple. Jesus said Mary got it right.